Title: Keeping House (Truth or Dare #1)
Author: Lee Brazil
Publisher: Breathless Press
Pages: 76
Characters: Mischa Blake, Donovan Holloway
POV: 3rd person
Setting: California
Sub-Genre: Contemporary Romance
Cover Rating: 4
Kisses: 5
Blurb:
Donovan Holloway, advertising executive, newly made vice president of the company where he’s worked for twenty years, grew up in a free love hippie commune, taking care of the parents who should have been taking care of him. He’s worked hard to put himself through school and achieve the American dream. All he’s ever wanted was a normal family life—house in the suburbs, two cars, two kids, a shaggy dog. A family to come home to—to care for, and to care for him.
Mischa Blake is the green eyed, liberally-pierced, black-haired, Mohawk-wearing spoiled youngest son of a Hollywood producer and his actress wife. Mischa has made a terrible mistake. In a fit of childish pique, he’s accepted a dare from his older brothers. The dare? Live on his own, supporting himself completely for a year without accessing his trust fund. No problem. Except Mischa has never worked a day in his life, hasn’t finished college, and has absolutely no skills that he can bring to the table.
So when he sees Donovan’s ad for a housekeeper/gardener, he has nothing to lose by applying, because really…how hard can it be?
Review:
Mischa Blake is the rebellious black sheep of his very wealthy show biz family. The mohawked and pierced twenty year old is the absolute antithesis of his corporate-minded older brothers, Brandon, Dan, and Terry, who, although their hearts and intentions are in the right place, do tend to badger their little brother to conform to what they believe he should be doing with his life. A truth or dare poker game, a manipulation on the brothers’ part to force Mischa into submitting to their intentions, backfires beautifully, setting Mischa on a course toward love and the fulfillment of his own desires.
Showing up on Donovan Holloway’s doorstep to interview for a domestic position, Mischa is as likely a candidate as anyone could possibly be to fail miserably at the job—he’s a trust fund baby, after all, and has never worked a day in his life, let alone cooked and cleaned—but when the motivation to succeed is your stubborn will to prove your brothers wrong, and the internet puts everything you could ever want to know at your fingertips, failure simply isn’t an option.
Keeping House is a sweet and uncomplicated short-story, but that definitely does not mean it lacks quality or a depth of feeling. This is the story of two very different men from very different backgrounds, who are at different stages of their lives, but are brought together by chance, by a dare that was never meant to set Mischa on a path leading away from the Blake family empire and toward a future of his own making, a future that will include the building of his own family with Donovan.
What could a Goth boy and a forty year old corporate advertising executive possibly have in common that would attract them to each other? Sometimes it’s nothing more than the need to be cared for and the need to care for someone that brings two people together. Sometimes it’s about having a dream and having the desire to help that person fulfill his dream that can bind two very different people to each other. But mostly, it’s the simple fact that love is a force which frequently defies explanation.
Lee Brazil brought Mischa and Donovan, as well as the secondary cast of characters to life on the page. Their strengths, conflicts, and emotions were genuine, and I become entirely involved in the outcome of the story. These characters are each entirely endearing, and, let’s face it, a few are downright intriguing and left me wanting to know so much more about them. But I’ll just have to wait.
Keeping House has set up the second book in the series for what promises to be a very, very interesting treat.
Reviewed By: Lisa