Novel Review: Colters' Gift (Colters' Legacy, #5) by Maya Banks

Rating (Out of 5): ~2.5

Genre: Erotica/Adult Contemporary Romance/Menage

Publisher: Berkley (Penguin)

Release Date: November 2013

Spoilers?: Not really.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

BONUS: ALSO INCLUDES A NEW ORIGINAL COLTER NOVELLA!

New York Times bestselling author Maya Banks’ enthralling saga continues as two men, and one resilient woman hiding from the past, brace themselves for an emotional storm of unavoidable danger and unmatched desire….

Lauren Wilder fell for the wrong man, trusted the wrong man, and she paid a very dear price for it. Now broken and wounded, she's retreated to the bosom of the Colter family and the unshakeable love and support they offer. But the man she once loved and trusted is not without his own power, and he'll use every bit of his money and resources to make sure he gets Lauren back, no matter whom he destroys doing it.

Liam and Noah were hired by Lauren's brother to watch over her. But with danger looming, they head to the Colorado mountain—where Lauren has found temporary sanctuary. In her wounded eyes, Liam and Noah see the woman she once was—and could be again. They’re determined to show her everything a man can be—someone who will love her, cherish her, satisfy her, and when the time comes, put their very lives on the line for her.

The Cover:

I don't mind this cover. It doesn't look bad, it's predictable, but it represents the book well enough.

Quotes:

• "'Then goddamn it, he raped you. He forced himself on you,’ Noah said fiercely. ‘If you said no. If you even thought no. If you had no power to make him stop, then how could it be anything else? You sure as hell didn’t give him your consent.’” (Paperback, pg. 76)
• "Denial didn’t change the outcome of anything.” (Pg. 95)

Review:

This book started pretty good, and it sounded very good. But about halfway through, I just got bored with it.

I didn’t mind any of the characters, including the heroine and her men. They didn’t particularly stand out to me, but I didn’t dislike them. The attraction between them was fast, but it worked just fine for me. The sex was all right, some even good. The overall storyline wasn’t too bad, either, with Lauren’s ex-husband. I guess some of it was exciting, maybe.

I was mostly just bored with it, honestly, and that made it hard to finish. Lauren and her ménage relationship didn’t stand out to me as anything different from Banks’ other ménage stories. The entire storyline, including the romance, just didn’t seem very different from so many others I’ve read. The conclusion didn’t stand out, either. And, honestly, the amount of gushing love confessions, the characters stating how much they love each other over and over again, in such cheesy language, got on my nerves. It was just too much, and so unneeded, which is something I’ve noticed in quite a few of Banks’ books recently. And the sex kind of became boring to me, too, maybe because there was so much and none of it was all that different from each other, but also because I was just bored at that point with everything.

It also bothered me how easily the story wrapped up, that the characters didn't seem that emotionally wounded after everything, particularly the heroine. And it bothered me that, after everything she went through, no one mentioned therapy, or her getting help in any way other than from her family. Her family is important, yes, and she needs time, which they seemed to be giving her, but I thought she needed more, and the idea wasn't even brought up.

I enjoyed seeing the characters from the previous books, but I haven’t even read all the other books in this series. And now I’m wary to read the first two at all.

This book just got too gushy and boring for me. I wanted to like it a lot, but I didn’t.

Novel Review: Colters' Promise (Colters' Legacy, #4) by Maya Banks

Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Publisher: Penguin (Berkley Sensation)

Spoilers?: Mild.

Goodreads Synopsis:

ALL-NEW IN AN EXTRAORDINARY ROMANCE.

Return to the captivating storytelling of New York Times bestselling author Maya Banks, and her stirring saga of three brothers and one indomitable woman—of wounded hearts, family, and forgiveness…

When it came to overcoming the odds of a tragic past, Lily was determined to move on. The three Colter brothers helped her do it. They taught her new ways to love, new dreams to share, and offered her a new life that she never thought possible. Now is a time for celebration, and what better way than with a long-awaited family reunion, a homecoming that will bring together the entire Colter family and a few surprises no one anticipated.

But first, there’s something from Lily’s past she still needs to reconcile—even when all the while she is holding close to her heart a newfound secret that will change her future, forever enrich the Colter legacy, and make every promise come true.

Review:

This was my first Maya Banks book, and I obviously should have started somewhere else. I’m not saying that this one wasn’t good, because it was, it was just telling the reader a later storyline to plotlines that I should have known already. I do plan to read the previous books, and this did kind of tell me which ones I would like to know more, but it still would have been better to start with the first one.

This book has little snippets of what is going on with all of the Colter’s: the parents are happily married, with Holly deciding to make dinner for Christmas. Lily found out that she’s pregnant (again?) and is having a hard time dealing with it and telling her husbands. And Callie is sick and helping her husband with his sister. I did enjoy reading about it all, but probably would have appreciated it more had I read the previous books and had more of a connection to the characters.

Callie’s is the story I’m most interested in, with Lily’s up second, but I do plan on reading all of them at some point. I do really wish I’d have gotten a different of hers, but I did enjoy this one, and will probably re-read it after reading the other books in the series.

I have some of Banks' other books now and plan to read them soon, and it's bit bothersome to me that they are so hard to find where I'm at. Most of my bookstores have a very little selection of her books.