Perfect Partners

by Jayne Ann Krentz

Joel Blackstone spent ten years as a CEO building Thornquist Gear from a tiny local shop into a major player in the camping and sporting goods marketplace. Joel’s reward for his hard work was old man Thornquist’s promise to sell the shop to him within a year. Unfortunately for Joel, Thornquist dropped dead and bequeathed his empire to a grand-niece in the midwest. A minor adjustment to Joel’s plan—he would just offer to buy the company from the heir.

Leticia Thornquist was deeply saddened by her great-uncle’s death. She saw his bequest of Thornquist Gear as an opportunity to change her life. On the flight to his funeral, she decided to give up her job as a university librarian, move to Seattle, and take over the company. Only one thing stands in her way—Joel Blackstone.

Will Joel and Letty face off in a battle for control of Thornquist Gear or will they find they are perfect partners?

Genres: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Fiction, Romantic Suspense, Suspense, Audiobook

339 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

The author of over 50 consecutive New York Times bestsellers, JAYNE ANN KRENTZ writes romantic-suspense in three different worlds: Contemporary (as Jayne Ann Krentz), historical (as Amanda Quick) and futuristic (as Jayne Castle). There are over 30 million copies of her books in print.

She earned a B.A. in History from the University of California at Santa Cruz and went on to obtain a Masters degree in Library Science from San Jose State University in California. Before she began writing full time she worked as a librarian in both academic and corporate libraries.

Reviews

[Floripiquita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este es el primer libro que leo de esta autora bajo este seudónimo, pues todo los que había leído hasta ahora eran bajo el nombre de Amanda Quick. Me ha entretenido, se lee fácil y rápido y la química y las conversaciones entre sus protagonistas están bastante bien, pero no es nada memorable.
#RitaJack #RetoRita2
#Campañaromántica: Un libro con fecha de publicación de 1994

[Linda (NOT RECEIVING NOTIFICATIONS) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perfect Partners is what I think of as a typical Jayne Ann Krentz romance from the 1990s. Joel Blackstone was a stern, intense bachelor, but with hidden hurts. Leticia Thornquist, former librarian and now president of Joel’s company, was a healer of sorts. They made a good match when not disagreeing about something.

It was a good story, but I enjoyed All Night Long, Trust Me and Wildest Hearts more.

[Lynn Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was looking for comfort reads and Rosario recommended this gem. Written in the early 90s, it still stands up well. Our hero, Joel, has given years of his life to taking Thornquist Gear from a sleepy local store to becoming a major outdoor supplier. He reportedly enjoyed a close relationship with the owner and expected not only to be CEO but to be made owner.

To his surprise, when the owner dies, Joel learns that he has left the business to a niece in the Midwest. When he learns that this niece, Letitia Thornquist, is an academic librarian, Joel assumes that she will be more than happy to hand the reins over to him as a knowledgeable businessman.

Nothing doing. As it happens, Letty has reasons for wanting to leave the university where she works and the idea of running the business is the sort of challenge that makes her excited about life. She may not have experience, but she does know how to do research (go, librarians!) and she throws herself into Thornquist Gear with gusto. Not only that, but she shows herself to be very clever and more than able to match wits with Joel in the ensuing power struggle.

At first I wasn't sure I'd like Joel all that much. He makes all kinds of sexist assumptions about Letty and treats her in a very paternalistic way. From the text, it seems like this is partly because he is trying to hold onto his own power but also partly because he does not yet understand her to be his equal. This makes the story a touch uncomfortable in places but as the book goes on and we see (1)Letty getting the better of Joel and (2) Joel learning from his mistakes, I found myself liking these two. Parts of this story feel dated, but it's still an enjoyable read.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

BRILLIANT

A first read for me by this author, and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The plot was well structured and thought out, and the characters were a sheer delight.

Joel Blackstone had worked hard at Thornquist Gear taking it from a small shop selling camping and sports equipment to a large successful business. Charlie Thornquist had pretty much left Joel to get on with it, while he pursued his first love fishing. He had promised to sell the business to Joel within the year, but then Charlie unexpectedly died. To Joel's horror Charlie's will revealed that he had left the company to his great niece Leticia Thornquist a university librarian.

