Rating: 
Summary: A Fun and Romantic Romp Down Under
Review: Darcie Baxter is less than a year away from her thirtieth birthday, she lives with her eighty-something-year-old grandmother in New York who owns a killer cat, her parents want her to come to her senses and move back to Ohio and she has a married, gay boyfriend she sees once-a-week. Is it any wonder she'd like a change before she hits the big three-oh.Then Darcie gets a big break and is promoted to Assistant to the Manager of Global Expansion for Wunderthings International. Now she has a chance to show she has what it takes. She goes with her boss to Australia to scout locations for their new store, where she not only finds the perfect location, but the perfect man as well. Dylan Rafferty is tall, dark, handsome and charms the clothes off of her, but Darcie's a bit worried about his intentions. It seems he wants more than a fling-he wants a relationship, marriage. When it comes to deciding between her career and a hot romance, things heat up. Can she have both? Darcie is the kind of girl who wants the most out of life, even if it means changing her plans on occasion. She is an ambitious girl, determined to get ahead and she sure as heck is a gas to read about in this fun book that is very hard to put down.
Rating: 
Summary: Love down under.
Review: Darcie Baxter is nearing 30 years old and she isn't getting any younger. She hasn't found Mr. Right. Instead she has to settle for Mr. Once a Week. With Mr. Once a Week and her job that she feels like she is going nowhere Darcie feels like nothing right is going to happen. Her job at Wunderthings is something Darcie still somewhat enjoys to go to except for the fact of Greta the wicked witch who is trying to backstab Darcie in anyway possible, but when Darcie is offered the chance to go to Australia to hopefully get a store in the land down under. When Darcie gets to Australia she never expects to find what she does there, but she manages to find a hunky sheep rancher who rocks Darcie's world harder then she ever expected. After two wonderful weeks with Dylan, Darcie isn't quite ready to go back to New York and get back to her life there. As the books moves on Darcie continues to talk to Dylan, but as time goes on she realizes that things in her life are still the same. She is still living at her gran's and having to deal with the cat from hell and her grandmothers wild ways. As time goes on Darcie finds that she do things on her own and make things happen, but she is still to scaried to let go fully and do what she wants to do. Darcie I felt most of the time was weak and did as others told her and didn't listen to what she wanted, but overall this was a great book and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Rating:
Summary: Manhattan meet Oz
Review: Darcie Baxter is twenty-nine, has moved to the Big Apple from her native Cincinnati, and is a mover and shaker at Wunderthings International, an up-and-coming star in the lingerie industry. She also has parents who constantly nag her to move back to Ohio, she shares an apartment with her grandmother and a killer cat, and is on less than good terms with a back-stabbing, idea-stealing co-worker named Greta. Her love life is limited to once-a-week encounters with Merrick, a rather secretive fellow that her best friend suspects is married. After Darcie is promoted to a management position, she accompanies her boss to Australia to scout locations for their new Pacific Rim expansion. In the hotel bar she finds the perfect man - a tall, dark, and handsome sheep rancher named Dylan Rafferty who has a sexy smile and 1950's attitudes toward hearth and home. After two weeks in Sydney, Darcie must return to New York, but Dylan remains on her mind as she juggles job, family, and friends. And along the way, she makes some valuable discoveries about herself. Can she have it all? Can she have it all on her terms? Or will it be not quite what she expected? STRAPLESS has a large cast of characters and several underlying plots which all converge in the end. It has the feel of "Sex and the City" with some international adventure mixed in for fun. It's a quick and entertaining read that will leave you whistling "Waltzing Matilda" and wishing your man wore an Akubra. Leigh Riker has been added to my "authors-to-look-for" list.
Rating:
Summary: 3 1/2 stars
Review: Darcie gets the chance to help open a Wunderthings Lingerie store in Australia. She meets the man of her dreams, but then, of course, she returns to her life in Manhattan. She also deals with her grandma's extremely active sex life, grandma's aggressive cat, her flighty sister, an ex-boyfriend who is now divorced, a neighbor who enters her apartment thru her bedroom window, her parents...these are just some of the colorful people in Darcie's life.
Cute story.
Rating:
Summary: A pretty good book.......
Review: Darcie is a young woman who is not only appealing to men; she also has a good head on her shoulders. She is an outgoing woman who is a little to trusting of people, yet her vulnerability is refreshing. She carries on a once a week relationship with a gay man who is rich, educated and attractive and married. His unscrupulous taste for refreshing women like Darcie leaves no side effects from his infidelity. Darcie lives with her Grandmother and her Grandmothers wicked cat, who among other things keeps Darcie on her toes. The Grandmother is a bit of a penthouse queenie. This makes the book all the more interesting. The book is written in good taste, and has some good lessons that can be learned from reading. Everyone will enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: A great modern romance to indulge in!
