This RITA® Reader Challenge 2017 review was written by Erica. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Mid-Length Contemporary category.
The summary:
Roxanne St. Claire’s “Timeless” books celebrate the appeal of the silver fox hero! A little older, a lot wiser, and completely sexy, the heroes in the Barefoot Bay Timeless books are men in their 40’s and 50’s who find a second chance at love. Roxanne says her readers aren’t 23…so why should the man of their dreams be that young? The Timeless books are all set on the moon-washed beaches of Barefoot Bay, a tropical island paradise that has been the setting for many beloved romances by this author. Joining the billionaires, brides, and bodyguards on the beach, readers can now kick off their shoes and fall in love with a man aged to perfection!
Barefoot at Midnight
Lawson Monroe is a chef without a restaurant…but his friend and mentor makes a deathbed promise to leave Law the only dive bar on Mimosa Key. Law has big plans for the place, until he walks directly into the luscious body and gorgeous face of Libby Chesterfield and her outrageous claim that the Toasted Pelican should come to her.
When Libby learned that the man who once owned the crappiest watering hole on the island was actually her biological father, she decided the least he owed her was his unclaimed business. The old man wasn’t there for her when she and her brother were growing up near Barefoot Bay, but his legacy can help her build a new future when she transforms the property into Balance, a yoga studio. The only obstacle? Her father apparently named former bad boy and current sexy silver fox Lawless Monroe his heir.
Law never thought he’d want anything more than the chance to make a living cooking his food for the people of Barefoot Bay…but Libby arouses an irresistible hunger in him. Battling an attraction that sizzles hotter than one of Law’s cast-iron skillets and uncovering long-buried secrets with more twists than one of Libby’s yoga poses, they’ll have find a way to both get what they want…especially if what they really want is each other.
Here is Erica's review:
I just couldn’t with this book. Maybe it’s not fair that I’m calling it a DNF at the 23% mark, but god, I just cannot bring myself to open it again.
It may very well be a personal problem. Sometimes, when I am insanely stressed out, I just can’t sit and READ – as in “eyes on a page” reading. So, I bought the audiobook, thinking that might help. Except the narrator was one of those guys who over enunciates his T’s? And those people make me clinically insane. (There is no way that you think that people actually talk like that. STOP IT.)
*ahem*
So, I tried. I did. Ish.
I just don’t care.
The book begins with a prologue – Law (short for Lawson, because of course) is racing to the hospital because his friend Jake had a stroke. Jake has been a surrogate father for Law – basically raised him when he was a kid, then when Law got out of the Army and became a confirmed alcoholic, Jake sent Law to AA and then culinary school. The end of the scene is Jake promising Law that he will inherit Jake’s bar, and then he dies. But not after some cryptic words about secrets.
Yawn.
Then, 11 ½ months later, Law hasn’t found a will, some other people have claimed ownership of the bar, and he storms out of his current sous chef position, and goes to pump some information from people at the bar. Luckily for him/us, the bartender that night is Libby. Libby and Law went to high school together, and they reconnected after their high school reunion a couple of months back, but have just been flirting despite the fact that they’re both hot and sexy for older people. (I’m going to come back to this.)
Libby, of course, is who is currently running the bar – she owns it along with her twin brother, but they’re still in a legal process of actually obtaining it. Libby wants to turn it into a yoga studio. She likes Law, but she knows that he only wants her for her body, because that’s all anyone wants her for, and so she flaunts her boobs around and talks about them and tries to use them to distract him from his mission. And then there’s the fact that Law’s friend Jake may or may not be her biological father. Her mom said so, but apparently her mother doesn’t actually know, or is lying (she’s thought/said it was two other guys before this).
So Libby wants to get some of Jake’s DNA so that she can actually find out if he was her dad. Law says he has the will, even though he doesn’t. And so both Law and Libby decide that they are going to use each other to get the stuff that they want, and we have all of the conflict we could ever ask for.
