Fais Do Do Die (The Big Uneasy, #5) by Pauline Baird Jones – Review

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5 stars, Book Review, bread pudding, catering, contemporary, family, mystery, New Orleans, Pauline Baird Jones, romance, series

About Fais Do Do Die by Pauline Baird Jones

He kicks down doors, and she serves hors d’oeuvres. And the Big Uneasy delivers them both a huge helping of high stakes danger—and a chance at romance.

A happy ending skeptic and caterer, Sarah Burland has a high profile gig at a fundraiser. It’s a coup for her catering company until murder kills the party spirit and triggers a hostage situation.

SWAT Team Member Calvin Baker’s job cost him his marriage. He’s done with romance—even if he does find himself taking an interest in a family friend, Sarah, from time to time. He’s sure his feelings are platonic until he finds out she’s caught in a hostage situation.

Cal’s team affects a rescue, but Sarah’s troubles aren’t over. The victim’s friends—and enemies—keep trouble cooking, and the deeper they dig, the more confusing things get—and the more their attraction to each other grows.

Can the cook and the cop survive long enough to work out their differences? Take a ride into another installment in the engaging Big Uneasy series and find out!

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Review of Fais Do Do Die

With each new story I read in The Big Uneasy series, I appreciate the Baker family even more.  They are a never-ending source of law-abiding, mystery-solving folks with humor, honesty, and, most importantly, romance, in their hearts.

Of course these Bakers and their romantic partners are made so charming through the words of Pauline Baird Jones.  As soon as I started reading Fais Do Do Die, I knew I was in for fun.  I love Ms. Jones’ sense of humor.  Starting when Miss Maisie (who seems to be a New Orleans institution) stares down a gangster, and continuing with the Baker family keeping so many romantic secrets from each other that they think sweet Sarah Burland is cheating on one (or was it two?) Baker boys when Cal Baker gives her aid and comfort.  I especially giggle when one of the characters cusses – using military code.  I’d give you an example, but I don’t use that kind of language.

Fais Do Do Die is a short novel, that I finished in a matter of hours because I was having too much fun.  While I benefited from having read books 1-4 and previously got to know some of the secondary characters in this book, I’m quite sure you can enjoy Fais Do Do Die as a standalong.  After all, the food is delicious, the mystery is baffling and the romance is sweet.  Add a cup of tea (or other favorite beverage) and you have everything you need for the perfect evening at home on the sofa.

Thanks to the author for providing a copy of her book in exchange for my honest review.

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Links

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Purchase Fais Do Do Die:

 

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Visiting New Orleans by Pauline Baird Jones – Guest Post With Excerpt

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exclusive excerpt, favorite series, guest post, New Orleans, new release, Pauline Baird Jones, romance

Did you know there is a new Big Uneasy book coming out tomorrow?  Perhaps the fact that Pauline Baird Jones is visiting today is a clue.  Or maybe the beautiful big cover.

A big welcome to Pauline who is here to tell us about her new release!

I’d like to thank, Riley for letting me stop by her blog and share a little about my new release!

The good times are rolling in New Orleans right now as Mardi Gras celebrations heat up. The fun began on January 6 — twelfth night — and will build until Feb 25th.

While my essential hermit-ness kept me from attending the parades in person, it was amazing to watch them on television. There is nothing quite like the sea of people with the floats rising out of those masses.

Photo Credit: jovannig from DepositPhotos

My husband and I have been gone from New Orleans almost as long as we lived there, but no one ever really leaves New Orleans. We still order a turducken for our Christmas dinner because we and our kids need to fill the house with the spicy smell of New Orleans.

And I still have to “visit” New Orleans once a year with a new Big Uneasy installment. The Baker family is hanging in there, but there are still siblings who need to find their happy ever after.

This installment focuses on Nell’s (from RELATIVELY RISKY) best friend, Sarah, and a Baker we haven’t met yet: Calvin. Like the others, he has “protect and serve” imprinted on his DNA, but he takes it a bit farther. He belongs to a SWAT team. When he indicated to me that he was Sarah’s perfect match, I was a little dubious.

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He kicks down doors, and she serves hors d’oeuvres. And the Big Uneasy delivers them both a huge helping of high-stakes danger—and a chance at romance.

A happy-ending skeptic and caterer, Sarah Burland, has a high-profile gig at a fundraiser. It’s a coup for her catering company until murder kills the party spirit and triggers a hostage situation.

