Bennett is hoping to shut down his dad's strip club when he comes home to work with him. Lyle has other ideas and agrees with Bennett hiring Tatum to reinvigorate the club. Bennett has other ideas on what to do with Tatum and none have to do with the club.

I loved these characters. Bennett and Tatum are opposites. Lyle is funny. The other secondary characters are fun especially Heather, Tatum's roommate and accident-prone friend. I enjoyed the story. It was fun but showed what happens behind the scenes of a strip club.

I could feel the tension between Bennett and Tatum and the struggles going on between them and inside them. I liked that each one had the chance to let the reader know what was happening to them. I got mad at Bennett as Tatum did and, though I could understand his reasons, I still wanted to smack him upside of the head at times.

I look forward to the next story.

Scores is the story of Michael Blutrich, a successful New York attorney who opened one of the most famous "gentlemen's clubs" in the country. The real story, though, is how the Gambino crime family got it's hooks into the club, and how Blutrich was made an FBI informant to take down the mafia family.
I honestly could not stop reading this book. It was exciting, well written, and grabbed your attention right away. Blutrich's descriptions of his "adventure" made you feel afraid for him, yet somewhat disgusted by him, at the same time.
I won't get into the morality of a strip club. That's for someone else to decide. I just sat back and enjoyed the story.
This easily could have been a five-star review, except for one thing. Blutrich, in the beginning of the book, talks vaguely about his "Florida troubles". Throughout the book, as he goes deeper and deeper into his informant status, he mentions this many times, but never really gets into it. Finally, you determine that he is under indictment in Florida for some type of insurance fraud.
His agreement with the New York U.S. Attorney's and the FBI is that if he keeps informing on the Gambino's (and others), he will get a substantial sentence reduction. And informing he does, very effectively. And it looks like things are going to go his way.
BUT, the Florida U.S. Attorney's are not going for this agreement, as Blutrich goes on and on about. According to him, the prosecuting attorney and judge in Florida are unfairly against him. They go out of their way to inflict unnecessary harm on him, based mostly on jealousy. Blutrich ends up serving WAY more time than he thought, all because of this one U.S. Attorney and Judge. You are left feeling that he has really been screwed over by the system.
So I did a little digging, researching the book a little further. Turns out, his little insurance fraud case in Florida was actually a MUCH bigger deal than he let on. According to a 60 Minutes profile, what actually happened was that Blutrich opened Scores with money he stole from a large life insurance company in Florida. The money he stole left nearly 26,000 elderly policy holders bilked out of their life savings. The theft totalled $440 million dollars, one of the biggest white collar crimes in U.S. history. Aha! So maybe that's why the U.S. Attorney's in Florida were being so hard headed! Sure, he testified against the mob, and that's great, but in reality there was no nobel purpose, he did it only to save his own skin in Florida. He goes on and on about how unfairly he was treated, how he was promised almost no prison time yet ended up serving 13 years. What he doesn't tell you in the book was that his codefendant in the Florida case was treated much more harshly, ending up being sentenced to 845 years! So Blutrich really did get a big break.
Blutrich's complaining and crying at the end of the book really kind of spoil what would have been an outstanding story.

This is the 5th book in the Tool Shed series.  This book can be read as a standalone novel.  For reader enjoyment and understanding, I recommend reading in order.

Yorick & Wright have been sort of friends for a while.  Yorick enjoys making new friends where he works.  Even though he does not feel he fits in.  As a single father, his priorities are different.

Wright has been attracted to Yorick for so long.  He knows it is one sided, but there is no one else he feels like this for.  If he can keep himself from stumbling around Yorick, maybe there is a chance?

This story just undid me.  I loved the characters.  I loved the heat and the first kiss....well that one should be in the record books.  Such a great series and it shows.  I am eagerly awaiting the next installment!  I give this story a 4/5 Kitty's Paws UP!

***This ARC copy was given in exchange for an honest review.

This is the 4th book in the Tool Shed series.  This book can be read as a standalone novel.  I recommend reading the series in order, if possible, for reader enjoyment and understanding.

