Overflow: Carpino, Book 1
M**3
loved this book!!!
Jude is an FBI agent taking down a man with a family. As Jude is taking down the wife and her friend, Jude feels something in an instant. Though Gabby does not. She wants answers and no one is giving them. Her cousin Tony comes in and takes her away. Jude was just going to talk with Gabby at her house but one thing lead to another and before either of them knew it they were falling for each other and they had some bumps along the way and sone truth that blindsided Gabby. Will Jude change everything or will he fight for her like no has? Need to read this book.
A**.
he came and never left
This dude is SWOON worthy. Melt into the floor swooning. 🫠She is PRECIOUS. No other word will do. Precious.
L**.
Loved it!
LOVED IT! Exciting, suspenseful, sexy, funny, and sweet, an altogether PERFECT read! Awesome characters and a great story. Jude and Gabby's chemistry is off the freakin' charts. Kind of hated to see it end. Not sure if I have read anything by this author before but I am hooked now. Five stars is not enough. ❤️(FYI: All other websites show Overflow as book one of the series, Beautiful Life as book two, and Athica Lane as book three.)
C**
new reader
Good plot. Great characters. Story gives you a good visual layout. Will read this author again. The whole family draws you in.
J**.
Sweet and classy meets federal agent
Overflow is the debut novel of Brynne Asher, and after having heard about it from a group on Goodreads, I decided to give it a shot. I'm so glad I did because this was a great debut. With hints of Kristen Ashley, Ms. Asher drew me into a story of love, loss, family, crime, and even a dash of humor.Summary:Gabrielle Carpino has a large loving family, good friends, and a job she enjoys, but none of that seems to touch the sadness and grief she carries in her heart. When tragedy struck her family, Gabby decided to close herself off from actually living life, and now just goes through the motions. Looking at the future brings to mind all she's lost in her past, so living a mundane day to day life with only mild happiness is her norm. Mundane becomes a thing of the past when Gabby is unknowingly thrown into the middle of a whole mess of craziness. The beginning of her excitement begins when she innocently drops by a clients home for finishing touches, but quickly becomes embroiled in a situation that includes her being cuffed and patted down for weapons. It doesn't help that the agent doing the patting is Jude Ortiz. Jude is tall, dark, and handsome with a commanding presence and an air of mystery that Gabby finds herself being drawn to. For Jude, Gabby is a woman unlike any he's ever met, and the first woman to gain his undivided attention in a very long time. Thinking he'd like to get to know her better, Jude gets his chance when Gabby's put in some danger resulting from the previous situation. As Jude's protective nature rises to the surface, he finds himself feeling things he hasn't in years, and moves in to keep watch over Gabrielle. Keeping her safe becomes an experience what with her crazy family butting in, desperate criminals on the loose, marathon shopping trips, flooded basements, and fantasy football. Just as Jude and Gabby start seeing happiness in a future together, demons from both their pasts come back and threaten to rip apart what they have before it really even begins. While Jude determinedly fights those demons back, Gabby is surprised to learn about events in Jude's past that may prevent her from getting the happy she so desperately yearns for.I really enjoyed Gabby. Experiencing the loss that she did could have changed her in bad ways, but she was very loving, loyal, and hard working. She was funny, smart, beautiful, and talented. I loved her relationship with her family, and found the Carpinos to be a blast. Jude was amazing. I love a good alpha, and Jude was definitely one I'll remember. His bossy nature was sweet instead of annoying, and his protectiveness of Gabby made me swoon. I found myself listening to Nickleback several times to get a feel for his voice. Lol. Supporting cast was wonderful, especially the Carpino clan and Gabby's friends. I only wish we had gotten some expansion on the situation with Conner since we didn't get to see it play out. How did Jude handle that then and well into the future? Also, the meeting with Gabby and Rick Ortiz was a bit intense, now I think for obvious reasons, but I kind of wish we had seen a bit more interaction with Jude's family. Overall, I really liked the story. For a debut, it was very well put together. I think I might have wanted a tie to Pope thrown in a bit sooner, but it wasn't horrible without it. I'm looking forward to Tony's story next, and getting to see Ms. Asher grow in her talent. <3
E**F
Decorator meets FBI agent...during a raid
I loved how this story began - Gabby was showing her friend around her newly completed laundry when the FBI and ATF raid the home. As a victim of circumstance, Gabby is cuffed and patted down, making her acquaintance with the delicious Jude Ortiz and changing her life forever. Instantly taken with her, Jude goes out of his way to check on her and let her know that she might not be safe from her former friend's husband who was involved in nefarious deeds revolving around illegal trading. What was supposed to be a quick check in turns into a huge case of instalove as he pushes his way into her life.The story had a bit of everything: romance, danger, action, Gabby's large and eclectic Italian family and past demons coming out to haunt our happy couple. There are two main storylines throughout the book: Gabby being in danger from dangerous felons from both the past and the present and Jude's sad history being brought to surface. I really liked how the author tied up one aspect of the story before delving into another and didn't stretch out any of the plot elements just for the sake of it. It made the book far more entertaining and realistic. The book was a really decent length as well, with no corners cut.Jude was an intense character in his own way. I loved how into Gabby he was from the get go and if you're into jealous and possessive male leads, he has it in spades, showing her affection and making a claim (as much as I hate that phrase) straight away. When I said instalove above, I meant it, as Jude moves into Gabby's virtually straight away and they're enmeshed in each other's lives within a couple of days. As for Gabby, she was high strung, a bit naive and often went off on her own tangent and while this would normally drive me crazy, the author did a great job of making her strangely endearing for all of her idiosyncrasies.I will warn readers that Jude is pretty heavy handed and dominant with Gabby. While I know that some people with adore this, I'm also aware that this will make others want to punch him in the junk. Personally, I varied between the two but could forgive him because it came from a good place, but it sometimes felt a bit too dominant as he made her listen to him, had to have his way and was, on the admittance of both himself and Gabby, a bit of bully. If anything, it was a bit cheesy at times so I let it slide for the most part but some readers might not take to him all the time (but I honestly think most will).There's a little bit of other man drama as well as some insecurity from Gabby. I found this a little over the top since her last relationship had been four years in the past. There were some punctuation and grammar issues that led to me having to reread a few passages. Nothing dramatic, but they were noticeable at times and scattered throughout the book, affecting the fluency of some sentences. The epilogue was a really nice touch and overall, it was a solid, feel good story. I haven't read anything by this author before but won't say no in the future.And just on a final note - Dear Ms Asher, it is never okay to glorify Nickleback as a good band. Never. Never, ever ever. This is almost a one star offence just for future reference ;)
W**H
The Carpino Family for the Win
I loved this book. And frankly there is nothing not to like about Jude and Gabby's story. Brynne has written a story of a family with real love at the core of it. I love Jude. He can out me where he wants anytime. Read the book you'll understand.I liked the book so much after reading it in Kindle Unlimited that I bought it. IAnd please, if you have an aversion to bossy males who love their women with no excuses, please, do my new favourite author a good one and skip this book.
