Start Me Up is Victoria Dahl’s second contemporary romance and the sequel to Talk Me Down. It’s a fun, sexy read and confirmed Dahl’s place on my autobuy list.
Lori Love, aka “Lori the Lesbian”, is the town mechanic in tiny Tumble Creek, Colorado. Lori never intended to take over her dad’s garage, but life circumstances obliged her to forfeit her dreams of a university degree and a round-the-world trip. Following an accident, Lori’s dad was left in a vegetative state. Lori was forced to drop out of college and take over the garage in order to pay for his medical care. Ten years later, her father is dead, but she’s still stuck in Tumble Creek paying off a mountain of bills.
The return of her friend Molly (heroine of Talk Me Down) restarts her social life. While not quite a recluse, Lori has little in common with the other women her age in Tumble Creek. Her profession and slight frame give credence to the rumour she’s a lesbian, and she’s reluctant to have an affair with someone in the town in which she works. Influenced by Molly’s erotic romances, Lori decides that what she needs is a summer fling. Unfortunately, she’s quite shy and hasn’t the first clue where to find a suitable candidate. As luck would have it, she finds one closer to home than expected: Molly’s older brother, Quinn.
Quinn Jennings is a successful architect and his parents’ favourite child. He’s trying to rekindle his relationship with his sister, who was ostracized by their parents after it was revealed that she earns her living by writing erotic romance. Quinn has no trouble finding girlfriends, but they don’t tend to be of long duration. He’s obsessed with his work, frequently unpunctual, and generally distracted by thoughts of his next brilliant design. His current project is designing and building his dream home from scratch. When he hires Lori Love to fix his backhoe, he’s forced to look twice at her to recognize the girl he once went to school with…and he likes what he sees!
In addition to Lori and Quinn’s budding romance, there’s a suspense subplot involving Lori’s dad’s accident, which may not have been accidental after all…
Start Me Up was a joy from start to finish. Although I liked Lori, Quinn totally won me over as an atypical romance hero. He’s most definitely more beta than alpha male. Although he’s rich and successful, he bears no resemblance to the arrogant tycoons which abound in contemporary romance. His passion for architecture makes him more of an artist than a business man. He just happens to be in a lucrative profession. Quinn’s unpunctuality is something which would drive me nuts in real life but it was true to his character and Lori’s acceptance of it was true to hers.
I liked Lori in Talk Me Down, so I was delighted to see her get her own book. The scenes with her and Molly were priceless, but I was glad to see Molly and Ben playing very much secondary roles and only appearing in the story when it made sense for them to do so.
I found the suspense plot in Talk Me Down weak but it works in Start Me Up. My only wish is that Lori had confided in Quinn sooner, although I can understand her reticence to do so.
Victoria Dahl’s sense of humour is quirky and irreverent. I’d imagine it wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste, but it definitely appeals to me. The reviews of both her contemporaries have varied, although Start Me Up seems to be more popular than Talk Me Down. What I find interesting is that so many readers hated Molly. She was even described as a dog in heat by Romantic Times Magazine! Molly is unabashedly sexually confident, which is not usual in mainstream romance. Heroines are supposed to be riddled with insecurities which only the experienced hero can overcome. Lori Love is far less confident than Molly, so probably more typical of a romance heroine, yet she’s after essentially the same thing: a no-strings-attached fling. I find the double standard ironic.
To conclude: Start Me Up was an entertaining read and I can highly recommend it, especially to those readers who enjoyed Talk Me Down. There will be a third Tumble Creek book out in early 2010 featuring Quinn’s secretary, Jane. The sneak preview makes me really want this book! Grade: B+
{ 10 comments }
Hi Sarah,
Intriguing review Sarah. I’m not an avid reader in this genre but the hero sounds delicious! I always read Ms. Dahl’s tweets and they have humor but if this is something that makes me go woot woot, I just don’t know *hhmmm*
@Leontine Victoria Dahl’s books probably won’t appeal to readers who prefer mainstream small-town contemporary romances (think Robyn Carr). Even though I’m not a huge fan of erotic romance, I suspect people who like them might also like the Tumble Creek books. They’re definitely spicier than most. I think Molly’s humour is very similar to Victoria Dahl’s on Twitter. If you do decide to try the series, I’d definitely recommend reading ‘Talk Me Down’ first.
I was just going to ask if I should read Talk Me Down first. Since you already advised Leontine to, then I guess I will have to as well
Adding both books to my list. I had Start Me Up on it already, but I will had Talk Me Down too!
I still have to read Talk Me Down.
I’m not too sure about this book. A beta hero in CO? He must be from Boulder.
@Jill D. The storyline in ‘Start Me Up’ is self-contained but all the main characters were introduced in ‘Talk Me Down’. I think you’d miss the relevance of certain things in SMU without having read TMD first, but then I’m a stickler for reading series in order.
@heidenkind I wasn’t sold on the idea of a beta hero either when I read other reviews, but Dahl pulls it off. Quinn is not macho but he’s no pansy, either. He’s a dreamer who just happens to be talented in an area which earns him a lot of money. He’s passionate about his work, but he’s not ambitious for the sake of financial gain, if that makes sense. When I think of rich alpha heroes, they’re synonymous with wheeling and dealing, like Hardy Cates in ‘Blue-Eyed Devil’.
That said, Dahl’s humour is not for everyone. As I mentioned in my review, a lot of readers had a negative reaction to Molly, the heroine in ‘Talk Me Down’. I liked her.
Hey Sarah.
I’m still strong but my list for the time after my abstinence is getting longer and longer.
This Series sounds great. I never read anything by Victoria Dahl. Perhaps I should try it now or better after my exams
lg
@SusiSunshine Good luck in your exams! At least you’ll have plenty of time to relax and read once they’re over.
I really like more beta heros (I usually think ‘alphas’ are huge jerks), and I loved Quinn. He’s definitely not a wimp! I love that Dahl writes the scenes where the hero demonstrates his love to be truly unique to her characters.
And I, for one, did like Talk Me Down better, though I thought the suspense worked better in this one.
I’ve linked to you here.
@Lana The suspense definitely worked better in Start Me Up. I actually preferred Molly as a heroine because she’s so refreshingly original but I gave Talk Me Down a slightly lower grade due to the weak suspense plot.
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