Emma Chase, New York Times bestselling author of the Tangled series, returns with a brand new funny, romantic, sexy story A knight in tarnished armor is still a knight. When you’re a defense attorney in Washington, DC, you see firsthand how hard life can be, and that sometimes the only way to survive is to be harder. I, Jake Becker, have a reputation for being cold, callous, and intimidating–and … cold, callous, and intimidating–and that suits me just fine. In fact, it’s necessary when I’m breaking down a witness on the stand.
Complications don’t work for me–I’m a “need-to-know” type of man. If you’re my client, tell me the basic facts. If you’re my date, stick to what will turn you on. I’m not a therapist or Prince Charming–and I don’t pretend to be.
Then Chelsea McQuaid and her six orphaned nieces and nephews came along and complicated the ever-loving hell out of my life. Now I’m going to Mommy and Me classes, One Direction concerts, the emergency room, and arguing cases in the principal’s office.
Chelsea’s too sweet, too innocent, and too gorgeous for her own good. She tries to be tough, but she’s not. She needs someone to help her, defend her…and the kids.
And that–that, I know how to do.more
This was the first book by Emma Chase that I read, and I still love it. It’s a fun, funny romance that made me think of old Hollywood romantic comedies – but with steamy scenes. And I loved how Jake’s perspective changed, thanks to his feelings for Chelsea.
Sexy contemporary; first person hero POV. Arrogant lawyer hero laid low by amazing heroine & her 5 adopted kids. Delicious.
This is the second book in the Legal Briefs series by Ms Chase. It is all sorts of steamy fun. Fun of the hilarious variety. It’s based on a pretty serious situation, but man does Ms Chase have fun with it.
Jake and Stanton were roomies in college, and in fact, until just recently when Stanton became engaged to Sofia. Now, Jake is alone, just how he likes it. Jake had no idea how much his life was going to change when he began his walk home from the office. That was the day he was pickpocketed by Rory McQuaid. It was the day his life began to change.
Chelsea had no idea what Rory had gotten himself into when she saw Jake and Rory standing on the doorstep. She knew it couldn’t be good. She didn’t realize Rory’s actions were about to change everyone’s lives, especially hers.
While Jake and Chelsea make this story happen, Rory and Rosaleen are the stars. Regan is adorable and will steal your heart. The kids in this book make it extra hilarious and endearing. What a fun summer read.
Again, I listened to this and the narrator Sebastian York was fantastic! This book was from the H POV and I found myself literally LOL many times. It was refreshing to hear his thoughts and the honest “guy” thinking. Emma does witty dialogue like no other.
I love this author and can’t wait to begin book #3. Read this series or even better -listen to it. You won’t be disappointed.
Sustained is the second installment in Emma Chase’s adult contemporary romance series titled The Legal Briefs. Ms. Chase’s male POV is a lot of fun to read. Tangled is my absolute favorite from her and none of her other work I’ve read thus far compares but Sustained is up there. Many adult romances end in happily ever afters, marriages, pregnancies, and characters headed towards their very own branch on the family tree. But very few heroes opt to take on a large group of someone else’s children just to be close to his love interest. This very blended family certainly presented lots of obstacles to deal with which created humor, drama, tension, suspense, along with other emotions, but the romance managed to remain sexy and heartfelt. Although this is part of a series, readers can certainly read this particular installment as a standalone. It’s that kind of series. Check it out!
Emma Chase’s The Legal Briefs series includes the following installments as of December 2016:
#1-Overruled
#2-Sustained
#3-Appealed
#3.5-Sidebarred
Sebastian is an awesome reader! Love the comedy Emma puts in her books.
This is one of my all time favorites by Emma Chase. Funny, steamy, and emotional – Jake and Chelsea are the best couple and I loved their journey to find love.
Emma is really an amazing author and this series is so good.
I loved all the books but Jake was my favourite.
My delusion and anger about Overruled and its “could have been better” main character was washed away thanks to this second, wonderful book of the legal briefs series.
