The Bourbon Kings (The Bourbon Kings, #1)

This wasn't the best of the Black Dagger brotherhood. I didn't enjoy the back story of Wrath's parents much, it was just interrupting the things I wanted to read about. And usually I am rooting for a new couple to find each other but in this case all I got was continuations of story-lines from the previous book none of which was resolved (Trez, XCor, Assail ... just saying. And the title story between the King and his beloved was more drama than the usual love story. There were fun moments but mostly it was just the resolution of the politics from the previous book. The Lessers are not a very convincing bunch of bad boys anymore either. So with XCor falling for Layla he's mostly out of the picture, the conflict in the series is just about dying down. I can see Assail and his involvement with the Lessers cause some trouble but besides the next book being titled "The Shadows" there's not much going on ... and all the main characters are pretty much taken care of, except for the few loose ends mentioned above that will surely be resolved in the next book. So is it all going to go the way of the happily-ever-after? Don't think so. But maybe it is time for the series to come to a close.

Addendum: and despite all that this is still way better and more fun to read than the average dangerous-hero-romance ... so 3 -> 4

I read this because [b: Dark Lover|42899|Dark Lover (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #1)|J.R. Ward|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1429676285s/42899.jpg|2158128] is one of my all time favorites and someone in my timeline posted a 5* review of this one. Also I like whisky. Scotch usually (Full disclosure: Never had a real Bourbon in my life) but I wasn't going to be picky about the details.

So the research on the whisky making process is not difficult and I didn't spot any obvious errors, same goes probably for the gardening since the main character is a horticulturist.

I liked Lizzie King. And Sutton Smythe - although that name ...

What I didn't enjoy so much this time was the plot. I could see every twist coming from a mile away. Since romance does follow a set pattern that usually wouldn't have been so bad but ... this story is upside down. A Jane Austen novel ends when the couple kisses for the first time, well this couple has already broken up - ok so that's the premise of the story. I had my trouble with that.

But what I did not anticipate is how dated it would all feel. I am not an American and while I think I got most of the references (and mind I am not writing pop-culture ...) I do think the book will be unreadable in the very near future. The author cannot seem to resist any fun connection that occurs to her and the editor apparently didn't have the power to cut out some of that.

I am talking about sentences like "they hit ctrl-alt-del on the garden" and "they were gordon-ramsaying in the kitchen" You may be able to verb anything in spoken language. But there were just one too many colloquialisms in the book. This is a book not a meme collection! Add constant mentions of brand-names and I was having trouble finishing the story.

Last but not least one would think a family of Whisky distillers would somehow ... be less the "chugging a whole bottle" kind and more discerning in their drinking.