Karma by Carly Phillips

Title: Karma

Series: Serendipity bk 3

Author: Carly Phillips

Genre: Contemporary

Police Officer Dare Barron has had a crush on Liza McKnight ever since he was a teenager. But despite his lifelong attraction, the closest he’s ever come to interacting with her is watching Liza regularly bail out her brother at the station.
 
Dare’s dark past with Liza’s brother, Brian, has always kept him from pursuing her. But suddenly Liza finds herself in need of protection and Dare appoints himself as the man for the job.  And while the sizzling attraction between Dare and Liza draws them together, the past that Dare and Brian share threatens to keep the two apart forever.

Carly Phillips has once again delivered a gripping story full of everything you could want in a great romance story.

I have made no bones about the fact this is my favorite series of Carly’s. I have been in love with the Barron Brothers from book one and fallen more in love with them in each book. Ethan with his guilt and determination, Nash and his anger, and Dare the one we all thought was the undamaged brother. Which we discovered in Destiny (Nash’s book) wasn’t the truth.

Of all the brothers Dare is the most scared by the past. (If you haven’t read Destiny you HAVE to before you read this book). From the timeline of the past I think the two events that changed these brothers the most happened very close together. Dare is full of anger and hate towards one person Brian McKinght. Only he has a bigger problem, Brian’s sister Liza. The girl that Dare has had a crush on since he was teen-ager.

Liza is one of the best heroines I have read in awhile. She isn’t perfect. She is just as damaged as Dare (only for different reasons that you need to read the book to find out why). She is also very aware of the fact that she helps to enable her brother in his self-destruction. But she can’t turn her back on him. For one he’s her brother and the one other really good reason (you need to read the book to find out why).

Dare and Liza both think the other one hates the other. Which couldn’t be further from the truth. They want each other so bad the pages fairly smoke with their sexual tension. I would venture to say that this is one Carly’s HOTTEST books. WOW!! I and I MEAN WOW!! Those scenes!! You will know what I’m talking about when you get to them.

Both Dare and Liza are very flawed characters who have been shaped by events in their childhood and teens and have created these walls around them. But they also recognize that there is something between them. It just a matter of letting the other one in. Liza I have to say does a great job of letting her walls slowly come down. That is until her brother does something that makes Dare pull back and her walls go slamming up.

One of my favorite parts of the book was when Ethan and Nash would tease Dare about how he was falling for Liza, and then when Dare screws up how they let him know what an ass he’d been and that he had to fix it.

The resolution of the conflict between Liza and Dare is one of the most poignant ones I’ve read in while. Once you know the reason why Dare hates Brian you will understand.

In case you missed it I LOVE this book. I do know that I can’t wait for the last Barron sibling to grow up so we can see what happens with her.

This is definitely a series that every romance fan should have on their shelf. Both the e-shelf and print shelf. I know I will.

Grade A+