From the first minute Joel lays eyes on Leticia he forms a plan. She's never going to be able to handle the business, all he has to do is keep her out of the loop. Let her see how she's not up to things. Then he'll just persuade her to sell Thornquist Gear to him. But Leticia has other ideas, she sees this as an opportunity to start afresh and find some passion and excitement in her life. Which up till now had not gone well. The recent incident with her ex fiancé was a good example.

I really liked this story. I loved the characters even the supporting cast were really well defined. But Joel and Leticia were the stars. Initially I wasn't sure about Leticia she seemed at first a bit of a cliche the demure librarian wearing glasses with a rumpled appearance, repressed and rather anal. But she grew on me the more the story unfolded. Joel was a delight the archetypal bad boy made good. He and Leticia together was just perfect.

[Penny Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded up

As usual, JAK has created some awesome chemistry between a blue-collar hero and a sexually-inexperienced librarian. Loved them together! However, this story had WAY too much going on. It needed to be edited down by about 50%, and I'm not sure it needed an evil villain, frosty step-mother, unexpected birth in a snow-bound cabin, etc etc. Too much plot/story-line, not enough romance.

However, I was still entertained, and I adore JAK's trademark humor/banter.

Grade: B-

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a very, very late 80s/early 90s book.

I'm still not totally sure how I felt about it--there are points where I found the hero so incredibly loathsome that I was rooting for the heroine to burn everything down around him, but then I also felt that way about her idiot father too. He did improve by the end of the book, but I think the problem is just that the revenge plot (not against the heroine, fwiw) went on for far, far too long.

But honestly, my biggest takeaway is going to be how dated it was.

[Cruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Author: Jayne Ann Krentz
First published: 1992
Length: 372 pages
Setting: Contemporary Seattle
Sex: Explicit. Reasonably frequent.
Hero: CEO
Heroine: Librarian come President of company

"The day she started sleeping with Joel Blackstone, a part of her had begun planning marriage." p.288

I've known you for at least three weeks now. Of course, there's a power imbalance in our relationship and you treat me like a child that needs coddling but that's fine because you're really good in bed and I've had my first orgasm when I didn't think I'd ever have one. We should definitely start thinking of marriage and children. What's that? I'm a talented, intelligent woman with a high power career? What's that got to do with my desperate desire to make a home for you, bake you cookies while you do thinking, and have your babies? I can do both! If you'll let me. When I'm not pregnant. Or in your way.

*sigh*

Early 1990s romance. Corporate woman who would rather be a wife and mother, if not have it all. Stoic, hard man who needs a little woman (literally!) to make his life worthwhile. She's emotional but intelligent. Unfocussed. Needy. He's strong and stoic with a subtly emotional side that's only seen in her presence. Fabulous in bed. Appreciative of her womanly arts.

It gets tiring.

And while we're at it, why the hell didn't she report good ole Philip to the University for professional misconduct?!? Not only for doing his grad student but going through her desk and negotiating on her behalf without her consent.

It is what it is. A book of it's time. But, today, I saw little longterm chemistry nor a relationship I can sympathise with.

It was okay.

References:
Author's website: http://jayneannkrentz.com/perfect-par...

(ISBN 9780434002016)

-CR-

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an older Krentz title, heavy on the romance, very light on the suspense/mystery. It was okay. The premise involved a man who had built a company from the ground up and who had been just about to purchase the company outright when the owner died and left the company to his niece. The niece, a Midwestern librarian, decided to try her hand at running a company.

I saw a lot of room for conflict in this dynamic, but it didn't quite spark for me. The chemistry was off -- possibly because the underlying conflict was too readily brushed aside, and possibly because too much of the attraction between these two was lust-based. Letty had even recently broken off an engagement because there was no spark and she couldn't reach a climax, but apparently she simply hadn't found the right man yet. There was some attempt at humor about her needing therapy (instead of a man with a magic touch) that fell flat. Overall, I thought this story danced around real issues and suffered for it. But it wasn't actively bad either, just shallow.

[Diane ~Firefly~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing beats a comfort read. It is standard JAK plot. Letty inherits the company Joel built and wants him to be her mentor in business. He wants her and wants to keep his revenge on track. She wants to save him from himself. I always enjoy the characters JAK writes and this book is no exception. Even the subplot with Letty's father and new young step-mother is interesting.