Jesse has a great life stripping, has good family, and his only current hang up is that he wants a man who is taken.  Shade wants Jesse too, only he has a made-up boyfriend to keep everyone at arms length.  His secrets are too large to share.

This is a great installment for the series.  It is so easy to feel how each of the characters are feeling.  The heat is here sizzles and the favorites from earlier in the series are back!  I give this story a 3/5 Kitty's Paws UP!

***This ARC copy was given in exchange for an honest review.

Sometimes I need a little feathers, glitter, and body oil (okay I never need body oil) with my Romance.

Here are some great Romances where heroines (and sometimes heroes) make or made their living working a pole, doing the bump and grind, and other sexy topless dancing. 

Strippers and Showgirls in Romance! My lists are never in any particular order. 

1. Forever Buckhorn: GabeJordan (The Buckhorn Brothers) by Lori Foster

Jordan

Jordan Somerville thinks he wants a woman who's a paragon of virtue. But then the gentle veterinarian—rescuer of strays—meets Georgia Barnes, single mother and exotic dancer. She's a far cry from Jordan's dream woman—and she's made it clear that he's hardly her dream man, either. So why is he suddenly tempted to break all his own rules?

2. Lightning that Lingers Sharon Curtis

Philip Brooks is a man with a passion for biology, wildlife, and restoring his old family home—all of which add up to a pile of bills that require attention. Moonlighting as the Cougar Club’s hottest dancer is a job, nothing more, nothing less—until lovely Jennifer Hamilton nearly faints during one of his shows. Her sweet innocence tugs at his heart and makes him painfully aware of his longing for the kind of love a woman as perfect and real as Jennifer can offer.
 
Watching her most secret fantasy come to life on the dance floor is almost more than Jennifer can bear. Now, the sexiest man she’s ever met is near enough to hold. For a shy, bookish lady with little experience in the romance department, life feels as if it’s spinning out of control—and not in the direction, or with the kind of man, she ever imagined. Can she believe in the passion Philip ignites and take a chance on a dance that could last a lifetime?

3. Solar Flare by Autumn Dawn

Hero goes undercover as a stripper. Slow burn.

Azor agreed to take Brandy off planet to avoid a scandal, never knowing they’d ignite a white hot passion of their own. Sassy, sexy, Brandy makes him burn. If the hostile aliens don’t kill him, his companion just might.

Hunted by a shapeshifting assassin, fighting an infection that's killing her, he knows that time is short. Can he reach her distant family before time runs out?

4. Dark Needs at Night's Edge by Kresley Cole

A RAVEN-HAIRED TEMPTRESS OF THE DARK...

Néomi Laress, a famous ballerina from a past century, became a phantom the night she was murdered. Imbued with otherworldly powers but invisible to the living, she haunts her beloved home, scaring away trespassers -- until she encounters a ruthless immortal even more terrifying than Néomi herself.

A VAMPIRE WARRIOR CONSUMED BY MADNESS...

To prevent him from harming others, Conrad Wroth's brothers imprison him in an abandoned manor. But there, a female only he can see seems determined to drive him further into madness. The exquisite creature torments him with desire, leaving his body racked with lust and his soul torn as he finds himself coveting her for his own.

HOW FAR WILL HE GO TO CLAIM HER?

Yet even if Conrad can win Néomi, evil still surrounds her. Once he returns to the brutality of his past to protect her, will he succumb to the dark needs seething inside him?

5. Skintight by Susan Andersen

Professional poker player Jax Gallagher should have known better than to wager a World Series baseball that wasn't his to lose. Now the man who won the collectible is demanding his prize... or else. Trouble is, the ball is owned by his estranged father's widow--a flamboyant Las Vegas showgirl. Jax will do whatever it takes to get it back.

Yet Treena McCall is anything but the ruthless gold digger Jax expects. She's built a life for herself filled with good friends and hard work. And she's got enough on her plate trying to hang on to her job as a dancer without being wined, dined and seduced by sexy Jax Gallagher....

6. The Notorious Scoundrel by Alexandra Benedict

Like an irresistible siren, the veiled dancer with the bewitching green eyes lures dukes and earls down into London's underworld to see her dance--and succumb to her spell. Some say she's a princess, but only one man knows her darkest secret.

