An honest review thanks to NetGalley. I went into this with high expectations as I loved the first book in this series so much. You do not have to read the first book first but it does help with backstory and info on Jazz's family. The issue I had with this was the two love interests. The hot and cold gave me whiplash and I could not figure out the allure to keep trying again. The whole issue with Karen... from the beginning bugged me to no end and there were times where I had to force myself not to skip pages. This book was only ok, I am going to try to read the third book in the series just because I loved the first so much!

Having a plus size character portrayed in an attractive light and as a romantic lead was definitely positive. Visibility of all shapes and sizes is important. Add the age gap and the butch/femme dynamic and you got yourself an exciting chemistry between Jazz and Emory. Jazz is the confident butch police Lieutenant who sleeps around but wishes for a partner and a family. Emory is a social worker who after being cruelly dumped by her longtime partner struggles with her self image and trusting again.



Thank you to NetGalley, Bold Strokes Books, Inc. and VK Powell for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an enjoyable read - unfortunately it seemed to come out at a time when there were quite a few books dealing with the subject matter of foster care and got lost a bit in my TBR pile. Powell has written a good romantic blend of romance and some more serious issues around the foster system/privatization and a bit of mystery. Emory as one of the leads is a refreshing but at times the things that made her stand out from the standard lesfic romantic lead - older than Jazz and more of a rubinesque body type - pushed a lot of the angst as she struggled with her insecurities. Overall I quite enjoyed this one and I didn't realize it was a second in a series ... it reads fine as a standalone though with the characters from the first book showing up as secondary characters in this one.

This is a well plotted and well written book but I didn't enjoy it as much as I have previous books by VK Powell who is one of my favourite lesfic authors - indeed just authors. I liked Emory a lot as a "less than perfect" character with baggage the size of a football field but the overall arc didn't really work for me and the ending seemed too contrived. Jazz and her family are great and give depth to the book and the story. I will definitely read more of Ms Powell's work but I think I prefer full on crime novels rather than those where the romance dominates.

I was given a copy of the book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

I never like giving negative reviews so I will focus on the positives.

Having a plus size character portrayed in an attractive light and as a romantic lead was definitely positive. Visibility of all shapes and sizes is important.

The characterisation of Shea's character as well as Jazz's own pre adoption circumstances seemed very realistic.

Beyond that, I struggled with this book and the indecisiveness of the characters which almost made me feel that the author was indecisive.

VK Powell is such powerful writer. Her books are so emotional and you fall in love with her characters. Wonderful book.

This book was a pleasant read. Not dark and twisty as I expected. The characters are memorable, even the one I wanted to slap for being spineless most of the time. She eventually breaks out of that pattern and grows, so don't give up on her. The rest of the cast is so memorable, I was still thinking about some of them days later.

I'd like to see if these characters turn up anywhere else in the author's imaginary universe. They're the kind of people I could have Sunday brunch with. Wonder how I can get an invitation?

Stevie‘s review of Second In Command (Fairview Station, Book 2) by VK Powell
Contemporary Lesbian Romance published by Bold Strokes Books 11 Dec 18

I love the family at the centre of the Fairview Station series, and their various careers in and around law enforcement and other public service professions. This time the focus turns to Jazz, the adopted member of the Carlyle family and Lieutenant to her Police Captain older sister. Jazz’s time in the care system has led to her being very concerned about other at-risk and fostered children, and that concern has led to her only professional reprimand to date. When she comes across a runaway girl while on duty, Jazz can’t resist getting involved, even though she’s once again risking her chances of progression in the force by interfering.

Jazz’s interference brings her back into contact with Emory Blake, a social worker who knew Jazz as a teen, and who has recently moved back to the area following the end of a relationship. Emory understands Jazz’s worries about the girl she brought in, but is unable to help directly since her colleague is dealing with the case. The two women agree to keep in touch, and not only because of the latent attraction between them. However, Emory is reluctant to get involved personally or professionally. Her job is likely to be outsourced soon and she needs to consider her options, and Jazz is well known as a player who generally has short-term relationships with women more classically stylish and attractive than Emory.