[Sep · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perfectly wonderful way to spend an evening after a challenging day! Joel Blackstone built Thornquist Gear into a sporting store chain with the idea that he would buy out the owner by a certain date. Unexpectedly, the owner died too soon leaving the business to his great-niece Letty. Letty feels she needs to get out of a rut and learning to run a sporting gear business might just do the trick.

Ms Krentz's humor is delightful but her compassion for her characters and their challenges is what wins my loyalty. This is an earlier Krentz but it ages well though I kept forgetting that they did not have cell phones or computers.

[Deborah Almada · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a reread from long ago. It is a reminder of why I enjoy Jayne Ann Krentz. While it's a bit dated, it did make me laugh out loud in several areas, and I enjoyed my time here. Never underestimate a librarian!

[Mervi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leticia “Letty” Thornquist’s Great-Uncle Charlie died of a heart attack, whilst doing the thing he most loved in the world – fishing – leaving her his Seattle-based company, the camping and sporting goods giant Thornquist Gear, Inc.

Thornquist Gear’s CEO, Joel Blackstone, is left fuming. Firstly, he doesn’t believe a twenty-nine-year-old academic librarian from the Midwest knows “a balance sheet from an unabridged dictionary”. Secondly, he considers that the company belongs to him, as he’d spent ten years building it up from the ground. Thirdly, Charlie had promised to let Joel buy him out in another year. And, fourthly, and more importantly, she would be a deterrent to his 15-years-in-the-waiting, personal vendetta against Victor Copeland of Copeland Marine, and that’s something he won’t accept. He decides to offer this “librarian” the same buyout deal he had had with Charlie, deciding she wouldn’t be interested in the company anyway. But he soon learns that that’s not the case: “‘What I have come to realize lately, Joel,’ she continued with a burst of earnest intensity, ‘is that passion is exactly what's been missing in my life. It's missing in every area of my life. My career, my past, my future. Everything seems to have gotten into a rut. I want out.’ ‘Out. I see.’ ‘Lately I've begun to feel as though I'm sitting on the sidelines of my own life. Normally I'm a very goal-directed person, but I feel as though I've lost my way or something. I need to revitalize and redirect myself. Great-Uncle Charlie has given me the perfect opportunity to do just that, and I'm going to grab the chance. Thornquist Gear is going to change my life.’”

Letty then decides that Joel would make the perfect mentor for her. Letty’s father, Dr. Morgan Thornquist, a full professor in the Department of Philosophy and Logic at Ridgemore College, warns her that Joel isn’t like any other man she’s ever known, that he’s no ivory tower type, and he doesn’t deal in theory but in hard facts. He also doubted Joel had any sensitivity training, and that he doesn’t play the game by the book; he’s the kind of man that makes up his own rules. Morgan states, however, that it should prove “interesting”. Letty quickly learns this when she experiences Joel’s “Lesson 1: How to Avoid Unwanted Phone Calls”. Joel was direct, but undeniably effective.

The book was a nice balance between humour, suspense and romance, and I liked that the MMC appreciated the MFC’s other attributes, like an ankle, her intelligence or even her rumpled suits. It’s tedious to just read about characters’ more typical physical features, and their wants, “needs” and desires, and the fulfilling of these.

I loved the main characters, and the chemistry between them. The MFC, Leticia Thornquist was my favourite. She was brisk, organised, and entirely professional in all her business dealings, speaking clearly and distinctly, making her view clear to others. She was kind and fair at all times, and had a good overview and business head on her. She exhibited linguistic and intrapersonal/social intelligence, which Joel recognised and respected. I was, however, frustrated by her lack of action when it came to her ex-fiancé, the pompous and pontificating Dr. Philip Dixon, Associate Professor at the Department of Business Administration at Vellacott College. Letty had a great deal of patience, in this case, too much in my opinion.

