Tu-Shonda Whitaker delivers a solid romance with Whatever it Takes earning a 3.5-star rating. The story follows India Parker, a woman who thought she'd always be alone until she finds unexpected passion with her friend's son. With a good mix of humor and heat, this book will keep you engaged and entertained

Short and quick read about an older woman getting involved with her friend's son. It was an okay read for me, I liked it. Would love to see it fleshed out into a full-length novel.

Enough drama for a full fledged novel, this quick read pulled you in from page one and kept you amused. Would have loved to see Tracy and Joan’s characters formulated more, but appreciated the author’s focus on India and Devin given the minimal number of pages. A great read...not that Tu-Shonda ever disappoints. Now please send her to write another installment of the millionaire wives club.

This story was OK, I felt it could’ve been shorter, seemed like it was dragging for a moment.

A short read about a woman involving herself with the son of one of one of her close friends. It was enjoyable

Thanks to Net Galley for the chance to read this book.

This is my first time reading this author, and I must say I was thoroughly captured by her book. I was able to read it in one night. The characters are all very good starting with the main one India. She is a 36 year old woman who is now tired of looking for the right guy and is expecting her life. When she returns her friend camera the friend’s 23 year old son makes a play for her and does stop until she agrees to go out with him. She has a few problems besides the age. One this is her friends son, two why can’t she find someone closer to her own age, and three it is either him or the neighbor ( no ) or it is sitting home by herself eating. See what happens. Yes there are sex scenes and they are hot. Overall a good book with good characters and that is what keeps this book going.

I had high hope for this, which I got as part of a collection of four romance novellas and I was really disappointed. There is nothing romantic about these books. There is no fantasy of what a relationship could be. It's just a series of poorly written stories with shallow characters who do not have a single redeeming quality. It's so not worth a read.

Whittaker knows how to write sexy characters and sexy scenes. This is a way to warm up on the cold winter nights.

This is from an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

This was one of four novellas I got from Net Galley centered around the festive season and relationships. All of them were disappointing, I'm sorry to report. The problem was that they were far less romance than they were soft-core porn, and there really wasn't much porn, so what did that leave? In a two words: very little - and nearly all of that was a disappointment. I wish the authors all the best in their careers. I found these stories most saddening because some of these of these writers can write. I just wish they would have reached higher, instead of going solely for the low-hanging fruit.

Note that this is obviously just my opinion, and I'm not normally one for reading his kind of fiction, but I'm curious about all genres and I like to keep up with what's going on in them. It had seemed to me that this was a great opportunity to take in something new and maybe find a new writer to love. I'm sorry it didn't work out.

There seemed to be a common theme among the novellas: that of being single and feeling unloved, or of being in a dysfunctional relationship that the main character had somehow deluded themselves into thinking was the one - or at least was better than nothing! I know how that goes. But the way they 'fixed' their 'problem' was asinine cowardice, not romance.

In this case, the main character is in her thirties, with a lot of attitude, looking for love, feeling the old bio-clock ticking. I was trying not to be critical - to understand where this kind of a story is coming from and who it's aimed at, but apart from it being first person, this book bothered me because it's seemed like it's all about conspicuous consumption - like this woman has no value if it's not in her rich clothes and lavish lifestyle. I found that offensive.

I don't mind a novel that fills out a character by talking about her clothes and lifestyle to an extent, but every other paragraph has her talking about how well she's doing with her home (leather furniture, double sink - like that's some big upward mobility thing), her car which is a BMW, her shoes which are Gucci. And on and on! The thing is, she's a school teacher, so I'm wondering how she affords all this stuff! Teachers are woefully underpaid for the critical job they do.

Anyway, she meets the son of a friend - a son she knew when he was younger, but hasn't seen for a while. Now he's a college grad working on web design and he wears Prada shows - that's one of the first things we learn about him. I can see with his job how he can shop upscale, but again, is this all he has to offer - his shoes and his height: six feet one? I would have respected the woman more if she'd set her sights on more important things than skin and clothes deep.

This kind of story where it's all about "Hey, look how well-off and well-dressed I am!" really turns me off, because to me it says nothing so loudly as how shallow the character is, and how misplaced their values are. I don't have a problem with a person finding love and getting hot and bothered over a potential partner, but when that's all they have, and all they are, it's boring.

This is a May-December story and it's short, so it's a story where things need to move, but by about twenty percent into the novel, all she's talked about is how desperate she is for a man, and how ancient she is! She's thirty six! That's hardly antique, especially in an era when a lot of people are delaying marrying and having children until later in life. And nothing has happened in the story! The relationship could have been naturally building all this time, but it doesn't even start.

When it does start, the 'relationship' she develops with this young guy is dysfunctional from the off, and it never improves. Too often, he's talking like he owns her, and she takes no offense at anything he does or says. She's skittish all along, and her attitude makes sense, but instead of following her own instincts, and moving a bit more slowly, she lets him maneuver her right into bed and has unprotected sex with him, and later she thinks she might be be pregnant. In short, she's a moron. This is was too fast even for a novella. It throws romance under the bus and makes her look like an irresponsible and oversexed teenager, betraying everything we've learned of her until that point.

There's supposed to be some comic relief in the form of her next-door neighbor, who is a much older guy, but frankly he's offensive too, just like the younger guy. Despite the age disparity between these two men, I could see no difference between them. They were both manipulative and using her, and she was too dumb to see it and put her foot down. I didn't like any of these characters and cannot recommend this novella.

India Parker is 36 years old and has just decided to accept that she will always be single. However, when her friend asks India to return her digital camera, India meets Devin, her friend's 23-year-old son. There is an instant attraction between them, but India tries to convince herself that nothing can happen because of the age difference.

I did not get the feeling that these two actually liked each other beyond their lust. They treated each other horribly/said a lot of terrible things to each other, which made it hard for me to root for them to end up together.

Tu-Shonda Whitaker’s Whatever It Takes is a hilarious take on an older woman, younger man romance. This Christmas romance introduces us to India, a 36-year-old educator who is lonely as hell until she finds herself falling in love with a younger man. In addition to her new boo being younger than she would prefer, he is also the son of a friend! Will these two ring in the New Year together, or will India turn him down?

Being that this is a novella, it is very short. It is also based in 2006 if I’m remembering correctly. Don’t let that deter you from reading, though. The characters, especially Mr. Marcus, kept me sane and laughing while at work. Read this novella! You will love all of the characters and root for love to win in the end.



I received an ebook copy from NetGalley to read and review.

Quick read. Older woman, younger man. Older woman is friend's with younger man's mother. Woman has hangups about the age difference and cannot get past this. There is one twist in the book. But overall, ok read.

Nice to see this reissued. India finds herself interested in her friend's son Devin- who is 23. It's not as steamy as it could be and it doesn't really address the huge age gap but you know what- it's a quick, entertaining read. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

This sultry novella made me laugh more than it made me cringe with Tu-Shonda L. Whitaker's memorable characters!