Okay, so, here is one of my biggest problems with this book. I am constantly being reminded of Libby and Law’s age (45 and 46, respectively) and how they’re older and have had full lives – Libby’s been married and divorced twice, and has an adult kid. But there’s this constant “oh wow, they’re still hot after all these years.” “Wow, she’s aged well.” “Wow, silver hair is hot.” Like, who are we trying to convince here? Tons of people are over 40 and are freakin’ gorgeous. Seriously. So why are we acting like this is some rare phenomenon?
Then…Okay, so maybe this is because I’m about 10 years younger than these characters, and so I expect them to be more mature than I am, more adult-y and together or something – because good God, these people sound young and annoying. For fuck’s sake, use your words. Maybe you could co-run the place? Law, you can have your gastropub in the bar, and Libby can convert the upstairs into a yoga studio. Easy goddamn fix. Just talk, dammit.
But then again, I feel like I’m still twenty a lot of the time – like, shouldn’t I be more grown up by now? ‘Cause I do not feel grown-up. So maybe I’m projecting that 45 is this magical age where people are adults in the way I assume adulthood is supposed to look.
I’m glad that Libby has a self-esteem issue, because it’s good to realize that that stuff doesn’t just go away – people have to sort through that crap all of the time. But… It’s like… She feels like all anyone wants her for is her rack and sex. And then she uses her boobs to her advantage, and gets upset when Law seems to fall for it. And, it just makes my head hurt. I swear.
And I just don’t care. I have zero emotional investment in these people. And like I said earlier, maybe I didn’t give them enough of a chance. That is entirely possible. I just really don’t care.
So, because I feel bad that I may not have given this book a fair cop – here are some pictures of some insanely, ridiculously hot, silver-haired dudes.
At least it’s in the same spirit!
This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!
The idea that a hero in his 40s counts as a silver fox cracks my shit right up. Someone please tell Jude Law that he is “aged to perfection.”
I’m a well-seasoned 55. I joined a Facebook group that’s for romance readers who are looking for older H/h. The members of this group are very nice (many of them are authors), but say that their “seasoned” H/h are in their 30s-40s! My oldest KID is 30. Give me people in their 50s please.
This is insane. People between 50 – 70 are living longer, healthier, more vibrant lives today than any generation before. There are billions of stories to be told there! When did “over 40” suddenly become “last desperate bid for sexy freedom before decrepitude sets in?”
Get off my lawn, etc.
I’ve been most attracted to men in their forties since I was 20. I’m just waiting to reach the age where I can get them without people thinking it’s creepy. ;-P
And I completely agree about grown-up adult protagonists. Unless there are extenuating circumstances, they ought to know how to adult.
Heck, my mother had a boyfriend after my dad died – she was 85 (and still walking 4 miles a day in less than an hour) and he was 89 (and golfing 18 holes 4 times a week) when they started dating. He just died at 96 – on the golf course. He was a silver fox the whole time, nice looking, well mannered, interesting to talk to. They went to dinner, to concerts, to lectures, out with friends. That is what I am hoping for when I get there. And I would probably read about a similar romance. BTW, before my mom started dating him, she had a serious boyfriend who was stolen by her congresswoman! Talk about senior soap operas!
I DNFed a book recently because (among other issues) the author described a 66 year old woman as “frail.” Not because she had extenuating health challenges, but because she was OMG so old!! Um, really?
I’m 53 and don’t really think of myself as dead yet. There’s a 71-year-old woman in my strength-training class at the Y who can do pushups better than I can, so all this crap is really funny.
BTW, if these books are featuring ‘older’ heroines, I want one who springs awake in the middle of the night yelling, “IT’S HOT!” and turns the AC down to the 60’s, while pouring sweat like she’s run a marathon.
Because it would remind me of a friend 🙂
Fast Women by Jennifer Crusie is my go to book when I want this sort of thing. Wouldn’t mind finding more books in that vector. Could this be a future Rec League?