SWAT Team Member Calvin Baker’s job cost him his marriage. He’s done with romance—even if he does find himself taking an interest in a family friend, Sarah, from time to time. He’s sure his feelings are platonic until he finds out she’s caught in a hostage situation.

Cal’s team affects a rescue, but Sarah’s troubles aren’t over. The victim’s friends—and enemies—keep trouble cooking, and the deeper they dig, the more confusing things get—and the more their attraction to each other grows.

Can the cook and the cop survive long enough to work out their differences? Take a ride into another installment in the engaging Big Uneasy series and find out!

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Here’s an exclusive excerpt, just for this blog:

“It’s nice,” Sarah murmured.

“What is?”

“That you are all honest. I mean, this is New Orleans. My parents were…well, they had what I’d call situational honesty. As far as I know, they never broke the law but…” she stopped.

Cal glanced at her, but her lashes were lowered behind her sunglasses. Her hands were clenched in her lap, though.

“Their friends never assume I’m honest. I’ve always wondered if that’s why” —she hesitated, then finished in a voice wiped clean of warmth— “that’s why Dimitri’s uncle first approached me to cater for him. I wondered if…”

Instinctively, Cal covered her clenched hands with one of his, his arm going around her back. “Don’t. Don’t wonder. It won’t change anything, and you’ll never know for sure.”
She’d stiffened, but he felt her slowly relax against him.

“You’re right. Of course you’re right.” He felt her deep inhale, then exhale, then her face turned up to his. Her glasses still hid her expression and her smile was tense, but it was a smile. “Thank you. I should get it stamped on a tee shirt or something.”

That last remark held real humor, if a bit on the wry side.

“Is that what girls do these days?” he asked, hoping to get the humor going. “Helen was always stitching things on pillows and stuff and putting them in our rooms. She had a lot of hope.”

Sarah’s smile widened into something that dang near stole the air from his lungs. “My mom had people for that.”

Now Cal laughed too, and somehow, in the laughing, his arm got further around her. It didn’t even scare him because it felt so right. Only thing that would have been better was his mouth against hers. He looked at her mouth, grateful for his sunglasses that hid from her what he wanted, what he wanted so much it might have been a need.

It was only the unexpected sound of a car pulling to a stop behind the Hummer that stopped him from turning thought into action. He half turned to look, but the profile of the Hummer was too high. He felt his spidey sense tingling, and turned, the weapon he always carried appearing in the hand no longer cupped around Sarah’s waist.

Doors opened. There was the crunch of footsteps and then a man came into view. He heard Sarah’s sharply indrawn breath and he might have echoed it.

The intruder was a younger version of Dimitri Afoniki.

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I hope you enjoyed the excerpt and will check out the series! Thanks again for having me here, Riley! You can buy FAIS DO DO DIE at

Amazon          Apple          Kobo          Nook          GooglePlay

or find out more on Pauline’s website  or on Goodreads.

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About the Author

USA Today Bestselling author Pauline Baird Jones never liked reality, so she writes books. She likes to wander among the genres, rampaging like Godzilla, because she does love peril mixed in her romance. Loves chocolate, bacon, flamingoes, and mid-century modern anything. You can find her on the following social media:

Website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Amazon Author Page
Bookbub

The Shape of Romance

Tags

C.L. Wilson, Diana Palmer, fantasy, Grace Draven, historical, Isis Sousa, Juliet Marillier, Louisa Gallie, Meljean Brook, paranormal, Pauline Baird Jones, romance, scifi, Sharon Lynn Fisher, Sloane Killion, Sorchia DuBois, Steampunk, Susanna Kearsley, Tiffany Roberts

Scrolling through my Facebook feed, I found a link to an article called: Adult Romance: 10 Books that Broke the Cliché Mold.

Often I see these types of articles and I think, okay, but if I made my own list, it wouldn’t look at all like this one. So, I did. Make my own list.  (Note: red highlighted titles and book covers are purchase links.)

First of all, I agree with the Talk nerdy to Me bloggers on their choice of Lord of the Fading Lands by C.L. Wilson. The entire Tairen Soul series is fantasy wrapped around romance mixed with magic and war and hope and so many emotions. I. Loved. This Series!

