Format read: paperback provided by BookTrib
Formats available: ebook, paperback, mass market paperback, audiobook
Genre: Contemporary romance
Series: The Sullivans, #3
Length: 336 pages
Publisher: Originally self-published; expanded edition published by Harlequin MIRA
Date Released: December 9, 2011 (original edition); July 30, 2013 (expanded edition)
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

How much is worth risking?

Gabe Sullivan risks his life every day as a firefighter in San Francisco, but he knows better than to risk giving his heart again. Especially not to the woman he saved from a deadly apartment fire…and can’t stop thinking about.

Megan Harris owes everything to the heroic firefighter who saved her and her daughter. Everything except her heart. Because after losing her pilot husband, she has vowed to never suffer through loving—and losing—a man with a dangerous job again.

But when Gabe and Megan meet again, how can he possibly ignore her courage, determination and beauty? And how can she deny not only his strong bond with her daughter…but also his sweetly sensual kisses, challenging her to risk everything she’s been guarding for so long?

My Review:

What makes someone a risk-taker? An adrenaline junkie? A thrill-seeker? What makes another play it safe?

Can you change your fundamental nature from one to the other? Can you make someone else change theirs?

Those are the questions at the heart of Bella Andre’s contemporary romance, Can’t Help Falling In Love, the third book in her Sullivans series. As the title says, Megan Harris and Gabe Sullivan can’t seem to keep from falling in love with one another from the moment they meet.

But it’s not that simple, or we wouldn’t have this marvelous story to read.

Gabe Sullivan is a San Francisco firefighter. He risks his life every time he goes out on a fire call. The story begins when he is called out from his brother Marcus’ engagement party at the end of From This Moment On (reviewed here).

But Gabe is not necessarily an adrenaline junkie. He does his job the safest way he possibly can. His goal in fighting the fire is to save people’s lives.

On that fateful fire call, the lives he saves are those of Megan Harris and her little girl Summer. He admires Megan’s bravery, because Megan’s actions kept Summer alive, not just until he could reach them, but kept him from having to carry two unconscious bodies out of a third floor walkup in an inferno–otherwise, they would have all died.

But no matter much he admires her courage, or how beautiful he believes her to be, he has one ironclad rule–he never becomes involved with fire victims. The expectations have proven to be too high.

Summer wants to thank the firefighter who saved their lives. When Megan takes her to the hospital to visit the injured man, she discovers that he is attractive, adores her daughter, and seems to detest her.

It shouldn’t matter to her. Megan has sworn off any man who chases danger for a living. Any man who might be like the fighter pilot husband who died and left her with a two-year-old to raise alone.

But little Summer is determined to keep on seeing the man who saved them. She’s way smarter than both of the adults in her life. She also knows that rules are made to be broken.

Summer is the biggest risk-taker of them all. It’s lucky for everyone that she’s absolutely right!

Escape Rating B+: One of the things I like about Andre’s Sullivans series is the way that each story starts smoothly from the previously one and leads equally smoothly into the next one. They’re not cliffhangers, it’s feeling that they really are a family and that their stories intertwine.

Although the Sullivans stories I have read so far rely on the insta-love concept, Can’t Help Falling In Love makes it work. Gabe and Megan meet under just the kind of circumstances guaranteed to make two people feel an instant connection–Gabe holds Megan’s life in his hands. They almost die together. The heightened emotions demand a heightened response.

But the reasons they resist any involvement make equal sense. Gabe’s previous attempt at a relationship with a fire victim ended in utter disaster, and Megan’s husband left her a widow because he loved danger more than his family. Megan’s response has been to play the rest of her life “safe”, and to suppress her own need for a little adrenaline in her life.

Megan is an amazing parent. Even though fear has controlled her own life, she has been vigilant about not letting that fear rule Summer’s life. Summer is fearless. Summer is a very well-drawn character in her own right, and not just a prop to match-make the two adults. Summer schemes and connives to get her way, but she’s indulged rather than spoiled. I’m glad that she gets a HEA out of this story too, to be part of a big family.