In general, all the characters were well-rounded and developed, with all of the reasons behind their behaviour and actions divulged by the end. I can’t say I liked all the characters, however. Diana was the character I disliked the most, as she had simply waited to be rescued from her gilded cage. Although the reason for her behaviour was given, as I mentioned, at the end, I still feel it didn’t excuse her misleading and using people. I also had difficulty accepting Morgan and how much Letty relied on him. Understandable as it may be, considering Letty’s having lost her mother to breast cancer when she was eighteen, I feel that Morgan was emotionally unavailable to her: “She had known ahead of time exactly what Morgan would say. It was the same thing he had been saying since she was a child: ‘Make a decision matrix, Letty. Weigh all the crucial factors and enter them on a grid. The appropriate conclusion will be obvious.’” Also, for a man who professes to think logically, I fail to understand Morgan’s logic in leaving the three women unprotected to join Joel in his mission to deal with just one man on the loose.

I particularly enjoyed the humour in this book, for example, how Joel kept “forgetting” that Letty was from Indiana and mentioned some other town/city instead, and how she was always saying “I read an article about …” whenever she came across a problem that she needed to solve. Joel did not fail to notice this: “Ms. Thornquist probably did not approve of sex, anyway. She had undoubtedly read an article that detailed the myriad dangers involved these days.”

It is sad how many of these types of small towns like Echo Cove there are, that are reliant on just one company or industry for their economic well-being. And how many more there have been throughout history, leading to struggling or deserted towns. Often these could have been prevented, if the problems would have been addressed earlier but sadly it’s often just people’s neglect and lack of caring, or a sign of the times.

I thought the narrator, Amy McFadden, did an absolutely fantastic feat in bringing Jayne Ann Krentz’s characters to life, as I lost myself in their lives and the story.

The ending of the book was sweet.

My favourite quote: “A heavy silence hung over Joel's office after the door closed behind Diana. Letty waited uncomfortably for Joel to say something. When he did not, she smiled tentatively. ‘Joel, you're not really upset because I told Diana that Keith pounded you into the floor during that bar fight, are you?’ ‘Pounded me into the floor?’ Joel repeated softly. ‘It gets worse every time I hear the story.’ ‘Pounded, flattened, beat to a pulp, what does it matter? It was in a good cause. I was trying to shore up their relationship a little.’ ‘I take it you don't think my ego is a worthy cause?” Letty grinned. ‘I think your ego could sustain a direct hit from a nuclear warhead without getting badly damaged.’”

[Mem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Letitia Thornquist, a Midwest librarian, has inherited her Uncle Charlie's company, Thornquist Gear, Inc. His CEO Joel Blackstone has been the force behind the company, taking the company from a small Seattle sporting goods store to a industry giant. When Letitia walks in ready to learn the ropes and take her place as president, Joel is really angry. His goal was to buy the business from Charlie and he is determined to get the company he built from her. Now she wants him to teach her the business. Joel notices there is more to Letitia and has him wanting more. Letitia knows she is at risk in his arms, but after discovering her professor fiancé in his office with a female aide on her knees in front of his unzipped pants, she wants some sizzle.
Letitia is not the pushover he thinks, she has ideas and lets him know she will not be spied on and kept away from decisions about her company. She discovers he has set up spies to keep her out of decisions and she puts a stop to that. He is not happy when she stops a promotion of new sporting equipment and demands new print material, the muscle man pictures will not attract those buyers for the easy to use equipment. Joel's past in a company he is determined to destroy causes just the right amount of conflict and tension between them.

[Aarann · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. A good solid read. I loved the banter between Letty and Joel, and while I do prefer it when the heroines put up a bit more of a fight with the heroes, the book managed to stay interesting, even while Letty and Joel were in a romantic relationship.

It suffered a bit from the hackneyed villain, which I didn't feel was necessary. Luckily, not too much time was spent on him. I thought Letty's narcissistic ex-fiance didn't get nearly enough of a comeuppance -- such douchebaggery is deserving of violence and serious public humiliation. Still, I thought the way he was sent off was pretty poetic, all things considered. I just wish he'd had a few bruises on him in the meantime.

I have a weird relationship with JAK -- she is very hit and miss with me but I'm happy to report this one was a hit. I'm not sure why this one isn't making it all the way onto the Keepers shelf, because I had a lot of fun with it and can totally see myself re-reading it, other than the Keepers shelf is like porn: I know it when I see it.