The nerdy bloggers also picked a few others I have read: Kresley Cole, Maya Banks and Christine Feehan. I agree, that in their time they may have been mold-breaking.  There are many other books that I would put higher on the list today. I admit, my romance memory may be a bit short. I fondly remember the last book I read much more than the book I read and adored 10 years ago. 10 years ago, I was reading J.R. Ward and Lara Adrian, but you will note that none of their books make today’s list.

So here are my choices (in no particular order):

1. Blackthorn & Grim series by Juliet Marillier. This is a fantasy series with a romance deeply imbedded in the story. So deep that you don’t always know that it is there, but when it happens you are absolutely swept away. Read all three books to fall in love with this romance.

2. The Kraken King by Meljean Brook . Any book in Brook’s Iron Seas series is fantastic, but as far as romance goes, the relationship drives and is intimately intertwined with the non-romantic aspects of the story. I listened to the audiobook and found I had to invent reasons to drive or go for a walk so that I could listen more. I think that means I could not put it down!

3 & 4 & 5. Master of Crows, Entreat Me, and Wraith Kings series by Grace Draven.  Well, just about anything on her bibliography.  The mentioned books feature unlikely duos who are brought together by fortune. At first they may seem to be opposites: young/old, rich/poor, magical/mundane, human/non-human, bossy/stubborn. Oh wait. That last pair may not truly be opposites. The protagonists are not young and beautiful/handsome.  There is no love at first sight, which is my least favorite device anyway. In other words, affection, trust and love are things that are labored over and duly won, often with a healthy sense of humor.

NOTE: I love Ms. Draven’s stories and the cover artwork so much that I purchased prints of two of the book covers. They hang on the wall in my office.  Today’s banner (above) is from the beautiful cover of Eidolon (Wraith Kings, #2), by Isis Sousa.

Top: Radiance by Isis Sousa.  Bottom: Beyond Neith (Master of Crows cover) by Louisa Gallie, Night’s Plutonion Shore by Sloane Killion.  The last one is not book cover, but fits in with the Crows cover.

6. Zoraida Grey series by Sorchia DuBois.  First, who is Zoraida going to end up with? And when that is decided, are they truly on the same side? Attraction, smattraction. Put these characters through some serious peril and maybe, the truth will out. I’m waiting on the next installment to find out…..

7 & 8. The Winter Sea and The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley.  Originally published in 2008, The Winter Sea was the first significant dual timeline novel I read. I embraced this storytelling mode. I mean, why wouldn’t I? I got two stories for the price of one. The slowly evolving timelines led to shock and surprise and tears. Dealing with ancestral memory in The Winter Sea, and psychometry in The Firebird, the paranormal elements enhance both timelines.

9. Ghost Planet by Sharon Lynn Fisher. Relationships with ghosts are not unusual in fiction. But Fisher takes ghost stories to a whole new planet and redefines the species. The human/ghost relationship becomes so much more than a love story. Oops, no more. No spoilers…

10. The Morcai Battalion by Diana Palmer – this series starts out very strong and ends a little fizzly on the 5th book. But the first book is so worth it! It may seem like just another human/alien romance, but at the time it was published, it stood quietly out there on its own. It was originally published in 1980 under the name of Susan Kyle. At the time, scifi romance, as a genre, was unheard of. In its reissue, the story comments on war, race relations, bigotry, sexism and tolerance.

11. Dustwalker by Tiffany Roberts.  My favorite Tiffany Roberts book! Subtle and loud, gritty and soft, this post-apocalyptic story of romance and survival for a human and a ‘bot is epic. The human/robot relationship is such a challenge to get right. It’s been done many times, but Roberts gives this theme teeth by creating human and ‘bot characters with a past, a present, and hope for the future.

12. Steamrolled by Pauline Baird Jones.  Geeks have gone from being ignored to being popular in recent years. I think we have Big Bang Theory to thank for that, at least in part. I love geeks in my romance books! Few people can write geeks as well as Pauline Baird Jones. In Steamrolled, Robert Clementine is super intelligent and unceasingly curious. Robert and his nanites are like a superhero geek team when it comes to getting out of tight places. But not good with women. Emily Babcock – she who does not ever ask a question, who thinks Robert Oh My Darling Clementyne is a little dangerous and a lot geeky. She’s a geek too. The cutest couple in all of steampunk fictiondom.

Reviewing my list, I think my choices do not just break the cliché mold. They give a sparkly new form to the shape of romance!