Calling His Bluff by Amy Jo Cousins

Calling His Bluff
by Amy Jo Cousins
Inside the HarlequinE Contemporary Romance Box Set, Volume 1
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

My Review:
So far I've only read one book in this bundle: Calling His Bluff by Amy Jo Cousins. I bought the rest today and I'll read them soon. I really enjoyed this book. It was full of feelings and that special ability to be yourself and at the same time be whoever you want. The writing was funny and real and I fell in love with both characters right away. I think my favorite line was “It's like two polar bears crapped a giant frozen poo and they built a city on it.” Maybe not the favorite line for everyone, but I thought it was perfect and original.

This is book three in the series of the Tyler siblings. Sarah is the down to earth, bookish sibling. She seems introverted, but not too shy. Smart and determined as well. I liked her a lot. She's sort of stuck in this role and only allows herself freedom from it when she goes to Vegas. She likes who she is, but enjoys the freedom to be someone else too.

It just so happens that her brother's best friend comes back into town, whom she's had a huge crush on, kisses her, and in trying to pull his foot out of his mouth later, invites her to Vegas. J.D. sees a side of her that he's never seen before while in Vegas and finds even more reason to love her, because he's somewhat harbored a thing for her too. Things get a little out of hand when he says they got married on the night Sarah was too drunk to remember.

J.D., well, he's sort of emotionally young since he carried on the marriage charade for as long as he did. I didn't doubt for a minute that he loved Sarah, but we really didn't spend much time in his head to understand why he'd keep up the act. I mean, I got the whole little-boy-lost thing, but I was a little so-so on how easily he could spend time with Sarah without telling her the truth. Everything else about him seemed so mature and emotionally in-tune that it was hard to reconcile his ability to keep from saying anything.

I think some of this came down to the timeline jumps. There were a couple times when stuff happens, door closes for the end of the scene, and when you start the next chapter it seems to be the next day, but then you find out it's days or weeks later. It didn't interrupt my enjoyment, but they were the moments my brain had to screech to a stop and re-process before I could move on. I had trouble believing that J.D. and Sarah could practically live together for weeks without him saying something or her looking up the records or anything like that. Maybe in the end they both just wanted to believe the fairy tale.

J.D. and Sarah were really good together and they gave me some good, happy feelings. Both characters were grown ups with their emotions (barring the whole marriage thing) and knew how to deal with their issues. They were loyal and dependable. And in a great way, each character could be responsible without having it held against them. There wasn't really much conflict in the book. It was more the process of them finding out they were meant to be together, not really a story of them overcoming obstacles.

Neither character has very prominent friends in the book, but I loved seeing the Tyler family again. They didn't appear all that much in this book, but I love how supportive they are and all the ways they don't take themselves too seriously. They have a good time together and it feels almost like the perfect family.

Of the three books in the series, I've enjoyed this one the most so far, which is saying a lot because I liked the others too. It's a great addition to the family and I can't wait to read Maxie's story. While the story was pretty steamy, it did leave a lot of details behind closed doors. The pace was pretty quick and I was emotionally invested in these two. I was left with a happy, satisfied feeling.


I received a complementary ARC of this novel from the author.