The next story should be even more fun than this one. The heroine of I Only Have Eyes for You is a librarian!

~~~~~~GIVEAWAY~~~~~~

Bella is giving away one paperback copy of Can’t Help Falling in Love to one lucky winner (US only)! To enter, use the Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Format read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook, paperback, mass market paperback, audiobook
Genre: Contemporary romance
Series: The Sullivans, #2
Length: 400 pages
Publisher: Originally self-published; expanded edition published by Harlequin MIRA
Date Released: August 30, 2011 (original); June 25, 2013 (expanded edition)
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

For thirty-six years, Marcus Sullivan has been the responsible older brother, stepping in to take care of his seven siblings after their father died when they were children. But when the perfectly ordered future he’s planned for himself turns out to be nothing but a lie, Marcus needs one reckless night to shake free from it all.

Nicola Harding is known throughout the world by only one name – Nico – for her catchy, sensual pop songs. Only, what no one knows about the twenty-five year old singer is that her sex-kitten image is totally false. After a terrible betrayal by a man who loved fame far more than he ever loved her, she vows not to let anyone else get close enough to find out who she really is…or hurt her again. Especially not the gorgeous stranger she meets at a nightclub, even though the hunger – and the sinful promises – in his dark eyes make her want to spill all her secrets.

One night is all Nicola and Marcus agree to share with each other. But nothing goes as they plan when instead of simply tangling limbs, they find a deeper connection than either of them could have anticipated. And even though they both try to fight it, growing emotions – and sizzling attraction – keep drawing them closer together.

Close enough for them to wonder if stealing one more secret moment together can ever be enough?

My Review:

With a family like the Sullivans around, how would anyone in Northern California between the ages of puberty and, well, death, get anything done?

Seriously? Eight handsome or beautiful siblings, all adults, all unattached and all pretty decent human beings, concentrated in a pretty small geographic area. This family would be too good to be real, outside of fiction.

It’s not just that their parents raised them right, but after the tragic early death of their father Jack, oldest brother Marcus stepped into the fatherly role at the tender age of 14, and he did it well.

From This Moment On is the story of Marcus’ very much earned happily ever after. He earned it by the way he put off his own happiness to help his mom raise his brothers and sisters. He kind of makes a hash of things with Nicola, the pop star who turns out to be, not the woman of his dreams, but the perfect woman for him.

Not that Nico doesn’t help mess up the road to a relationship!

From This Moment On picks up the exact same evening where The Look of Love (reviewed here) ends — after Marcus’ brother Chase’s engagement party.

The Look of Love was kind of a “rescue” love story, even though in the end Chase doesn’t rescue Chloe half as much as he gives Chloe the time and space for her to rescue herself. Still, the element is there.

From This Moment On starts out with a classic rebound relationship thing going on. Marcus has just broken up with his long-time girlfriend because he discovered her in flagrante delicto. As I said, classic. He goes out to a club, very much against his usual behavior, after that engagement party, in the hopes of picking up a one-night stand. Just out of a two-year relationship, the last thing he thinks he wants is to start another one.

Instead, he picks up Nicola. She thinks she’s just there for a one-night stand, because the last thing that she can afford is a real relationship. She can’t believe she’s picked the one man in the place who doesn’t know who she really is, the pop-princess Nico.

But instead of hot sex, Nico falls asleep on Marcus. Which is totally ironic considering that he’s a decade older than she is. A fact that undoubtedly contributes to his non-recognition. He’s outside of the target demographic for her image.

When she wakes up in the morning, he’s all too aware that the young woman she really is, once she’s scrubbed clean of her makeup, is much too young for his 36 year old self, even if she is 25, and whatever she might say she wants. Whatever he might really want.
Even if the one kiss he allows himself is a kiss he can’t make himself forget.

Fate doesn’t let the perfect romance get away from either of them. Pop-princess Nico is in San Francisco to shoot a music video with choreographer Lori Sullivan. Lori brings her big brother Marcus down to meet the terrific singer she’s working with.

Neither Marcus nor Nicola are able to resist temptation a second time, no matter how much they both believe that they should.

The real question is whether, after spending a perfect week together, can they get past the belief that a real relationship between them is impossible?

Escape Rating B: From This Moment On takes a bundle of lovely romantic tropes and weaves them all together into a sweet and sensual story.

Marcus and Nicola are two people whose worlds would simply not intersect, but they do. Opposites attract. Opposites attract a bit instantly, but Bella Andre does make it work by starting with sex and working up to love, a love that both people resist kicking and screaming.

Nicola doesn’t romanticize the loneliness and fun of being a star. She has to watch her back all the time, and thinks of fame as the price she pays to play her music. Even though she is younger than Marcus, she tries to protect him from the damage her life can cause. She goes a bit overboard, but it’s an understandable reaction.

They both push each other to re-think some of their life choices. Nicola has had to grow up more than someone normally would at her age, and it makes her and Marcus more equal. One thing that Ms. Andre did well was to portray the way the age-difference worked in the relationship.

The Sullivan family as a whole is terrific to read about. I enjoy seeing them interact. It’s also great that they didn’t come from money. Several of the siblings made their own money as adults, and we’ll get to read some of those stories, but they’re not spoiled rich kids. It makes their family story more heartwarming.

I like the way that the end of each book leads into the next one. It’s not a cliffhanger (thank goodness!) but it does let the reader know who’s up to bat. Firefighter Gabe’s story will be next in Can’t Help Falling In Love. It seems like readers can’t help falling in love with the Sullivans.

~~~~~~GIVEAWAY~~~~~~

Bella has TWO giveaways for you. One is a print copy of From This Moment On. The other, in celebration of her 7-figure deal with Harlequin to reprint The Sullivans, is a beach bag full of goodies:

• Not Your Mother’s Smooth Moves Frizz Control Hair Cream
• Jade & Jasper Women in Style Bracelets
• O.P.I Nail Lacquer Suzi’s Hungary AGAIN!
• Unisun Eyewear Rager Sunglasses
• Evian Mineral Water Facial Spray
• Solemates High Heeler
• Vapur Classic Reflex water bottle
• And your very own copy of The Look of Love by Bella Andre

To enter, use the Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.