Totally regardless of the ages of the characters they sound immature and that is an instant turn off for me (and let’s be honest, I’m practically a baby in my late twenties). If you can’t talk about something as important and legally binding as inheritance law then you don’t deserve a successful long term relationship yet, parent of adult children or not.
@Cassandra: We did a Rec League on older characters, if that’s what you’re looking for!
Both Lizzy and Vicki have good points to make. Maturity really doesn’t have a lot to do with age past a certain point. Just because you turn a certain age, say 65 (heck, even 40), doesn’t mean you suddenly become mature, wise, thoughtful, kind or even honest. And, it doesn’t mean you suddenly become witless, sexless and dull.
My father claimed his mother was too mean to die and when I visited her at 92 she was complaining that her daughter was “butting in her life” and was worrying about her hair. She died at 95 only six months after she entered a nursing home. I want to be a feisty old lady still scandalizing her children who makes it to 100. I want to beat my grandmothers record.
I’m with you on the oh wow he’s 46 and still has hair and teeth woohoo how wildly extraordinary /eyeroll/. We can have adults in romance without constatly tripping over their age all the time and announcing that they are ‘still’ attractive. To quote my Harrison Ford in my guilty pleasure movie, Six Days Seven Nights…when the heroine finds out he’s fifty she says he still looks good. “I still AM good,” he said and damn but I believe it! /fans self over Harrison Ford who is certainly over 45/
Aside from the immaturity when they’re old enough to know better thing, they both sound a little ethically-challenged. Libby thinks Jake may possibly (based on sketchy “evidence”) have been her father, but it was never addressed when he was still alive, and she’s still going to make a play for his bar? And Jake made a death-bed promise to Law, there’s no paperwork to back it up, but he lies and says there is? Maybe I’m being too goody-two-shoes about this but they both sound skeevy, like people I wouldn’t want to know personally regardless of their respective ages.
BTW, tho, I suspect that Jake set this up from beyond the grave as a way to get the two of them together. Also kind of underhanded. They all deserve one another.
I read the book description and thought, so they’ll wind up sharing the space. It’s hard to imagine an entire book built on this premise when a half-hour conversation and a simple legal agreement could solve it. Maybe that’s why they had to be so immature, to not see an obvious solution like that right off.
@TheOtherKate – same! I remember when I was working as a library assistant in my mid-20s and there was a People magazine that I think was called “The Age Issue” or something in the break room, featuring hot male celebrities in all the age brackets. Every single celeb guy that I fancied was in his 40s.
I’ve exclusively dated older guys and my husband is 8 years older than me (but I don’t even consider that a huge age gap, although some people would.)
I’m 47 and I have to say, there are days when I still feel like I’m play acting being a grown up, or just holding down the fort until the real adults show. Not sure that ever will entirely disappear. But it only takes a little time hanging out with much younger folks for me to realize that yeah, I’m pretty grown.
I was thinking that if this were a Dorothy Sayers mystery, there would be a precise time within which the will has to be found, or else the decedent will be deemed to have died intestate and a whole different set of rules will apply. So everyone would be scrambling to either find the will or to prevent it from being found, depending on which side they’re on.
But something tells me this is not one of those authors who sits down with a probate lawyer in the relevant state (is this in the US? “Mimosa Key” sure sounds like Florida) to find out exactly what would happen under various scenarios. Nah: much more fun just to make something up. After all, it works so well in the movies.
Erica, thought-provoking review and I thank you for taking one for the team. I find the “hey, they are old and hot” attitude off-putting and am glad I stayed away from the Timeless part of Barefoot Bay World. From the few books I’ve read, the Bay has its own interpretation of how life works. I have problems with many contemporary books lately because the author doesn’t bother to spend some time with Google or an expert, forgets what was mentioned earlier, and/or has the hero and heroine engage in sexy times which require advanced yoga moves and a SEAL-like tolerance of pain.
I’m a cranky old reader with creaky bones and reading glasses. I’d like to see more older heroes (or even secondary male characters) in contemporaries who don’t speak like 40s movie stars or act like kiddoes with platinum-dyed hair.
