Baby, Dont Go (Southern Roads, 3)

Loved the series and the characters. They were very engaging and like able. I really enjoyed reading their story. I recommend this book for anyone whose romantic at heart and loves a good laugh along the way.

I highly recommend this series. Stephanie is an excellent writer. All three books kept me. So intrigued I could not put down the books.

The idea that Alicia is any kind of actual, modern feminist is a joke. Stephanie Bond does a pretty good job at painting her as a mockery of a stereotypical feminist: angry, bitter, deceitful and of course, wrong. But to highlight the overall theme of this book, heres a bit of dialogue that follows our leading couples first hook-up: [Alicia] lifted her chin. Maybe I just think a relationship should be more balanced, that the man shouldnt be calling all the shots. [Marcus] tucked his shirt into his pants. There are probably a few guys out there who would agree with you...but I wouldnt call them men. Um, seriously? Yes, its so wrong of the evil, witchy feminist to want balance in a relationship. And of course a Real Man(tm) would never want to be with a woman unless he can call all the shots. Not only does Marcus never explain or apologize for this comment, but the next day Alicia spends considerable time wondering if SHE should apologize because Marcus is just old-fashioned. Yes, Alicia was wrong to come to the town under false pretenses, and wrong to judge the citizens before she understood what they were doing to rebuild. But she wasnt wrong about the patriarchal culture of the town. I expected there to be an explanation for why the men and women were forced to live separately and keep curfew. I thought we would learn why every woman there seemed completely incapable of asking a man out or asking a man to marry her once they had a commitment. But...nothing. The second I found out that the man I was involved with didnt believe I deserved an equal voice in our relationship, I would run screaming and never look back. And I dont even identify as a militant feminist. Add in the cloying, sickly-sweet ending (where the misguided woman gets everything man-splained to her), and this book was just terrible. The fact that a woman wrote this AND claimed it was about feminism makes me sad to be a romance fan. And determined to never purchase anything by Stephanie Bond.

I really liked this book. I plan on reading the other books in the series. I will look for others works from Bond.

I got Baby Drive South on a whim. I am so glad I did. I really enjoyed the read and how the books all fit together. You will want to join the town when you finish this lovely read.

Awesome, as always!!

A decade ago a tornado destroyed their small town in the Georgia Mountains. However, the three Armstrong brothers want to rebuild Sweetness. The only problem with their plan for greening Sweetness is the lack of women. Thus they advertised for females to settle in their town renovation project. Feminine Power magazine reporter Alicia Randall reads the ad asking for women to come to the Georgia Mountains and her journalistic instincts smells a con. Leaving Manhattan she goes undercover as Alicia Waters to expose the Armstrong brothers as fakes. Although his two younger siblings believe in the ad that has brought love into their lives, the oldest Armstrong brother Marcus remains a skeptic who has a rebirthing town to run. When he and Alicia meet, he changes his mind about the embarrassing ad while she plans to use the boudoir to seduce the truth from him. The reporter runs into two problems while going under the covers with the town leader. First she uncovers no sordid secrets and second she falls in love. The final Southern Roads contemporary romance (see Baby, Drive South and Baby Come Home) is an entertaining regional romance as big city meets rural town. The story line is character driven as is the previous entries. Although somewhat similar in tone to the previous Armstrong falling in love tales, the lead couple brings the freshness as she is undercover and he is the skeptic. Stephanie Bond provides an engaging tale in a warm series. Harriet Klausner

