FishWithSticks' Fishbowl

Finished. At last. LOL I was listening to the last handful of books in this series, and when I got about halfway through, all of a sudden I didn't have a lot of listening time, so this book just seemed to take forever.

Okay, first up. I LOVE Izzy Zanella. Over the series he has become a favorite of mine. He's smart and funny and sweet and sexy and so in love with his wife it hurts. And, Eden, for her part, has grown quite a bit in the time since she met Izzy. She's really come into her own, and by the end of this book she goes toe to toe with him and fights for herself in a way she NEVER would have done when they first met.

Jenilyn is also a favorite. She's funny and honest and loyal and tells it like it is. When she thinks Danny's being a jerk, she tells him so.

Danny, on the other hand...Oh, Danny, Danny, Danny. I have spent nearly the entire time I've "known" Danny hating him. Seriously hating. He's pompous and smug and obnoxious and overbearing and spends an AMAZING amount of time badmouthing his sister and belittling his relationship with Jenilyn. In fact, one of the last times he talks to Jenilyn towards the end of the last book he says something that, I would think, would be a relationship ender, and if I were Jen I would have told him off in a scene that the neighbors down the street would hear. But not Jen. Oh, no. She just cries and forgives him and makes him work for her affection. A little.

But what he has done to his sister Eden is far more cruel. He mocks her and calls her all sorts of horrible names and tries to not only break up Izzy and Eden, but wants to take her brother Ben away from her, too. And when he finds out he was so SOOOOOOO wrong, he just says he's sorry, gives Eden a hug, and then he's pretty much forgiven.

Ms. Brockmann had to do some SERIOUS damage control for me to end this book not wanting Danny dead. Seriously...there are 16 CDs in this audiobook, and up until about the middle of CD 14 I wanted Danny DEAD in a horrible and painful accident, preferably involving blades of some sort and pieces too small to identify. For the remainder of CD 14 and part of 15 I just wanted him beaten bloody with baseball bats by a MLB team. All the teams, if possible. After that, he becomes tolerable. Barely. I finished the book just wanting him punched in the face. A lot. By professional boxers.

Aside from Danny, I really enjoyed this one. Izzy and Eden really worked on their relationship. Danny and Eden and Ben did, too, but was overshadowed by the whole Neisha storyline. Again, I would have made Danny grovel SOOOOO MUCH MORE, but I'm not the writer.