Up to the Challenge (An Anchor Island Novel)

I absolutely, positively LOVED this book!!! I read the first book in this series, "Meant To Be", and I fell in love with everyone and it had me hooked! But I have to admit, Sid was my favorite character, Lucas on the other hand...not so much. I really didn't think Ms. Osburn could top the last book.....but I was so, so wrong.IMO- Lucas was one of the most unlikeable men in, "In Up to the Challenge". But I have to say that Lucas really does redeem himself, in this book. We finally get to see a side of him we hadn't seen before, a side that lets us all know why he acts the way he does. As it turns out....He has always felt like Joe has always been "The Chosen" child in the family. The type of guy who always gets what he wants, without even trying. It's not really rational, but then sometimes our minds lead us to believe things that aren't always the really true, and this is one of those times. I'm so glad he finally got to spend more times with his family, and got the chance to find real peace and happiness he so deserved.Sid really made me laugh out loud at times, and I couldn't help adoring her even more than before! She might be petite and look as cute as a button, but she doesn't even realize it, which makes her that much more adorable. She's always lived and worked her whole life around a bunch of big, rough, tough, alpha type men. So.... it's no wonder she can curse like a sailor and hang with the best of them. But in this book we also get to see a much softer side to Sid. And she shows us a more vulnerable side, too. She's been in love with Lucas, since her high school days, but she never really believed she had a chance with him. She made me laugh so hard at her antic's, but there were times I cried my heart out for her, too.I am totally hooked on this series, and can't wait to read more.

This is the 2nd book in the Anchor Island series. While you wouldn't technically need to read the others to enjoy this one, you would be missing a load of character development for background characters if you didn't. I honestly probably never would have read this series if I hadn't received one of the books for free from Amazon. Of course It wasn't the first book so there was a long while there that it just sat on my shelf. Then all the sudden I see the 4th book in the recommended section at the bottom of my Kindle for a load of the books that I was checking out. So I searched out the rest of the series and read them all in order and I was hooked. The first book I liked but I wasn't quite hooked yet. This book, the 2nd in the series, sucked me in because I loved the way Sid and Lucas were with each other. They had great chemistry and their interactions were so fun to read. By the end of the book, I was in love with the Anchor Island characters and not just Sid and Lucas. I read through the rest of the series quickly. I will admit that each of the books does have a little bit of a template that they follow but they are each unique enough that it's not like reading the same book over and over. The series is very character driven so if you are a lover of characters, you will likely enjoy the series as much as I did.

I find this series extremely chessy and predictable, but still fun and entertaining. The characters are very over the top, and most of the situación sand dialogues are kind of immature and unreal (for example five pages of people's comments about the main character looking so good in a tank top, that people drop plates and call her the perfect centerfold is just too much).Yet I find myself reading this series because it's stories are interesting, and they're fun. You just have to go in knowing it's not great literature and once you get over the fact that it's all very predictable and everybody is beautiful and gets perfect happy endings you'll find a quite enjoyable lite read.I especially liked the participation of characters from the previous book, without them now being the protagonists. And eventhough this is a stand alone, I would recommend reading Meant to Be first.

Although this book was well reviewed, I couldn't see how I was going to get my mind around the fact that at the core of the plot was a woman falling for her fiance's brother. However, I was in the mood for a romance and decided I'd give it a chance.... and I'm so glad I did. I loved the main characters, and this book was such a good read. Cannot wait to read more in this series.

This is my second read by this author, and all the things that I enjoyed about Meant to Be was back with a vengeance with Up to the Challenge. Lucas was left a broken man in Meant to Be when his fiancé fell in love with his older brother and literally had him scratching his head wondering what was happening to his life. We pick up now with Joe and Beth together and happy, but the family patriarch, Tom has suffered a heart attack and needs to recuperate for the next 6 weeks. This means that the family needs to band together to manage the family business on Anchor Island; of course Lucas volunteers to help, though his family is concerned that he is jeopardizing his lucrative position with his law firm (little did they know that he was on an imposed leave as he was losing cases and totally disjointed after finding out about Joe and Beth). Lucas thinks that this will be easy right? How hard can it be to run a restaurant? Sid knows that robes and will help him, a piece of cake, right? Well, this is where all the fun starts!!!As with book one, the characters were engaging, the writing was witty with some real laugh out loud moments, and the moments of intimacy were sexy without being overly graphic and offensive-just right. Both books are a light, feel good read that are a wonderful weekend (or any day for that matter) escape. Highly recommend.

The second book in the Anchor Island series features Lucas and Sid. Lucas couldn’t wait to leave the island, after high school. The only reason he’s back is because his dad has had a heart attack and he’s needed to help out at the restaurant. Sid has loved Lucas for years. No spoilers so grab your copy and see what happens. I loved how Sid wasn’t afraid to tell it like she saw it without a filter, lol.