[Daniel Rios · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lo procrastiné mucho, debo decir, pero al fin y al cabo una historia muy tierna. A pesar de que me estresé mucho porque habían unos personajes que mejor dicho!

Lo que casi no me convenció es tanta felicidad y todo tan fácil y un romance tan llevadero. Creo que al fin y al cabo reivindico mi preferencia sobre las tragedias, creo que al fin y al cabo son más realistas. Me parece que las partes eróticas fueron exquisitamente bien escritas, sin rayar a lo vulgar, la autora cuidó muy bien sus palabras para provocar esa sensualidad y erotismo. Una historia que recomendaron y que recomendaría.

[Mudpie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book back in the 90s when I was still a school girl...now when I re-read it I wondered what made me like the book so much I kept it! I was stunned I did not like the characters in the book much! Niny Letty, the "yes boss" Joel, the cold Stephanie, Morgan with the much younger new wife who forces his daughter to respect his new wife...and dun get me started on Keith and Diana and the Echo Cove town bullies aka bizmen...

[Irene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Дочитала наконец ), местами даже по диагонали. К сожалению, герои ничем меня не зацепили, какие-то невнятные образы у автора получились, на мой взгляд. Не поверила я в них. Особенно "порадовали" карикатурный болван Филип и такой же карикатурный злодей Копленд.

[Addison Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first JAK and still remains one of my most favorite books ever!!

[D.R. Grady · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book that got me hooked on Jayne's books!

[Sumeetha Manikandan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the plot and I felt that it somehow lacked the passion and chemistry that is characterized in Jayne Ann Krentz's other books (Wildest Hearts and Family Man).

[Bona Caballero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Revisité esta novela con ocasión del Reto RITA 2.0, lo que me sirvió para explicar cómo Jayne Ann Krentz fue una de mis escritoras favoritas allá por los años noventa. Ahora ya no, pero mientras duró, fue muy bonito.
Esta es una de sus novelas que más me gustan, con el choque de trenes ejecutivo entre el CEO Joel Blackstone y la inesperada heredera de la empresa, la bibliotecaria Leticia Thornquist. Las discusiones no son obstáculo para la deliciosa atracción mutua que sienten, y a la que se entregan con desparpajo. De algún momento sexi aún me acuerdo hoy, casi treinta años después de leerla por vez primera.
Me dejé llevar por ese humor suave que brota casi en cada página, por el realismo de sus atractivos protagonistas y ese romance sin prisa pero sin pausa, con momentos sexis muy bien traídos a cuento. JAK era fenomenal en plan humorístico. Hay momentos verdaderamente de chiste.
Esta estupenda novela se la recomendaría a los aficionados a la romántica contemporánea con su toque de humor, entendiendo que es de los noventa y no hay móviles, ni internet, ¡y se cuenta en tercera persona...!

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book as both Letty and Joel go through some emotional growth. Letty has been a small town college librarian for the past several years. When her Uncle Charlie leaves her his sporting goods company, she decides it's time for a change. She quits her job, breaks things off with her cheating fiance, and heads for Seattle to run the company. Joel had an agreement with his boss that Charlie would sell him the company, as Joel was the one who took it from a little store to a major company. But Charlie died before they could do it and now Joel is stuck with a woman who wants him to teach her what to do.

Letty is pretty naive as she thinks that she can step in with her ability to research how to do anything, plus getting Joel to teach her what to do. She's made the decision because she needs a change. She feels that she's been going through life more as an observer than a participant and this is what she needs to shake her up. She doesn't seem to really understand how furious Joel is that she's basically stolen the company from him and expects him to be just fine with teaching her. She has a lot of confidence that she will be able to handle things just fine. Where she is lacking confidence is in her personal life. She caught her fiance cheating with one of his grad students, which he blamed on her poor performance in bed. She's "read articles" that some women just don't do well that way and thinks she's one of them. She doesn't expect the sizzle that she feels around Joel and wants to keep things purely professional between them.

In spite of her apparent ditziness, I loved the way that Letty had some real ability to contribute to the business. Joel does his best to keep her involvement limited, but she finds a way to get involved. Her tent raising efforts with their new line was a perfect example, as she showed Joel where some mistakes had been made with the tent instructions. She was not going to back down in her opinions even though Joel was doing his best to intimidate her. She also had strong opinions about the takeover that Joel had planned and she wasn't going to just sit back and let him run it all.

