|Adult Review| All He Ever Needed by Shannon Stacey

Title: All He Ever Needed
Author: Shannon Stacey
Series: Kowalski #4
Published September 10th 2012 by Carina Press
Rating: C+ or 3 and half hearts
Goodreads Summary:

He won’t stay put for a woman, and she won’t chase after any man…

Mitch Kowalski lives out of a suitcase—and he likes it that way. Traveling for work has the added bonus of scaring off women who would otherwise try to tie him down. But when he’s called home to help with the family lodge, he’s intrigued by the new girl in town and her insistence that she doesn’t need a man. If there’s one thing Mitch can’t resist, it’s a challenge.

After a nomadic childhood, Paige Sullivan is finally putting down roots. Determined to stand on her own two feet, she lives by the motto “Men are a luxury, not a necessity.” But when Mr. Tall, Dark and Hot pulls up a stool in her diner and offers her six weeks of naughty fun with a built-in expiration date, she’s tempted to indulge.

They’re the perfect match for a no-strings fling. Until they realize their sexy affair has become anything but casual…

70,000 words

Shannon Stacey's books are just a doze of cute, fun and enjoyable contemporary reads. The fourth book in the Kowalski series does not fail to deliver a comforting, rainy day entertaining book! Set in a small town where everybody knows everybody bizzness and won't forget anything you ever did, Shannon Stacey made this a (somewhat) charmed setting. Small towns are annoying. No body needs to know EVERYTHING you did, said and everything in between but Shannon Stacey managed to keep the small town factor annoyance level to a minimum but there were still times when I wanted to  just move Mitch and Paige to a city with a population of more than 1 million people:

"It's just that once they pin a label on you here, you wear the label forever. When you walk into a place here, they see a beautiful women who's made a success out of her business. When I walk into a place, they don't see a grown man who's made a success out of his business. They see every story they've ever heard about me doing something wrong, even though I've changed."

LET HIS PAST GO!

Mitch is not looking for a serious relationship because his work keeps him from staying in one place for too long while Paige's motto in life is "Men are a luxury not a necessity." Cue Mitch bringing out the big guns so he could woo Paige and become a "luxury" in her life during his stay at the lodge but their little fun relationship turns into something more- companionship. Sometimes, commitment-phoebes heroes and heroines DRIVE ME INSANE but Mitch didn't exactly have commitment-phobia. He's priority was just work which made me hop from city to city.

"I have to travel a lot. And not just a few days or weekend here and there. I'm talking about weeks at a time."

"You'll make it work for the right women." 

Same for Paige, her priority was her diner. Shannon Stacey handled their relationship very well. We see them flirting at first, deciding to give into their attraction and have fun then the mental struggle of coming to care for someone special and having to readjust your life for them. It was a lovely, funny, and sexy ride!

Shannon Stacey also set up Mitch's brothers stories in this book, Ryan (All He Ever Desired - book 5 - January 13th) and Josh (All He Ever Dreamed - book 6 - November 19th) and honestly, if those two books were out already, I would have bought them and read them by now!* Ryan is a divorced man helping Mitch and Josh repair their lodge and apparently he has had a thing for now-divorced Lauren for years and oh, this Lauren has teenage son. I love books where the hero or heroine have kids!!!** As for Josh, love for him might come in a form of someone he knew, all. his. life.***

Rating: C+ Not my favorite of the series, a good book but not a great one but I still enjoyed reading it.

First:

Mitch Kowalski was doing sixty when he blew past the Welcome to Whitford, Maine sign, and he would have grinned if grinning on a Harley at dusk in a shorty helmet wasn't an invitation to eat his weight in bugs.

Favorite:

"But you want a man, right?"

She pretended to think about it fir a few seconds. "Not especially."

"Who opens jars for you?"

"I hvae a little gadget that does that."

"But..." He grinned. "What about sex?"

"I have a little gadget that does that, too."

Teaser:

"I told you I smelled banana bread and you said it was an air freshener," Mitch said, trying not to sound too pouty.

Other reviews:
Mandi @Smexy Books: B+
Brie @Romance Around The Corner: 4 stars
Jac @For Love & Books: 4 stars
Brianna @The Book Vixen: 4 stars
Amanda @Raunch Dilettante: 4 stars
Ann @Under The Covers: 3.75 stars
  
*I wrote this review after I finished reading All He Ever Needed a few weeks back and by now I've already read All He Ever Desired and like I predicted, it IS better than All He Ever Needed! I'll post my review sometime in November.
**Shannon Stacey has posted the first chapter of All He Ever Desired, if you're interested!
***Shannon Stacey posted a fun tidbit from book 6, All He Ever Dreamed.
**** I'm done.

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