Dirty Service

           

Title: Dirty Service

Series: The Dorsey Brothers #2

Author: Carmen Bishop

Publisher: B.A.D. Publishing, LLC, April 3, 2023

Pages: 378

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Axel Dorsey isn’t the kind of guy you take home to your parents.

He is, however, the perfect piece of man-candy to play the part of my fiancé at my best friend’s wedding.

Or so says my genius plan.

Turns out, Axel is as arrogant as he is attractive. But damn is he good with his hands.

And he has no problem putting on a show for the sake of all those who tormented me during high school.

But the more we pretend, the more the lines between reality and fiction blur.

And now I’m in danger of catching very real feelings for my fake fiancé.

What have I done? First of all, I started with book 2 in a series. It is fairly standalone. But that's the least of my concerns. Which sounds very dramatic. This was fine for a MF contemporary romance. But my tastes don't tend to skew that way most of the time.

So much happened in this book. More than I could have ever expected. Axel and Kennedy are fine. Axel agrees to be Kennedy's fake fiancé for her brother's wedding in Hawaii. They spend some time together leading up to the wedding, and you start to learn about Kennedy's family's disfunction. This woman has gone no contact with every member of her family except her brother. And poor thing, she really should have just written him off with the rest of them.

The. Drama. Holy moly. The things that these two deal with...I don't even want to get into it because the surprises just kept on coming. But I would like to talk about the fact that Axel's real name is Alex. Obviously chosen names are important. And no one is required to legally change their name if they choose not to. But his family is described as this mega inclusive, ultra accepting bunch. But he doesn't go by Alex because it's his dad's name, and he has a lot of mixed up feelings for his dad. But his mom won't call him by his chosen name. Or she will, but she also still calls him Alex. And that really threw me off. Especially because his family was clearly a foil for Kennedy's family situation, and that kind of messed it up for me.

Axel was also a big ol' alpha-hole. Which is amazing in a sci-fi or paranormal/shifter book. But not so much in a regular old contemporary where people have to deal with modern culture the way that it is. 

Ratings

Stars: 3/5

Spice: 2/5