Joel had gotten involved in the business from the very beginning when he was hired to work there. Letty's uncle wasn't a great businessman as he'd rather be fishing. So whenever Joel made a suggestion, Charlie told him to do whatever he felt was best, and soon the business was thriving. He had great plans that came to a halt with Charlie's death. He was stunned by Letty's plans and furious that she wouldn't just do what she was told. He decided the easiest thing to do was humor her by letting her think she was doing important things, but he kept her limited in what she was actually exposed to. He especially wanted to keep her away from his takeover plans for a small company in his hometown. Joel is bent on revenge against the owner of that company and plans to acquire it and dismantle it. He holds that owner responsible for his father's death, a death that has haunted him for fifteen years. He's not happy when Letty finds out about it and tries to interfere.

Joel is also attracted to Letty and has no problem with the idea of sleeping with her. His attraction takes him by surprise because she isn't like anyone he's ever been involved with before. In spite of his frustration with her, he is also amused and fascinated by her. When he finds out about her ex-fiance's opinion of her sexuality he tries to let Letty know it isn't her, that he ex is the one with the problem. I loved seeing the two of them as they gave in to the attraction. Joel gave Letty the confidence she needed to see that there was nothing wrong with her as a woman. Letty gave Joel the kind of care for him as a man that he had never had from anyone else.

She also got him to tell her just why he was so intent on destroying that other company. It took some real work on her part and the ability to break through his walls to get him to see that he could destroy the owner without destroying the company. I loved the way that she kept after him until she could get him to see things the way she did.

I had a lot of fun seeing the way that Letty was more capable than anyone thought she was. I also had fun seeing her deal with her ex when he showed up and tried to take things over. I could sense her building frustration with him and the way he totally ignored what she said, and loved the restaurant scene where it all boiled over. There was one more scene with him later where she really made her point with him.

Joel had a lot of baggage that he'd been dragging around since he left his hometown. Once Letty got involved in his plans, he ended up having to face a lot of things he had been ignoring. On their visit to the town I loved seeing the way that Letty supported him but still didn't let him run roughshod over her. I liked seeing how he was so great with Letty once he realized how badly her ex had treated her. It was also fun to see him actually start to listen to some of the things she had to say about the business.

I liked the whole takeover part and how Letty's influence made such a change in Joel. I also enjoyed seeing her look at different things than Joel did and how it added to the overall picture. There were times I wasn't sure how that was going to turn out, especially with the past Joel had with the owner's daughter. Things got kind of intense when Joel put the plans in motion. It was great to see the teamwork that made everything work out at the end.

It was great to see Letty's confidence in herself grow as she learned more about the business. There were a couple great scenes where that confidence enabled her to stand up to Joel in ways he really didn't expect. I also liked seeing how Joel finally started to accept that there were things that Letty could do for the business that he couldn't, and that maybe they could end up being perfect partners after all.

[Robbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm pretty sure this is the first Jayne Ann Krentz book I've read. It just came out on Hoopla and I mistakenly thought it was a newer book, but it's a '90s book reissued with a new cover etc. For that reason, some of it feels quite dated. I never really warmed to the hero, to be honest. Yeah, at first he's an asshole, and at the end? He's slightly less of an asshole. Some of it was vaguely fun but at the same time the funny/fun stuff was a bit overdone and broad for me, as was the Big Bad Guy. The heroine, Letty, is a vaguely repressed librarian who inherits a sporting goods company, and she's sort of adorkable but, like I said, it goes a bit far with that stuff. (And she doesn't look like the girl on this cover, btw - she's got wild hair and she's more lush than slim, and she's closer to petite than tall.) Anyway, some of it just didn't gel with me, and some of the romance felt a bit unearned. But I'd give Krentz another chance. Clearly she knows her stuff, and maybe another book will hit my buttons more squarely.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable JAK with typical characters. Well written plot with CEO who has worked for 10 yrs to bring down/ruin a person and company from his past. Only he is foiled as the owner of his company dies before signing full ownership over to him. On top of this the company is left to deceased owner's granddaughter - a college reference librarian with no business experience especially with outdoor camping equipment. She is smart and decides she wants to run the company. Cute tug of war between headstrong but sweet gal and hard headed CEO.
Action packed mystery, intrigue, and romance. Very dated published in 1992 so rampant stereotypes of women's roles in business and beginnings of women's lib. However for fun fiction it was fine no worse than watching a old movie where the men wore suits, were macho, did all the car driving - what's up with that anyway? All those old movies had the guy driving all the time, sheesh.