Jazz, for her part, feels as if she wants a change of relationship style, and maybe to settle down with someone like Emory. She’s seen her siblings planning for and raising families and worries that she might miss out, if she doesn’t re-evaluate her priorities. As Jazz keeps an eye on the runaway – now back in care – she realises that she knows the perfect adoptive family for the girl, but the girl’s criminal father has other ideas. Meanwhile, Emory feels powerless to help Jazz with her plans, since adoptions are already being handled by an external agency, but, as she follows the case from afar, she begins to realise that not all is as it is presented in terms of the agency’s record of success and the figures it is putting forward in support of the tender to take over Emory’s department.

Once again, I greatly enjoyed the scenes involving the whole Carlyle family and was cheered to see various of the more peripheral members find their own place in the scheme of things. I liked how the various plot threads were woven together and how Jazz was able to call on her family for support, while Emory had a strong network of friends to support her. At times, the progression of their relationship felt a little jerky, but overall this was another strong addition to the series.

Grade: B

This is the second book in the Fairview Station series. I read the first book and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to reading this book. I was not disappointed. It is filled with romance and mystery.

The main characters are police Lieutenant Jazz Perry and Emory Blake, a social worker. Jazz is the sister of the captain of the precinct, Bennett Carlyle, the main character of the first book in this series. While on duty one night, Jazz finds a young girl, Shea, who is wandering the city streets all alone. She learns that the young girl is in the foster program. Jazz, too, grew up in the foster program until she was adopted by the Carlyle family. Jazz becomes very attached to Shea and wants to help get her situated in a good home.

Emory works for Child Protective Services and helps to place children in homes. Shea is in the system because her father is abusive and a criminal. Emory is a workaholic who is dedicated to helping children. As far as her personal life is concerned, she rarely dates and doesn’t feel her full figure is enticing. However, Jazz and Emory are attracted to each other, but Emory finds it difficult to believe that Jazz, who is very good looking, could be interested.

The plot is solid and has a nice pace. The characters are well developed and believable. Readers will want to read the next story to find out what their new friends are doing. I rate this book with 4-1/2 out of 5 stars.

I was given this ARC in return for a fair and honest review.

This is the second in a series and I have not read the first book. I think there are some character overlap from the first book but it is for the most part standalone. Good crime/love story involving Emory, a social worker and Jazz a police officer who reconnect years later after being in foster care together years before. Jazz is in the process of trying to save a young girl from a life on the streets and another bad foster family. Jazz and Emory get involved which is a good story line as well because they both have their hangups and it's nice to read about imperfect women with body image issues for a change. Interesting plot and reasonably well-written.

3.8/5

The story follows lieutenant Jazz Perry and social worker Emory Blake and how their paths cross when Jazz finds a young girl that is in the foster care system reminding her of her past. Both Jazz and Emory have to deal with their own responsibilities but also

I think in this book there was a lot going on. You have the police side of the story, the public vs. private social work politics and the romance story. This, to me, made all the sides of story lack depth. Overall, it was ok but I would have liked more development on the characters.

The writing was great and very engaging. I have no read the first book in the series and I found it was not necessary as this book can stand alone.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Second in Command is a sequel to Captain's Choice and continues the story of the Carlyle family and Fairview Station. Here we pick up the story of Jazz, who was adopted by the Carlyle's as a lonely pre-teen, and Emory who is a social worker and a fair bit older than Jazz. We have many of the same great characters, a few new ones, and a good story line. I like the author's writing style, and the mix of action, romance, and intimacy. For me, the book is maybe too short with not enough time to really get to know Jazz and Emory, and Emory's issues take to long to work out in the time we have with these characters. I am on the fence between liking this book a lot and loving it. Nevertheless, a solid recommendation and a must-read if you liked Captain's Choice.