LOVE THIS SERIES

She works as a reporter for a militant feminist magazine, so when Alicia Randall finds out about the town of Sweetness, GA, shes practically salivating over its potential as an investigative reporters gold mine. Sweetness had been wiped off the map a decade ago when a deadly F5 tornado steamrolled the place. Now three brothers, all former residents, are dedicated to working together to organize the rebuilding and make a completely advanced green town, environmentally friendly in every way. Alicia finds it hard to appreciate the nobility of the effort given the brothers unconventional actions. Apparently starved for female residents, they took out an ad in a northern newspaper, an ad written to entice single women to join some sort of estrogen-induced migration and settle in the man-rich town of Sweetness as its being rebuilt. Its positively barbaric! Full of righteous indignation on behalf of women everywhere, Alicia sweeps out of NYC and into Sweetness, GA. Armed with little more than her ideals and her disdain for Sweetness in general and the Armstrong brothers in particular, she goes undercover as a new resident, determined to unearth all the dirty little secrets of the town - and the brothers - and take them national. Alicia wasnt anticipating the full scope of the culture shock. She wasnt expecting such a provincial existence. She certainly wasnt expecting the Armstrongs eldest brother, Marcus, who is definitely the man in charge of Sweetness and its rebuilding. Still, Alicia clings tightly to her militant feminism as she surreptitiously investigates the goings on in Sweetness, though her grip gets a little looser every time she and woman-weary Marcus lock horns or butt heads - which seems to happen with dismaying frequency. Soon its all Alicia can do to get to the heart of Sweetness without losing her own. Her career is riding on it, her life in New York is riding on it, and absolutely without one doubt, her future is riding on it. ~*~ I was a little leery when I started this book. Im a firm believer in equal rights for...well...everyone, really, but militant anything - including feminism - makes me itchy, especially when it appears to be little more than excuse for man hating and fear of being hurt. Thats not my idea of an ideological or sociopolitical platform. Sure, Ill joke about men being the weaker species (they so are, poor dears), but Im not real keen on turning the battle of the sexes into bloody warfare, either. That made reading this book a chore when faced with a main character who uses militant feminism as both a sword to skewer anyone, male or female, who isnt living according to her own ideals, and a shield to protect herself from risking her heart on a relationship that could end in pain. And when it became clear that a large part of her feminism was rooted in the wounds she got as the child of divorced and frequently remarried parents, she also seemed a bit of a poser. Alicia was far too self-righteous, judgmental, and elitist to be sympathetic or even likable. And while part of the plot was obviously her slow evolution into a kinder, gentler feminista fascist, it didnt happen soon enough in the story to redeem her in my eyes. With that unfortunate truth, the rest of the book wasnt able to offer enough entertainment to raise my opinion any higher than average. The plot was still pleasant, though predictable and formulaic, and the other characters were perfectly fine. I enjoyed Marcus quite a lot, actually, and frankly felt he deserved better than the deceitful and snobbish Alicia. His brothers made me chuckle, too - they were sort of like overgrown puppies the way they yapped at and harried Marcus for every little thing. Maybe Im viewing the book through too harsh a lens. Ive read other books by Bond and know that she writes more towards the light, fluffy, and sexy end of the romance spectrum, and I know that this book was intended to be similar in tone. My problems with the lead character, however, made me tone deaf, and the rest just wasnt quite enough to truly entertain me when balanced against her. Thats not to say the book didnt have its fun, flirty, sexy, and sweet moments. It absolutely did, and for all that Alicia annoyed me throughout the majority of the book, at the end she had become a far more likable character. The book ended on a high note, and I was particularly enamored with the epilogue. Those points in the books favor at least saved it from the two star rating of a disappointing read. Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Mira Books publisher Harlequin via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own. ~*~*~*~ Reviewed for One Good Book Deserves Another.

The plot line is great, the idea that three brothers are trying to recreate the town that they grew up in after an F5 tornado decimated it. The idea that theyre trying to create a green community is also enjoyable. Its only that many of the characters are too formulaic, too stereotypical that led me farther and farther into disliking the book. I did finish this. I was invested in the characters from the first two books, and even though they were good rather than great they were the kind of escapist reading I was looking for. This one had such a nasty female protagonist I couldnt see any way for her to become a lovable character. She does, of course, otherwise it wouldnt be proper escapism. But neither character can really stay true to his or herself and still make the happy ending, so people had to undergo unrealistic changes to get to the end. This is so unpleasant that I might not re-read the first and second books because Ill know that getting through the third book will be a chore and I like to read an entire series together. So much so that one of my favorite authors is working on book 35 or 40 or some such and when I know its coming out Ill go back and re-read all the previous books in order to enjoy a seamless transition to the new book. If you havent guessed, I dont recommend this book. Book 1 had some troubling transitions in it, but I cared enough about the characters to want to go on. Book 2, again, there were a lot of, why do they do that moments. The ones that you know that why they do it is to forward the plot but you just cant believe that people are that relationship stupid. Maybe they are, but there are limits to credulity, to the amount of change a character can exhibit in the space of a month without wondering if aliens took them over, and this third book crossed those limits. I wouldnt have liked it, but it would have worked better for me if the two central characters went with, youre a person unlike any I would ever want to spend time with and ridden off into their respective sunsets. Since this was the audio edition Ill say that the narrator was perfectly competent though not great. She didnt make me want to either look for or avoid books shes narrated.