T**T
4 stars
Copy received by author in exchange for an honest review★Review★I have to be honest, I am not a huge fan of books written in present tense, I tend to find them awkward and clunky to read.But in saying that, I soon got dragged into the story and stopped noticing it so much.I really liked the main characters and the supporting cast was great fun, although I gave up trying to keep track of who was a son/daughter of who, who was an aunt, which one was a cousin etc....apart form Tony, since I fell in love with him.Yes, it was insta lust/love, but seems hard to find a romance book lately that is not.Certain things could have been improved upon, for example, I completely forgot about the prologue and what that could have had to do with the story, until near the end when it made sense. I was never quite sure just exactly WHY the bad guys at the beginning would have fixated on our heroine to such a point, and it did get overly descriptive at times, with regards to home furnishings etc, for example we get a 2 page description of a ruddy laundry room in a home we never visit again. And the hero's past just hitting us out of the blue, bearing in mind this is dual POV, so we have been inside the head of the hero.But, I still found it a hugely enjoyable story, with characters I really liked, and I truly enjoyed it. I believe this is the first published book by this author and she has huge potential to become very good. Yes, I had some niggles and issues with the book, but she can write an engaging story with characters I enjoyed, which is half the battle for getting me to want to read an author again. Indeed, I am starting book 2, since it is Tony, and well, that is all I need to say.★Book Basics★Genre : - Cont RomanceSeries : - 1st in the seriesLove triangle? - NoCheating? - NoHEA? - YesWould I read more by this author/or in this series? - yesRating - 4 stars
K**R
A steamy, beautiful romance- wow!
To romantic sceptics this is a wake-up call. Non sceptics would call this an awesome romance at its best! I'd call it one of the best soulmate stories I've ever read - and I've read quite a few! Please don't miss out - this Carpino series is simply stupendous, and then some! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.💕💘❤❤💋💞
N**A
bossily beautiful
I just happened across 'Overflow' and I am unbelievably greatful that I did! I could not believe that this was the first book published by Brynne Asher. I love discovering new authors with stories to tell.I loved the story line, it was so funny, sweet, action packed and filled with hotness! It flowed nicely, being in both 'Gabby's' and 'Jude's' P.O.V.Beautiful heroine Gabby has a large family and a great career. With her love for design and numbers. However, she is missing the one thing that can bring happiness back into her life after a family tragedy—someone to love. Enter Jude, one handsome, tough, and you could almost definitely call him bossy Special FBI Agent who barges in with his hand cuffs.Overflow begins when Gabby is at her friends house finishing up the decorating job she was working on when all of a sudden tons of FBI come swarming the place! Agent Jude Ortiz is one of the leads on the investigation, and when he lays eyes on Gabby all bets are off. From that point on Jude puts himself in situations where she's going to be, and Gabby isn't at all sure what to make of it. With each of them both trying to overcome tragic pasts, they look to each other to hopefully find a future again. But there seems to be lots of things trying to get in the way of that future.From that moment there story keeps getting better and better after that. Just when I thought the book was over, the pace picked up with some interesting twists and turns.It's just so beautiful, sweet, caring, protective, powerful and I just loved everything about it!!Happy ending? You will have to find that out for yourself.Will definitely be looking for the second book!!!
K**.
Amazing find!
This book came to me by nothing more than pure look while browsing amazon.UK. And I'm delighted that I've found what appears to be the first and second installments in a new exciting romance series surrounding one family and their various love interests. The huge bonus is that while all characters appear in the books ( or at least the first two existing books), each story is stand alone . For me that massive as I dont like reading book after book about the same couple. Anyway -- in reading both installments, I'm guessing Ms Asher is a Kristen Ashley fan, or if not, a fan of very similar writers as there's a fab similar feel. I'm thinking if you like KA you'll love these stories. And I do not mean to imply that Ms Asher is attempting to use other authors as a template. And it's a big compliment as I love books in that style.I'm giving 5 stars because I found both books well deserving and I'll be watching out for more of her books. If there is one issue I might have and would encourage Ms Asher to stop, is the use often word ' drug' in the context of dragging someone or something. The word was liberally used in both books in particular the first, and it was a shame as its incorrect use was enough to annoy. However I never drop stars if a book is good enough and the author deserves kudos for a job otherwise very well done. I'm using this review on both book one and two as my enjoyment was as great with both books. Thank you and I easily recommend both.
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