Reviewed by Vicki
TITLE: Stuck Landing
SERIES: Bluewater Bay #11
AUTHOR: Lauren Gallagher
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 196 pages
BLURB:
For months, acclaimed Wolf’s Landing director/producer Anna Maxwell has been nursing a crush on Natalya Izmaylova, a former Russian gymnast and current Wolf’s Landing stunt coordinator. When Anna witnesses Natalya’s very public breakup with her boyfriend, she can’t resist inviting her over for drinks to commiserate about love and all that nonsense. Commiseration doesn’t last long, and soon Anna’s in bed with the hottest woman she’s ever touched, living out fantasies she didn’t even know she had.
Despite the amazing sex, Anna wants to proceed with caution. They’re both newly single. They’re colleagues. And there’s the not-so-small matter of Anna’s biphobia.
Natalya won’t commit to someone who clings to ridiculous stereotypes, but they can’t avoid each other at work, and there’s no ignoring their chemistry. Anna’s defenses are slowly eroding, and Natalya is willing to give her another chance. But Natalya only has so much patience, and even scorching hot sex won’t keep her coming back forever. If Anna doesn’t come to her senses soon and let go of her prejudices — not to mention her insecurities — she’s going to lose the woman of her dreams.
REVIEW:
Oh I’m so bummed! I have loved all of the Bluewater Bay books, especially the ones written by Lori, aka Lauren, but this one didn’t work for me…. and it’s not because it’s about a lesbian character and a bisexual character. It’s because Anna was a bitch and drove me crazy. Sometimes I can get past not liking a character in a book and still like the book, but her whining was just too much for me to take.
I read Rain Shadow, the book before this one in the series yesterday, so went in to this one fresh. In previous books I liked Anna just fine, even in Rain Shadow I though she was ok, I was just ready for her to break up with her girlfriend and move on. She’s a tough cookie and would need a strong character to match her. Natalya had the potential to be that match. Anna is one of the director/producers of Wolf’s Landing, a paranormal action show filmed in Bluewater Bay Washington. Natalya is the bad ass stunt coordinator for the same show. so the two work together, and go to the same gym. Once Anna finally broke up with her girlfriend, and was at the gym one night, she witnesses Natalya’s dramatic breakup with her boyfriend. The two chat, and agree to have a girls night with a bottle of tequila. Which turns in to much more than Anna expected, when Natalya comes on to her and some drunken sex is had.
The problem is Anna refuses to date bisexual women, convinced that they will leave her for a man. Natalya is bisexual, and not ashamed to admit it. But Anna can’t get past it. The two try to date, but Anna the witch, just can’t do it. She won’t trust Natalya, no matter what she says. Unfortunately that is most of the plot. There is very little drama, no action, and only lukewarm sex. I didn’t feel the connection between them, I didn’t care if they worked their shit out or not. In fact I was secretly hoping Natalya would find someone else! The redemption moment came way too late and I was just tired of it by then.
But I am going to give this book three hearts, even though I didn’t really like the main plot. The reason for that was the other characters I have gotten to know and love. Jeremy, Anna’s bodyguard and main character of the last book, was in this one a lot. There was also a wonderful wedding scene with Levi and Carter. Anna spent a lot of time at Levi and Carter’s house and their awesome cats Zelda and Link made several appearances. All of that made up for the lackluster story this book had. Without that I would have rated this one lower.
I still love this series, I still love Lori/Lauren’s writing and her other books, and I really hate that I didn’t like this book.
RATING: 
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