Thoughts: Superb and Sexy

Superb and Sexy

by Jill Shalvis
Book 3 (final) of Sky High Air

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  3.5 Stars

Buckle Up.  It’s Going To Be Quite A Ride...

Despite his brooding bad-boy attitude, Brody knows life has treated him pretty well.  His luxury charter airline, Sky High, has given him financial security and the means to take to the skies whenever things on the ground get complicated.  And lately, things have become very complicated, thanks to the insanely passionate, or perhaps just insane, kiss he shared with Sky High’s gorgeous, wisecracking concierge, Maddie.  He’s tried to keep his distance, but now Maddie desperately needs help, and it’s triggering protective alpha-male urges Brody didn’t even know he had...

For months, Maddie hid her crush on sexy, exasperating Brody behind a cool, kick-ass exterior…and then blew that to smithereens by jumping him in the lobby.  Yeah, real smooth.  She’s tried to break her ties with Sky High, but Brody won’t let her walk away—especially now that he knows that Maddie and her twin sister Leena are in big-time trouble.  To save Leena, Maddie and Brody must pose as husband and wife, and Maddie is amazed that the man she thought was oblivious to her existence knows her very well indeed.  But that’s nothing compared to the way she’s about to get to know him—intimately, in depth, and over and over again...

This Sky High book was clearly supposed to have been the big bang to end off the trilogy.  It felt like it was supposed to be the best of the three books, but apparently I'm delusional and come up with weird ideas all the time.

That being said, Superb and Sexy was still, most certainly, enjoyable and entertaining.  And then it started getting a little bit deliberate in its endeavor to be big and bad and better than the previous two books.  Or, once again, maybe it wasn't really trying, but I felt like it was trying.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is:

Maddie Stone is a wonderful, kickass, strong female character that I can totally stand behind and love.  Brody is the typical broody, main male character with Neanderthal thoughts even if no Neanderthal tendencies--the usual.  And because this couple was actually pretty entertaining with a great romantic development and lots of fun, Jill Shalvis-level banter, I absolutely wanted them to be my favorite of the three Sky High couples.  And they would have been, except for that all too familiar back-and-forth Noble Idiot™ device that kept lurking its way back into the plot time and time again.

Basically, Maddie's continued insistence on sacrificing her life for her sister while running away from Brody to keep him safe would have worked for me as part of the story's Suspense attractiveness.  But then it kept getting reused throughout the whole book that it started getting annoyingly tiresome.  Using that device once was enough; twice is pushing it; three or four times is just frustrating.

Nonetheless, the book was still very enjoyable and I still DID love Maddie a lot, if only because she's so kickass.  Brody was a breath of fresh air in some aspects, but let's face it, he's the usual Jill Shalvis main male hero: big, muscled, broody, alpha, clueless.  He's a great guy; he just doesn't stand out.

The rest of the book's story and the rest of the characters weren't bad either.  I appreciate bringing Noah, Shayne, and Dani into the book, even if just briefly.  I even enjoyed Leena's presence and the brief side tangent with her and Ben, even if it was also quite brief.  And the story's build-up of suspense as a semi-crime thriller made a very valiant attempt as well.

In light of not wanting to ruin anything with spoilers, however, the only thing I'll say about the ending, was that it could have been better outlined.  Instead, the conclusion came about like some cheesy family movie flick ending wherein we rush to some half-assed resolution that would really only make sense if we weren't really trying hard enough to think about it.  And then we get a short epilogue sequence slash character curtain call that felt extremely narrated to death.

And some story tangents, once again, got left in the dust.  I'm not even sure the underlying conflict between Leena and Ben got resolved so much as scrapped with a universal "love conquers all" stamp.

I'm not gonna lie--as much as I love HEAs, this one was a little pathetic.  Granted, it was a nice little HEA.  I don't dislike it.  I guess I just kind of accepted it as the best that I'd get out of this trilogy.

In the meantime, I guess I'll just go back to the Lucky Harbor series.  Maybe Ms. Shalvis was really meant to write contemporary more than anything else.  After all, even with a Romantic Suspense tag on these three Sky High books, they really DID feel like they were more in the vein of a Contemporary Romance that just so happened to use a crime thriller base board to jump off of.

Not that that's a problem or anything, because I still enjoyed them.  These were still enjoyable books with lovely characters and lots of steamy, hot sex.  The Jill Shalvis charm is definitely there.

Except for Smart and Sexy.  I might have to pretend that first book didn't happen the way that it did, Jill Shalvis charm or no.


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2016 Reading Challenges:
• Goodreads Reading Challenge
• BookLikes Reading Challenge
• Bookish Resolutions Challenge

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This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in January 2016.

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