Wednesday’s Child is full of woe…

Tristan Collins knows Lane Bryce is strictly hands off. She’s smart, funny, kind…and married. But he still looks forward to her once-a-week visits to the family pub where he tends bar. When she fails to arrive one Wednesday, Tris is concerned. When he learns she’s in the hospital, brutally beaten after attempting to leave her unhappy marriage, he’s enraged. Tris vows to protect her, but he doesn’t get the chance. Lane checks out of the hospital and disappears without a trace.

A year later, newly divorced Lane is back, and enjoying her independence too much to embark on a relationship. Tris intends to prove she can have freedom and love, and he’s not above using seduction to do it. The more she resists, the more he sets her body ablaze with pleasure the likes of which she’s never known.

After a lifetime of disappointment, trust doesn’t come easily for Lane. But when her ex-husband reenters her life, threatening her independence, her happiness, she could discover too late that Tristan is the one man worthy of not only her trust, but also her love.

Trope/themes:
domestic abuse, friends-to-lovers, light spanking,

First Line:
“Lane?” Tristan looked down at the frail form of his best friend lying in the hospital bed and gently took her hand in his.

Memorable:
- Tristan and Lane working behind the bar together > talk about sizzling sexual tension
- Lane and Tristan's first time > *fans self*

Tristan 'Tris' Collins is the bartender in the family-run Collins pub. He’s chivalrous, headstrong and gruff but very charming and sweet too. He carries his heart on his sleeve and is commanding in the bedroom.

Lane Bryce is a nurse. She’s sweet, witty, independent and quick-witted. A peacekeeper who tries to avoid conflicts. Her childhood in the system and her failed marriage left her hesitant of getting close to people and love and she has trust issues.

Tristan has the reputation of a ladies' man and though he's attracted to Lane from the very start he doesn't make a move towards her while she's married out of respect for that marriage, even if it's a bad one. Still he falls in love with her and when an attempt to leave her husband ends in disaster and she leaves town without a trace or a word, Tristan is devastated. Now, a year later, Lane is back and Tristan is determined to use her physical attraction to him and seduce her into falling in love with him. However, before they can live happily ever after, there the matter of a stalking, lunatic ex-husband to handle first.

The Wild Irish series is an awesome series. At book 3 now I'm drawn in right from the start again as I was with the first 2 books. I think a lot of that is linked to Mari Carr's lovely writing. She has such an easy and agreeable style and such great characters that are intense and yet at the same time very down-to-earth. They could be people you meet/see in your everyday life.

The conflict between Tristan and Lane comes from Lane's determination to take care of herself, not needing anyone to protect her, her clinging to her new-found freedom and Tristan's chivalrous desire to protect her and care for her. The sex scenes in this installment were sizzling hot. Tristan is a fierce and talkative in bed, just the way I like my heroes. Awesome! Hot and bothered and fanning myself at Tristan's dirty talk on one page and swallowing a lump of emotion in my throat on the next page at his sweetness and sincerity.

And the humor. I love humor to go with the sizzle and Mari Carr definitely delivers there. I smiled a lot reading this book. Family teasing and the banter between Tris and Lane, despite the difficulties, are what draw me to Carr's writing and keep me coming for more.

WAITING FOR WEDNESDAY is the third installment of the Wild Irish series and another installment I absolutely loved. It was sexy, emotional, funny and a joy to read. If you love excellently written, humorous, contemporary romance that touches your heart combined with sizzling hot sexual tension and erotic scenes, Mari Carr is your go-to author and Wild Irish is your go-to series.

Quotes:
While she was having some serious dirty fantasies about the man, it was obvious he still viewed her as a helpless woman and his “protector genes” had come riding to the rescue. Now she was horny…and pissed off.

"...her fingernails scratching a path across his back that was painful and sexy as hell. His mind whirled as he tried to make this wild woman fit the image of the staid, calm friend he thought he’d known until this moment. He fought to pull himself together. He was humping Lane like a dog in heat in his sister’s bedroom. This hadn’t been his intention when he’d come into the room.

"...Gonna try to do it slow and gentle—at least this first time. I know it’s been a while for you. Thing is, I want you, need you too bad. There’s a demon in me that wants to make sure you can’t walk right for a week.”

“Mine,” he said, wondering how she’d managed to bring him down to caveman level. He couldn’t utter anything beyond one-syllable commands. She was seriously f#cking with his vocabulary.

“I’m going to take you, Lane. I’m going to take you hard and fast and just when you think you can’t stand any more, I’m going to do it all over again.”

“Take off your clothes. I like sleeping naked with you.”
“Haven’t you ever heard of asking nicely? Maybe saying the magic word?” she teased, though she starting taking off her jeans.
“Will you take off your clothes?” he asked. “So I can please you until your toes curl?"
“Mmm. Much better. I like how you use the magic word.”

She couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment. She wasn’t sure there was one. She just knew that Tris had been slowly scaling the wall to her heart and there was no doubt in her mind he’d not only climbed the damn thing, he’d torn it down.

Mari Carr has graciously offered a chance to win copies of the Wild Irish books and the giveaway is simple and easy:
One commenter will be drawn from the commenters on each review (so daily from Monday January 3rd until Sunday January 9th) to win the book reviewed. The seven winners will be announced here on the blog Monday January 10th)