Rage, Sex, and Teddy Bears: Review/Giveaway–Falling For the Wingman (The Kelly Brothers, bk3) by Crista McHugh

Published March 3rd 2014 – Add it on Goodreads

Air Force pilot Caleb Kelly has come back home with one mission in mind—to propose to the woman whose letters and lucky charm helped him survive his deployment in Afghanistan. But when he finds their apartment empty with a note saying she’s left him, he arrives at her mother’s house in rural Alabama less than a week before Kourtney is about to marry another man. Now he’s out to win her heart again and gets some unexpected assistance from her younger sister, Alex.

Alex Leadbetter has always thought Caleb was too good for her manipulative, social-climbing sister. She had assumed Kourtney’s identity to write letters to him and keep his spirits up until he returned home to the hard truth, never expecting to fall in love with him along the way.

After he shows up in town, she convinces him that the best way to get Kourtney back is to make her think he’s fallen for someone new — her. But when a fake romance becomes all too real, her deception may leave them both grounded.

Alex Leadbetter’s heart jumped when she heard a car approach her mother’s house. A 450- horsepower, seven-liter V8 semi-hemi that purred like a kitten when idle and roared like a lion when fully revved up. The perfect engine for a classic muscle car like a 1970 Phase III-SS 454 Camaro. And she knew only one person who drove a car like that.

Caleb Kelly.

She excused herself from the tedious conversation revolving around the seating at Kourtney’s wedding reception and went to the front door. A peek out the window confirmed what she already knew, and her gut tightened. At the very far of the driveway sat the midnight blue Camaro with white striping, and its owner was stomping up the walkway like a man on a mission.

Shit!

She should’ve known he’d come chasing after her older sister. Every idiot of a man did. She just hoped Caleb would’ve been different.

Or that he would’ve at least gotten the hint from the last few emails she’d sent him while posing as her sister. She’d purposely tried to prepare him for an empty apartment by hinting that “Kourtney” was getting bored in Ft. Walton and wanted to leave.

She slipped out the front door to intercept him before he banged on the door and blew a gasket in front of Kourtney and her sister’s future in-laws. “Caleb,” she said, pouring every ounce of Southern sweetness into her drawl, “what brings you here?”

He yanked off his aviator sunglasses, his blue eyes dark with fury, but her pulse fluttered like a giddy teenager’s in front of her crush. Sweet Jesus, even while scowling, he made her head fuzzy. He was tall and lean, but his biceps bulged underneath his fitted T-shirt. His brown hair pushed at the limits of regulation length, the ends curling ever so slightly in the late April humidity. The man was walking, breathing temptation on two legs, and her self-absorbed sister definitely didn’t deserve him.

“Where is she?”

Dun dun DUNNNNNNN……..

Yay!! This is just the perfect introduction to Spring. It was fresh and bright and I smiled through the whole too short book. Even when I was cussing at Caleb for being a dumb ass, I was still grinning like a possum in a tree made of bacon. Caleb, or as I called him "Idiot", was like a lot of young flyboys, swayed by a pretty face and a monster rack. I will give him his props though, he really did think Kourtney had more substance than silicon. She did NOT. The diamond he had overlooked, was actually covered in motor oil, the gem of a sister, Alex.

Alex, man if I swung that way, I would be all over this chick. She was restoring a 71 Road Runner, and this has been my DREAM CAR since I knew what a car should be. When I read that, I nearly had a conniption right on the spot. This is a car for people who KNOW cars. It's not as obvious as your Mustangs, or Vette's, so a big, big gigantic thumbs up to Crista for showing her smarts with this pick. If Alex had super powers of some sort, she would probably be my all time favorite heroine, but as I am at heart a pnr girl, you need to have some sort of supernatural thing going.

Now, the story and H/h were awesome, the only thing that irked me about Falling For the Wingman, was that Alex's mother did not meet a suitably gruesome, bloody, painful, long drawn out torturous death. This woman, mmmm, she did set off my ire meter just a bit. It's no wonder the two daughters had self esteem issues, their mother was a troll queen. Wow, that bit of venting was cathartic.

This series just gets better, and better. This strikes me as improbable because it was pretty dang close to perfect from the start, but Crista McHugh has definitely struck gold with the Kelly brothers. They are going to run out eventually so she might want to discover some Irish cousins. (I'm partial to a brogue) I am anxiously awaiting The Heart's Game, so let's get to writing Crista. Job very well done, brava.

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Crista McHugh is a multiple award-winning author of fantasy romance and paranormal romance with heroines who are smart, sexy, and anything but ordinary. She currently lives in the Audi-filled suburbs of Seattle with her husband and two children, maintaining her alter ego of mild-mannered physician by day while she continues to pursue writing on nights and weekends.