Causing Havoc, by Lori Foster [2]

**/***** (2/5)

Welcome to Lori Foster's world of larger-than-life heroes and social drama. You can't fault Lori Foster for weak heroes, not even the slightest. CAUSING HAVOC's Dean Conor, Gregor and Simon are ripped mammoths, 6-foot-5+ "hunks" through and through. Strong of conviction, tough, imposing in size and strength and rich, Dean Conor is a man's man. He doesn't cower and submit to everything in the end, and that in and of itself was nice to read after THE BRIDE AND THE BEAST. This contemporary romance offers little else though, and besides the hero's endearing efforts to help his estranged sisters and reluctantly implant himself as part of their lives, the book was mostly boring. It took a while to read, and I finished 3 other books while trying to finish this one.

The Story.

Dean "Havoc" Conor receives a letter from his estranged sister, a plea asking him to return home to Harmony, Kentucky, and try to be a family again. Dean Conor is hard-pressed to return to a home he was kicked out of 20 years ago, and return to sisters he believes has long forgotten him. He's wary of his sister's motivation asking him to return home. Despite his reservations, famed SBC fighter Dean Conor returns to a home he longs to forget and sisters he wishes didn't exist.

Once in Harmony, KY, he meets his sister's gorgeous best friend Eve Lavon and their mutual attraction draws them together.

The rest of the novel tells of Dean's insuppressible love for his sisters and the passions he shares with Eve, eventually blossoming into a love. There's a plot dealing with the history of Dean and his sisters' parents, dead 20 years ago after an accident ended their lives. Their parents didn't share a loving relationship, and we find out more about the siblings' mother's love affair with another man. They weren't the most caring, loving parents either, as the father left them to their own devices while the mother was happier in her affair. After their deaths, an uncle takes Dean away from Harmony, KY, while his two sisters grow up under their Aunt Lorna's care.

I actually found myself more interested in Roger's character than Dean's though. Roger was very interesting as the suspicious man who claims to love the eldest sister, Cam. I also thought Cam had more depth than the other two women in the novel, Cam's sister Jacki and our heroine Eve Lavon.

The ending isn't bad and concludes in a true romance-genre fashion. The story is really about a long-estranged brother finding his place amongst his family again and discovering true love on the side.