I was excited to see that there was another novel set at the Fairview Station. This one was about Jazz finding love and Emory re-finding herself.

Jazz is the second in command at Fairview Station. One night she finds a girl, Shea, wandering alone. She brings her in and that's when Jazz meets Emory at the hospital. Emory is a social worker for CPS, and the two of them have actually met before, although they were both younger.

They clash and then come together and clash again multiple times during the novel. It was definitely not a straight forward sort of relationship path for sure.

There was even another character, Karen, who definitely made the novel interesting and twisty.

I wish there were more characters like Emory in lesfic. Characters who aren't quite perfect, who aren't totally suave, or totally self assured.

It was a fun book that didn't always go the way I thought it would. Fun.

I received this book via Netgalley thanks to Bold Strokes Books.

This was such a good read, and I am not even sure where to start. I devoured this book I read it all day and night so that I could finish it. It was a compelling story from the first page. This book really pulled me in, un like the first one in the series which took a little while for me to fully get into. So as far as the review I am giving it four stars and not five and I will explain why in due time.

The book has a lot of different story lines, but it starts out with Jasmine (Jazz) Perry. The adopted child of the famous Carlyle clan. She is a Lieutenant and very dedicated to her job. She is most dedicated when dealing with children and often skirts the riles in order to help and protect them. So the first story line is that Jazz gets a call about a runaway child, finds her and immediately takes a liking to her. The second story line is the romance between Jazz and Emory who is fourteen years older than her, is a social worker at the hospital, and is dedicated to her job and a stickler for the rules. She is also a plus sized character, which I liked but the descriptions of her body by the author were problematic. When she wasn't skirting around the issue, she downright used words and descriptions no one ever uses like "Rubenesque" It was honestly a little odd and threw me off when reading. The final story line included several elements, a Shady adoption officer, a terrible parent, and another random man and wife who wanted to adopt another child.

How was the book? Overall it was an excellent read. I really liked both characters right from the get -go. I love that Jazz is compassionate and caring, and that Emory challenges her and doesn't just let her be the more dominate person in the relationship. I also loved that the love story was a slower burn for a book of this few pages. The story line felt fresh and new and it wasn't a story filled with to super hot women, who also happen to be incredibly wealthy getting together. It was a nice love story with normal people in it and those are the stories that I ultimately like more.

Although I cannot use this as a book for my students I will be recommending this series to my friends and I hope that there are more books to come. I would love to read about Emory;s Friend Diane and the nurse Jen, and I would Also like to hear more about Dylan and her life. I also don't know if it was mentioned or not, but most books go right in describing the persons physical features so that we know race, age, body type, and the author described them, but she did not at all say what race they are. I am assuming white, and maybe I missed it, but it was refreshing to not have that descriptor there, it made the book a lot more enjoyable.

This is mostly a book about self-body-image issues and the importance of a loving partner and gentle handling is to be able to move beyond negative body image. Overlaid on this very important message are complicated storylines involving child protection and adoption services, privatisation and profiteering, a troubled child and a model-figured Other Woman.

The three main characters in the romance are: Lieutenant Jazz Perry, an adopted child who had the good fortune to be adopted by a very loving, mostly women dominated family. Emory Blake, a social worker who was dumped very cruelly by her partner and suffers serious body image issue because she is ‘substantial’. Karen Patrick, a woman with a model-like body and unabashedly aggressive.

While the author takes pains to write about the attraction and chemistry between Jazz and Emory, it just doesn’t come across. In fact, despite writing about each thread in detail, everything seems rather superficial and choppy. You cannot really sink into any of the multiple characters or storylines to any satisfaction. We also wonder why Karen was dubbed as a manipulative, untrustworthy skank right from the beginning, simply based on the fact that she was well toned, well-groomed and well-to-do.