[mangotango · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perfect Partners by Jayne Ann Krentz

This is the lowest rating I’ve ever given a book by this author and it’s all down to the hero. He was just horrible to her for most of the book. Where were the Alpha protective vibes? From the start he tried to find a way to take her inheritance then spent most of the book plotting to undermine her. By the end I was wondering if he even liked her. When he told her he loved her I was confused because he didn’t seem to have any respect for her. I know it was written in the 90s and I was judging it by that standard. I’ve read and enjoyed other books from this era. What I usually love about her heroes is their highhandedness (honestly if you don’t like that JAK books from this period are probably not for you) but it normally comes from a place of wanting to protect the heroine and be part of her life. That aspect was missing here.

⭐️⭐️ 2 Stars

[Isabel Luna · Rating 2 out of 5]

No recuerdo q me gustara mucho la verdad. La compré x la autora, q ya había leídos varios de ella tanto contemporáneos como históricos y me encantaron. Pero mira como q la encontré repetitiva y sosa.
La protagonista era demasiado naif y el protagonista, aunq mucho procuró no llegaba a maho alfa y luego ya se fueron dando situaciones q entiendo pretendían ser cómico-románticas pero no les salió y como q se notaba mucho q la novela repetía características y situaciones como estereotipadas de la autora en otras de sus varias novelas.
En algún momento también se pretendió darle algo de drama, pero eso tampoco se logró muy bien y si no le doy una sola estrella es únicamente por lealtad a la autora q esta señora, ya sea como Jayne Ann o Amanda,siempre me ha gustado un montón.

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute romance-suspense story by JAK that was first published in 1992. (I mention the publishing date because some of the devices mentioned are from that era, not their modern-day counterparts. Otherwise, the date doesn't matter.)

The owner of a successful sporting goods store dies and leaves his empire to his great-niece, a reference librarian from Indiana, not the CEO whom he promised to sell the company to in a year. Letty decides to trade in her old job and run the company, much to Joel's chagrin. A lot can happen in a year, mainly if the CEO trains the new president on how to run a business. A change of philosophy and a new respect for each other must happen to maintain the company's success.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This being a "classic" I was prepared to be irritated a lot. I was pleasantly surprised. For me the only thing that really stood out was the lack of cell phones. Not being able to reach someone at any time just seemed odd. It was unrealistic to think a midwestern librarian was going to step into a high powered corporate ownership and presidency with no hiccups, but I managed to overlook that. Letty had a backbone and didn't let Joel walk all over her. Joel really listened to her and even made necessary changes when she was right. Dixon, the ex, was just an irritant and I enjoyed the way he got his comeuppance. Overall an enjoyable story.

[Ejchri · Rating 4 out of 5]

The mode when written was overbearing he-man dominance

The writing is good, but this book shows its age in its hero character. Macho male who thinks he has to be all he-mannish and to keep the little lady uninformed, et cetera.
Not at all about dominance in the physical/sexual arena, but, more than thirty years ago when this book was written, the male lead was written to be just the sort of man whom literary augents and publishing houses believed buyers of romance novels wanted and expected. Thus, this book now isn't of the top quality of this author's more recent work. But if you can choose to be amused instead of affronted, it can be a fun read anyway.🤳📖

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joel Blackman is the CEO of Thornquist Gear and he had a deal with the owner of the firm, Charlie Thornquist to buy him out. But before Joel could complete Charlie died and the firm was inherited by Charlie's niece, Letty. Joel had built the firm up to a huge brand name and was determined to keep it. But Letty, a librarian decided she needed a change and went ahead and started running the company. Clashes between the two ensued and also a quite a bit of physical attraction, too. A fun story to read.