She is Amy Peel, an orphan from the city's rookeries, and she believes the bold rogue who unmasks her to be nothing but a scoundrel--albeit a dangerously handsome one. He may have rescued her from an attempted kidnapping, but she will not give in to his sensual seduction or to the wicked desire she begins to feel . . .

He is Edmund Hawkins, swashbuckling pirate turned reluctant gentleman, and he will not let the lovely Amy slip through his grasp, especially when he learns she's in greater peril than she could possibly know. He will do everything in his power to protect her--for this notorious scoundrel has truly, unbelievably, lost his heart . . .

7. Stripping Her Gears by Sahara Kelly

She's a long-legged blonde who loves people and dancing and needs a part time job. What could be better than joining the staff of Boston's hottest private club - Goggles and Cogs. In her Steampunk outfit, Cora Standish taps her way through old-time music hall numbers three nights a week and waits tables as well, loving every minute of it.

Jack Brandon is thrilled his club is a success and fascinated by one particular blonde. When an old friend books a bachelor party for a closed door event, Jack offers three of his best girls a chance to make some big money. All they have to do is entertain--in the style of the best burlesque shows. He's torn between business and desire. He wants the booking but would rather have Cora strip just for him.

When the power fails, Jack and Cora take a chance...learning that lap dances are more erotic when done in semi-darkness and that passion doesn't need anything but the right couple. But are they right for each other? A stupid mistake may wreck it all and strip her gears for ever...

8. Beefcake & Cupcakes by Judi Fennell

Sugar is sweet, but so is revenge

All Lara Cavallo wants to do is make her bakery business, Cavallo's Cups & Cakes, a success, and be able to stop accepting alimony from her rotten, cheating ex-husband. But first she needs to find her clothes and escape the strange hotel room she wakes up in before she embarrasses herself any further in front the owner of that gorgeous naked keister she spots through the bathroom door. She needs to keep her mind on her cupcakes. She doesn't have time for beefcake, no matter how enticing.

Cupcakes are sweet, and so is Lara…

All Gage Tomlinson wants is to find a way to help his single-mom sister pay the hospital bills for his six-year-old nephew, badly injured in a hit and run accident. Working construction during the day and as the owner of the exotic male dance troupe BeefCake, Inc. by night doesn't leave much time for indulgence. Too bad the sweetest thing he's seen in ages passes out on him and then takes off before he even gets a nibble. He's got a sweet tooth, and only Lara's "cupcakes" will satisfy him.

But when cupcake finally meets beefcake, it's hot enough to melt the buttercream right off the cake.

9. Bride of Shadow Canyon by Stacey Kayne

Respectable showgirl

When the widowed boardinghouse keeper he has come to rescue turns out to be a scantily-clad showgirl, Jed Doulan knows he's in for trouble. With his shadowed past, he'd be mad to let this spirited—and surprisingly innocent—woman get close.

Rebellious bride

Bound by a hasty marriage to her reluctant hero, Rachell Carlson senses his struggle to keep a distance between them. But the message in Jed's eyes makes her pulse quicken—and even dares her to believe in love.

10. The Nerd Who Loved Me by Vicki Lewis Thompson

Nerd to the rescue!
Shy accountant Harry Ambrewster never dreams his crush on Vegas showgirl Lainie Terrell will amount to anything.  But then he agrees to babysit for her precocious four-year-old son Dexter and her drunk ex-boyfriend shows up demanding to see his kid.  Escaping out a second-story window with Dexter isn’t Harry’s style, but Lainie and her son need a hero, and Harry isn’t about to let them down . . .

Alarmed by her volatile ex’s sudden interest in Dexter, Lainie’s desperate to keep her son from harm.  Harry offers his mother’s security-enhanced home as a safe haven for Dexter while he and Lainie attempt to mislead her ex by posing as a husband and wife checking out a Sedona timeshare.  What starts out as a platonic arrangement quickly morphs into red-hot passion, but can either of them trust emotions created in a powder keg?

Did I miss your favorite? Do you simply need more? Visit my Goodreads list: Spangle: Strippers and Showgirls in Romance.