We wouldn’t recommend this book, but at the same time it is so without personality that we cannot aggressively hate it either.

ARC received in exchange for an honest review.

This book is the second of a series and while I did not read the first book, I do believe that they can be read as a standalone. The characters from the first book make multiple cameos in this book, but they are not essential.

I think this book could have been handled better. The main characters didn't have that much chemistry to me and all the "issues" in the book just didn't live up to the hype. I was looking forward to learning a little about Child Protective Services and Adoption, but this was just about greed and burnout.

I forced myself not to skim through any pages, but I wanted to because I was not drawn in.

I loved Shea! She was wise beyond her pre-tween years, but she had to be with the life she was living. And I did like Jazz. I thought she handled Shea well and never took the life she was given for granted.

This is an engaging story of a Police Officer who is trying to save a young girl from life on the streets or bad foster parents that she had also experienced. When she meets the social worker in charge of the girl's case, sparks fly, so far so familiar. However this book has a lovely unexpected twist in that both women are not super skinny women with muscles. One is but the other has curves and a more fuller figure. She is also quite self conscious about her weight and her experience of adjusting to a 'fit' woman fancying her is handled sensitively. The book is engaging, although for me I found the Police/family scenes more believable and relatable than the relationship scenes but that's mainly because the word 'milked' should never really appear in any sex scene, especially not one between two women, in my opinion...

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

I liked Second in Command because it strays a bit from the "Hollywood/media" perfect image of a woman. Add the age gap and the butch/femme dynamic and you got yourself an exciting chemistry between Jazz and Emory. Jazz is the confident butch police Lieutenant who sleeps around but wishes for a partner and a family. Emory is a social worker who after being cruelly dumped by her longtime partner struggles with her self image and trusting again. The two meet again after years by happenstance. And begin to bond/clash over foster care. While Emory was clear that she struggles with her self image. For me, it was Jazz that was the more problematic one. While insisting she wants stability and a partner in Emory, she kept questioning if she should sleep with Karen and bluntly showed her attraction for Karen. I really couldn't fault Emory for becoming insecure about Jazz.

Its a good book and a great dynamic between the main characters.

For the fans of Ms Taites books get ready for another great read. For those who haven’t read any of Ms Taite’s work be prepared to become a fan. Senator Meredith Mitchell’s family has always been in the public eye, her father has served as Governor of New York for three terms and now runs a non-profit. Meredith is already serving as Senator for New York but has her eye on becoming president, sometime down the road but after her friend has to step down from running Meredith’s ‘sometime’ is now. She has always been out so everyone already knows she’s a lesbian. Stevie Palmer works as a public defender, helping her clients have the best legal defence she can offer. She leads a quiet life, never seeking the limelight. Ms Taite also gives us fans a chance to reconnect with the characters from her earlier novels, ‘Courtship’ with Addison Riley and Julia Scott and A More Perfect Union’ with Zoey Granger and Rook Daniels. Simply a wonderful read. Very, very enjoyable.
ARC via NetGalley

I really loved reading Second in Command by VK Powell. This is the second book in the Fairview Station series, but don’t worry if you haven’t read the first one. This book can be read as a standalone book.

This story centers around Lieutenant Jazz Perry, adopted daughter of the Carlyle family, social worker Emory Blake, and a young at-risk child named Shea Spencer, who has been in and out of the foster care system. There are a good many secondary characters, both good and bad. Those of you who have already read the first book will meet several familiar faces. All of the characters are well-drawn, realistic and likeable (except the bad guys of course). I liked that the author let the characters have flaws, both physically and socially. They weren’t all super thin models with unrealistic bodies and perfect histories. It was refreshing to see more realistic characters still described as beautiful.

There is mystery and intrigue in this tale, and of course romance. The story and the characters will keep you reading until the end. I know it did for me, and now I want to go back and read the first book. I also hope we will see more books in the series about the rest of the Carlyle family.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.

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