I have to say that Blue Lines by Toni Aleo had been on my wish list to read since the end of Empty Net. If you read Empty Net, you may remember that Piper Allen and Erik Titov had a brief affair and in the end when Audrey was in the hospital we found out that Piper was pregnant but unwilling to tell anyone yet.

Since Piper saw those two blue lines on the pregnancy test she has been hiding out in Elleanor’s beach house while working on her drawings for a book and hiding her pregnancy from her family and friends. But her days of hiding are coming to an end when she has to show up for a family reunion. But letting anyone know about her pregnancy will be difficult,especially since Erik is her sister’s brother-in-law and since her sister has been trying to get pregnant but has not been able to. Read More...

I'm very happy the author switched things up a bit in this book. This time the guy isn't so sure of himself. Normally the guy knows exactly what he wants, while the female is a basket-case. It was nice to have the female be stronger for a book. It doesn't have to be that way all the time, but after three books of strong, confident alpha-males it had started to get predictable. By switching things up just a little bit it provides a good mix for the series. I'll be anxiously awaiting a fifth book.

Opposites do more than just attract in Toni Aleo’s latest Nashville Assassins novel about a very bad boy and the good girl he can’t resist.

The instant Piper Allen sees Erik Titov, she wants him—wants his rock-hard body, sure, but the strength and mystery that lies behind that superstar hockey jock demeanor, too. So when he sidles up to her at a bar and slinks his arm around her waist, she’s lost. What follows is the wildest night of her life . . . followed by inevitable heartbreak the next morning. And then, a few weeks later, a very big surprise: two blue lines on a pregnancy test.

Only a check to the head could make Erik fall for a nice girl like Piper. But since their crazy-sexy night together, he’s been trying to forget about her alluring body by falling into bed with every woman in Nashville, and it’s not working. So when Piper shows up at his house with a baby-bomb to drop, it doesn’t take much for Erik to suggest the nuclear option: marriage. While it’s supposed to be all for show, the second they say “I do,” the ice between them starts to melt into sizzling steam. 

 

Review

We are four books in to this hockey romance series and it has reached the point where I am not sure I will keep going. 

 

All the books have annoyed me on the "omg, twit" level at some point but most have managed to redeem themselves by offering something else compelling enough for me to like the book anyway.

 

This book never recovers from the nose dive.  We get the only real love scene in flashback. I hate italics for longer than a paragraph so already its not working for me. Also, we see the hero getting a BJ from someone else in the early chapters.  I really dislike that crap in a romance. 

 

The psychology of his man ho status based on an violent abuse past never seems quite right to me. Sexual abuse, maybe. Sexual addiction issues that would need therapy for certain but his over all attraction/repulsion to the heroine really plays out oddly.

 

She is in love with him. Why????? He is a huge jerk and I would want to hose him down with disinfectant for hours but instead she sleeps with him without a condom. Sure, he is hot with tattoos but so what? 

 

The heroine, other than her lame and completely baseless love of the hero,  is okay but her family treats her like poo so even though I know them from the other books I no likey them. 

 

They marry. He is an even bigger ass. They separate. He evolves. Cute baby stuff at the end. 

 

I am not sure how I even finished this one. 

 

I like Aleo. I do. I just want her characters to be less dumb and drama-based and her books to really look at the actually very interesting human dynamics that are created. Hotness does not equal Hero. 

 

I was given this book for my honest review. So, there you have it. 

 

 

Toni Aleo’s BLUE LINES is the fourth book in her Assassins series. If you haven’t read any of the books in the series, I don’t think it’s necessary to do so to enjoy BLUE LINES. Just keep in mind that Aleo does revisit past characters and touches upon past events, but no big spoilers that will impede you from enjoying the books at a later date.

I wasn’t sure how Aleo was going to redeem Erik because he’s a jerk of the first order and I admit to wanting to strangle him. Let me give Aleo a high-five for redeeming him when I didn’t think it was possible.

Character development is a little weak and I think it’s because we’ve known that Piper has a crush on Erik. It’s been said more than once in the previous novels and so I think it takes out a bit of the magic in meeting characters. Despite that, I loved Piper! She’s the free spirited Allen daughter and jumps from job to job. No one in her family takes her seriously and I don’t fault her for keeping things to herself especially keeping quiet about her pregnancy. I really liked that she wasn’t going to be dependent on a man to help raise her child and isn’t afraid to let Erik know how she feels. I mentioned wanting to strangle Erik and even though I wanted to, once you know his personal history, it is easy to be sympathetic towards him. Although at times you want to shake some sense into him. Erik was interesting because he’s had a difficult childhood that makes him not want to fall in love. I most enjoyed getting to know Erik and what makes him the person he is. We have a few secondary characters that make an appearance and they are past characters. I most particularly enjoyed getting to know Phillip a little more (he’s Erik’s best friend and teammate).

Narrative is third person and typical of Aleo’s writing. It’s been such a treat seeing her writing improve. My only real compliant is how Aleo handles Erik’s contract renewal. By the time Erik meets with Elli (readers familiar with the series know Elli is now co-owner of the team and married to the team’s captain) she knows about the pregnancy. I’m not going to go into details about it because I don’t want to give spoilers, but if Erik suspects it is because of Piper, no doubt you will too. It’s never resolved in terms of Erik’s suspicions and one has to assume that Elli would be professional and wouldn’t let personal politics factor into her decision.

What I really enjoyed about BLUE LINES is the relationship between Piper and Erik and how it develops. Plus I like how family is important to Erik and adored how he’s willing to sacrifice his own personal insecurities to make Piper’s relationship with her family a little smoother. In many ways, BLUE LINES is a marriage of convenience story and I do enjoy those because I love seeing the characters surprise at falling in love.

If you like your bad boys bad to the bone, you’ll love Toni Aleo’s BLUE LINES. Now I’m anxiously anticipating Phillip’s story.

I have been waiting forever it seems for this book to come out. Yes, from the moment I finished EMPTY NET I was a mess.I even remember talking to a fellow blogger on the phone about what the hell was up with the ending of EMPTY NET. Who was Piper's baby daddy. At the time we had no idea and Aleo was Fort Knox with any indications. But as time passed and info was given...I couldn't wait to see what Aleo had in store for us concerning Piper and Erik.

The story was excellent. Even though some of the fights these two had seemed repetitive, I still devoured it up quickly. Oh yeah, the wait for this book was most definitely worth it. I was in a complete book funk from my previous read, but this one quickly brought me out of it. Aleo's sassy characters and saucy storyline was enough to have me smiling through the entire read. And panting...cannot forget panting.

Erik is not my favorite of Toni's men...not even close. This guy irked me from the start. I was so sick of his moaning of how Piper had ruined his life and calling her names from the moment she told him. As if it was all her fault in the first place that she got pregnant. Sure she went about it all wrong in letting him know she was carrying his child, but dude, it takes two to tango. Even though I didn't care much for him in the beginning I ended up falling for him in the end. He really came around and I couldn't help but throw my support behind him.

BLUE LINES is a fabulous read...a definite must read if you are following the series. If you haven't picked up the others before it...I recommend you do so. Each book is about a different couple, but the others are always popping in and out of the books. So get the previous books and get to know them all. You will be glad you did.

I loved this line in the book....
"Shea is a beast, Lucas, you know that. He is the Chuck Norris of baby making and life; you don't mess with Shea," Tate said with an awe look on his face.
*snickers*