We’ve already seen Jake Becker there, because he was Stanton’s noisy roommate. Now that Stanton has moved out to live with Sofia, Jake has the apartment all for himself, and some things never change. The book opens with him ushering his last fling out of his house and move on with his life. Jake isn’t the type of man that has a stable relationship or F buddy like, for example, Stanton used to have. Jake is that guy who finds a girl to bang and never vows to see her again afterwards. He is a man-whore, but unlike other characters like him, he isn’t a total ass and he makes sure the women know that he is a no-strings-attached guy. Then, something happens that makes him re-think about his lifestyle: one of his ex flings has syphilis and he might have it as well. The doctor forbids him from having any sexual encounter whatsoever until results come out, so Jake learns to be patient a bit, and thanks to his friends’ suggestion, he decides to actually get to know a woman better before taking her to bed. Now you’d think our female protagonist is one of the girls he meets in a bar where he usually finds his women, right? Nope.
Jake meets Chelsea casually, almost by chance, because she’s the legal guardian to 6 siblings who have just lost their parents in a tragic accident. As he gets to know the kids, Jake is fascinated by how this woman handles everything, how the kids are both awesome and devilish at the same time, and wonders why the hell he cares. Well, Chelsea is a beautiful woman, kind, innocent, and everything he claims he isn’t. But still, thanks to some problems that happen in Chelsea’s family, she and Jake have to meet often. Jake is drawn to her and the kids as if they were his own and he doesn’t understand why. Maybe he likes to help Chelsea with the difficulties of being a 26 year old with 6 kids to provide for, maybe Jake’s deep desire is to have a family of his own. He doesn’t know. But he can’t get away from them and there’s no going back.
Jake was awesome. The whole book is told from his POV and I swear, this author is great at writing male POVs because they don’t sound like the annoying ones many romance authors give to us readers. Jake has layers, he’s apparently a womanizer because he likes to F a lot, but that’s just his way to run away from stability – which is something, on the other hand, he seeks in his job. Jake didn’t have a great father growing up, but he did have a great mother, so he’s not completely F-up, but he’s still not sure he could be in a serious relationship with someone. Especially if this someone has baggage, although Jake never minds the kids. He loves them ever since he laid eyes on them and for the whole book he’s unaware that he got attached to everybody, and everybody love him. He became a sort of hope for those kids and he doesn’t even know. He became a family man and he doesn’t even know. So when he understands… it’s fantastic.
I loved to be in Jake’s head because he was interesting. He was rational, at times jealous and didn’t realize soon that his jealousy was because he loved Chelsea and wanted to be with her. At times he acted like a coward because of this, but in the end it comes all clear to him that he can’t lose Chelsea and he needs to stop thinking he doesn’t deserve her and that he can’t love anybody.
I wouldn’t consider this book a slow burn as per se, but the pace was normal. Jake sees Chelsea and thinks she’s pretty and she’d be a great F, but there isn’t any insta-love here, just insta-lust. And while I hate insta-love, insta-lust is fine – I mean, haven’t we all had lusty thoughts about someone we’d just met/seen? So it’s ok. Jake comes to the realization that he loves Chelsea after he’s been with her for a long time, and I loved it wasn’t rushed like many romance novels. In another situation, it’s possible our male lead (or female lead) could have said those three words during the first night of sex, but it’s not the case here. On the other hand, in this book, when such scene happens, Jake even wants to kindly tell Chelsea to see herself out after his usual run, basically, at that point when it’s clear to the reader that he feels something profound already for her, he still tries to treat her like any other girl because he’s in denial about his feelings. And this is realistic, because a night of sex could change people, yes. But in a once in a lifetime case. In most occasions, the man-whore character isn’t believed when he blurts ILY out during intercourse or when he says sex with the person he’s attracted to was “life-changing”. Nope. It’s. not. believable. But it’s believable to be still anchored to old ways but reason about how those same acts are perceived differently with that new person.
You can tell I loved this book. LOL. There’s just the right amount of sex without being too annoying and repetitive like other stories I’ve read. And there’s Jake. And there are six kids who will make you laugh and smile and swoon. So if you like to see how a womanizer becomes a monogamous family man, then this book is perfect for you. *wink*
July 23, 2019
Bumping this to four stars on the re-read. The romance while hot is secondary to the children and the H and h’s interaction. Nice to laugh out loud at some entertaining but still realistic antics.
Th H, an attorney on viewing a sibling to sibling quarrel.
One Word and I watch eagerly, waiting for the rebuttal . . . but all she comes out with is:
“I didn’t do it.”