I have to admit to having a problem with the whole ‘silver fox’ thing. My (younger) brother was greying to the point of silver fox at 21.
Simultaneously, I have always had a thing for an older guy. Go figure.
@Cleo: “I’m 47 and I have to say, there are days when I still feel like I’m play acting being a grown up,”
As a quote said “The moment when you look around for an adult and then realize you ARE the adult. So you look for an adultier adult”.
I certainly don’t feel adult. I just get on with what has to be done…which is adult in itself 🙂
Jake sent Law to AA and then culinary school. The end of the scene is Jake promising Law that he will inherit Jake’s bar
Did anyone else do a double-take at this? Yeah, Jake, just leave your bar to the recovered (recovering?) alcoholic, without any warning or prior discussion, and with an implied expectation that he’s going to actually (want to) run said bar. Surely that’ll end well! *facepalm*
I mean, look, leaving someone a huge responsability like a business and expecting them to run it after you die is something you need to discuss with them in general, and ensure you have the paperwork in order for, and whatnot, but I can put up with this trope in general if there’s nothing else straining my suspension of disbelief.
But who looks at the surrogate son they sent to AA however many years ago and thinks “Ah, yes, there’s a guy who will appreciate the surprise inheritance of a bar? WTH, Jake? Are you actively trying to sabotage the guy’s sobriety? o_O
IME, as admittedly a vast over-generalization, straight white American men tend to go off a cliff of physical attractiveness sometime between 50-60. They appear to physically age suddenly. Women, with decades of experience in ‘keeping themselves up’, age more gradually and often gracefully. So, I would be fine with a book where a straight guy in his late 50s on up was remarkably attractive, because that can be (sadly) remarkable. But a straight white guy in his mid-40s? Nothing remarkable about that.
I am an author with a novel that features a sexy and attractive hero AND heroine over 50. I had trouble finding other novels to compare mine with because what was listed as silver romance or mature was 40s. I agree that is a joke. (The reason why I also DNF this one, as well as other reasons discussed above.) I could find novels with older men and younger women but both over 50 is rare. I am over 50 myself and have been told by over 50 readers that they want this but it is very hard to market because Amazon doesn’t have a category for Mature Romance but they do have New Adult Romance, which I find to be age discrimination.
Ginger, What Facebook groups is that? I’ve been dying to find something like that!
Erica, I read two of these Barefoot stories last year for this reader review challenge and I think I gave them D’s. I forced myself to continue reading them.
I have read earlier books in the Barefoot series that I enjoyed but as I said in my reviews last year, the author simply has to stop. These stories have run their course and it is time for her to write something different.
The introduction to the concept of the series that comes before the blurb is something else, man. Also, “Law”. Hee.
@MaryEllen The Facebook group is Seasoned Romance.
Thanks Ginger!
My mum is 66 and is way more active than I am, she only looks late forties and owns two horses that she rides every day. She doesn’t date because she still loves my dad who died fifteen years ago, but she wouldn’t have any trouble getting an admirer – she still has gorgeous golden hair and doesn’t need make-up. It is daft that according to some romance writers as soon as you hit forty you are relegated to the sage friend/mum to the hot young thing.
I’m 53 and I don’t think I could write a book about someone my age ’cause I don’t feel 53. Okay, so my body reminds me sometimes but seriously, what should I feel like? There are times I feel wise; most of the time I wonder when I will grow up. Shoot, I love things like Baby Groot and the Minions and wonder, hey is this age appropriate? 🙂 But then I don’t really care. There is something to, I think, that you are only as old as you feel. I don’t feel 53 (whatever that is supposed to feel like) so I ain’t gonna act that way. But there are times when I want to be a feisty senior citizen who says, screw it, I don’t care what anyone thinks. Sigh. I still do. But as far as 45/46 being “old”? Good grief. I’ve seen plenty of folks older who look fabulous. I will, however, not age that wonderfully. LOL