Review: Having read all of the books Red Drink Ink has published thus far, Strapless is the one that is closest to being a standard romance novel. While the other RDI novels concentrate more on dating in the big city while climbing the coorporate ladder, Strapless is a classic romance novel disguised as contemporary chick lit. Working for Whunderthings, a Victoria's Secret-like lingerie shop, New Yorker Darcey Elizabeth Daxter has been given the opportunity of a lifetime: she is now in charge of opening the store in Australia. Having had her heart broken in New York, she has nothing but work on her mind. But no sooner does she arrive in Australia than she meets Dylan -- a gorgeous Aussie sheep farmer. He is sexy, incredible in bed, and totally wrong for her. While Darcey's career is the main focus in her life, Dylan's dream is to have a housewife to have babies with. Should Darcey give up her career and life in the city, or should she follow her heart? While there are various aspects of Bridget Jones-type of modern chick literature in this novel, the description and overall style of writing screams contemporary romance a la Danielle Steel. Still, this is a novel worth reading, and another great read from Red Dress Ink. I recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: trashy novel
Review: I couldn't agree more with others that this is one trashy novel. The writing reminded me of a Gotham's writing workshop I once took and I can't believe this actually got published. Why are the characters referred to by first *and* last name? And the grandmother. Puuleeease! A 82 year old woman who is horny all the time? And those endless sex scenes with the multiple and simultaneous orgasms. They get so boring, I skipped over most of them. And these are just a few of the unbelievable things in this book. And what is the point of the book? Women want to mate and have babies just like the sheep the Aussie, who can always come one more time, raises?
Rating: 
Summary: Not Chick-Lit...
Review: i have been reading Red Dress Ink books since the beginning and--if you're a fan as well--beware, this one is TOTALLY not in the same vein. It's not smart, savvy "chick lit" at all. It's a tradtional romance--the only difference is this time the main character is a little younger and the cover is a little cooler. Now, to be fair, it kept my interest and i read the whole thing but i was disappointed just because it was so trashy and paperback romance-y. Also, a few things that I really couldn't get past: 1) Darcie talking to herself. Not sure why the Red Dress editors let that one slip in there. So weird and such a turn off. I would literally skim those passages b/c they were so ridiculous. 2) The constant use of full-names. ("Darcie Elizabeth Baxter." "Dylan Rafferty.") Who does that? Romance writers, that's who. 3) Why the whole storyline with Claire and the baby and the husband? Came out of nowwhere. Bottom line: If you want a trashy beach read, this is your thing. Something smarter? Pick up something else.
Rating:
Summary: ONE STAR, BUT SHOULD BE NONE!
Review: I just finished reading this book and can't for the life of me think why, except that it's like staring at the scene of an accident. I kept reading, thinking it can't get worse, and boy was I wrong. I have liked all the previous RDI books a lot, but this one was awful. Too many characters, too many plot lines. No real character development and not one character you could really like. And to suddenly make Merrill gay--where did that come from? And the cutesy-poo names--give me a break. Some of the ideas in the book were just too farfetched--like what girl who lives in New York City in a first floor apartment leaves the window open at night? It was like the author was trying to bring ideas for three different novels into one. This book was not like any chic lit I've read so far and I hope I don't encounter any more like it. Darcie was perhaps the most annoying main character I've read about. I could not like her from the word go. And her horney grandmother was worse. I doubt there are many grandmothers who discuss their sex lives with their 29-year-old granddaughters, that is, grandmothers who aren't suffering from Alzheimer's disease. There wasn't anything about this book to recommend it and I'm just sorry I wasted the time it took to read it.
Rating:
Summary: ONE STAR, BUT SHOULD BE NONE!
Review: I just finished reading this book and can't for the life of me think why, except that it's like staring at the scene of an accident. I kept reading, thinking it can't get worse, and boy was I wrong. I have liked all the previous RDI books a lot, but this one was awful. Too many characters, too many plot lines. No real character development and not one character you could really like. And to suddenly make Merrill gay--where did that come from? And the cutesy-poo names--give me a break. Some of the ideas in the book were just too farfetched--like what girl who lives in New York City in a first floor apartment leaves the window open at night? It was like the author was trying to bring ideas for three different novels into one. This book was not like any chic lit I've read so far and I hope I don't encounter any more like it. Darcie was perhaps the most annoying main character I've read about. I could not like her from the word go. And her horney grandmother was worse. I doubt there are many grandmothers who discuss their sex lives with their 29-year-old granddaughters, that is, grandmothers who aren't suffering from Alzheimer's disease. There wasn't anything about this book to recommend it and I'm just sorry I wasted the time it took to read it.
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