Which, in my professional opinion, wouldn’t be a bad defense . . . if her mouth and chin weren’t completely covered with thick, blazing pink, like she’s Ronald McDonald’s illegitimate daughter.
“You are such a—” Riley starts to yell. But Chelsea’s raised hand stops her cold.
“Tut, tut—shush.”
She scoops the little one—Rosaleen—up under her arms and perches her on the counter.
“And I’d almost believe you,” Chelsea tells her, plucking two baby wipes from a tub next to the sink, wiping the girl’s chin, and showing her the pink-stained cloth, “except for the evidence all over your face.”
Great minds think alike.
The little girl stares at the cloth with quarter-sized blue eyes. Then, like any defendant who knows she’s nailed, she does the only thing she can—throws herself on the mercy of the court.
“I’m sorry, Riley.”
Riley is unmoved. “That won’t give me my lipstick back, you little brat!”
“I couldn’t help myself!” she pleads. And I unconsciously nod. That’s it, kid—go with insanity. It’s all you’ve got left.
“The lipstick was in there, calling to me . . .” Voices. Voices are good. Always an easy sell.
Original review”
Sustained is everything Overruled is not: funny, charming, sexy.
Jake is a manwhore who is redeemed by Chelsea, the cute heroine, as well as her six nieces and nephews she’s mothering. He doesn’t want to get drawn in, but simply can’t help but get sucked into the craziness of a family with kids ranging from six months to teenage.
The romance between Jake and Chelsea is smoking, but the real joy and charm of the book lies with Jake’s interactions with the kids as well as each child’s personality. He is completely out of his element and some of the antics are too funny from playing white knight when the household falls to the stomach flu, a task that’s tough for even the most experienced parent, to betting on which toddler will win the “obstacle” course at Mommy and Me.
He throws a wrench into the relationship to distance himself and it’s actually almost believable, but he doesn’t do anything irreparable.
I high three star rating for humor and smoldering.
What a great read. Enjoyed this book and I am looking forward to the next one in this series. Definitely recommend this book and this author
Jake Becker is a compendium of all the good things you want in a guy with a smattering of @sshole to make him perfectly imperfect. This is my first book by this author and I will be reading on. Loved the interaction between the characters, the dialogue (internal and external) and most of all loved watching Jakes slow but graceful fall in love with Chelsea and the six kids (who were all written accurate to their age, which again was a great thing to read). If you like irreverent humor you will love this.
I wont lie … when I first started Sustained, I wanted to roll my eyes. Literally. It seemed like just another selfish bad boy gone good book, and to be honest, I’ve grown quite tired of those. But then, out of nowhere, BAM!….I couldn’t put the book down, no matter how hard I tried!
Jake Becker is a fast-rising attorney, and for a very good reason: he doesn’t have any commitments and doesn’t plan on having any. He doesn’t really like kids, and he really isn’t into the work it takes to make a relationship work, so every girl he sleeps with gets the Cinderella speech (it’s past midnight, so grab your things and go) after the very first night.
An STD scare from a one-night stand halts him in his tracks, though, and he’s left re-evaluating how he handles his love life. For a while, he tries the dating thing, but that doesn’t go so well. But that’s only until he’s mugged by one of the McQuaid kids.
Not really interested in doing much more than letting the boy’s parents know about the mugging, Jake takes the boy home. It’s then that everything in the world of Jake Becker starts to change. And the one to change it is Chelsea McQuaid, the aunt and now guardian of all SIX McQuiad children.
I loved that this story really stayed true to what it’s like to raise children. There were moments that I laughed, and moments that I cried. Maybe that’s just because I have kids of my own….but I like to think it was just that the kids were so wonderfully written. I would have liked to have seen more varied names, though, because I did have a difficult time keeping them straight throughout the entire book.
Another really big part of the book was the romance between Jake and Chelsea. It’s clear to see just how deep Jake is in, very early on. Unfortunately, he doesn’t see it that way and it takes him all the way until the end of the book to overcome his issues enough to embrace his feelings. I loved the chemistry between Chelsea and Jake, and there were most certainly some steamy scenes. It’s far from erotica, but definitely on smexy book, and very deserving of 4. 5 kinky heels!