The Housekeeper's Awakening

At His Service #7

by Sharon Kendrick

Depuis que Carly travaille pour Luis Martinez, elle a vu défiler un nombre inimaginable de femmes dans la vie – et dans le lit – de ce play-boy invétéré. Dieu merci, il semble ne jamais l’avoir considérée comme une possible conquête. Pour lui, elle n’est que son insipide gouvernante – ce qui lui convient parfaitement : elle n’a pas de temps à consacrer aux hommes dans son genre ! Ce qu’elle souhaite, c’est gagner suffisamment d’argent pour reprendre ses études et devenir médecin. Mais le jour où Luis est blessé dans une course automobile, tout bascule. Jour après jour, tandis qu’elle soigne son envoûtant patron, Carly voit une lueur nouvelle s’allumer dans son regard. S’il décide de la séduire, aura-t-elle la force de lui résister ?

Genres: Romance, Harlequin, Harlequin Presents, Contemporary Romance, Fiction, Audiobook, M F Romance

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published August 19, 2014

About the author

I was told off as a child for making up stories—little did I know that one day I’d earn my living by writing them!

To the horror of my parents, I left school at sixteen and held a bewildering variety of jobs: I was a London DJ (in the now-trendy Primrose Hill), a decorator and a singer. After that I became a cook, a photographer and, eventually, a nurse. I waitressed in the south of France, drove an ambulance in Australia, saw lots of beautiful sights but could never settle down. Everywhere I went I felt like a square peg—until one day I started writing again and then everything just fell into place. I felt like Cinderella must have when the glass slipper fit!

Today, I have the best job in the world, writing passionate romances for Harlequin. I like writing stories which are sexy and fast-paced, yet packed full of emotion—stories that readers will identify with, laugh and cry along with.

My interests are many and varied—chocolate and music, fresh flowers and bubble baths, films, cooking and trying to keep my home from looking burglarized! Simple pleasures—you can’t beat them!

I live in Winchester, one of the most stunning cities in the world, but don’t take my word for it—come see for yourself! I regularly visit London and Paris. Oh, and I love hearing from my readers all over the world…so I think it’s over to you!

Reviews

[Dino-Jess ✮ The Book Eating Dinosaur ✮ · Rating 4 out of 5]

SOMEONE PASS ME SOME BREAD ON A STICK, IT'S CHEESE FONDUE TIME!

This is everything I have been searching for in my Mills & Boon adventures, and more!

Cheese! Fluff! Drama! Character growth! ACTUAL ROMANCE BETWEEN THE MAIN CHARACTERS!

This was wonderful. Luis is a grumpy, arrogant playboy race car driver. He is recovering from an accident and has to keep firing his physiotherapists because he's just so bloody attractive that they keep falling in love with him. So what is he to do? He tells his mousy housekeeper, Carly, to massage him and help him with his physical therapy instead. Because there's nothing quite like having someone completely unqualified helping you learn to walk again!

But Carly has a secret! She doesn't want to be a housekeeper forever. She has hopes! And dreams! Guess what she wants to be? A doctor! And she also has a badawful past that has caused her to shy away from men. So massaging Luis is a huge thing for her. Oh and Luis thinks Carly is a plain old Jane so there's no way that he will fall for her while she is helping him heal. Surprise! He's wrong!

Both Luis and Carly had an excellent sense of self reflection that really helped me enjoy watching their love story unfold. It was a slow burn and while I could have done with a bit less of Carly fat shaming herself, I really enjoyed the way Luis knew what sort of a man he was and had little moments of internal examination like this:

"She looked like snow before it got trampled on. Before it became all grey and slushy. And he was the kind of man who did the trampling, wasn't he? He stamped on women's hearts and hardly even noticed he was doing it."

I really liked how arrogant Luis was. It was actually hilarious. For example:

"He realised that he'd never met anyone who had actively fought her attraction to him before. It was incredibly.... arousing."

I mean, what an asshole, right? And yet I really enjoyed him. Maybe it was the way he broke down and became the best and most supportive man you could ever wish for at the end of this? The ending was straight out of a romantic comedy and I ate it right up. LOVES!

This actually gave me butterflies in the second half. It was very entertaining and I enjoyed it immensely. As an added bonus there was no armpit making out in this one, so I'm giving it an extra star for that reason alone.

Such cheese. Very fluff. So romance. YAS.

4 marry-me-and-have-my-babies Stars

[Izzah ꒰Duchess of Cabria ಇ ⭑✧ ᴏɴ ᴘᴀᴛʀᴇᴏɴ ✧ ⋆꒱ · Rating 2 out of 5]

The insipidness was such, this isn't even a real story
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🕮⋆˚࿔✎𓂃 𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
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[Siv30 · Rating 3 out of 5]

לסקירה מפורטת בעברית, קישור לבלוג שלי -

https://sivi-the-avid-reader.com/תשוק...

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was basically a cookie-cutter book. It's a 100% bog-standard, run-of-the-mill plot with absolutely no surprises and no juicy plot lines to make things exciting. Just by reading the dust jacket you can absolutely predict everything that'll happen. In a word, the book is boring. There's nothing wrong with the writing style and the characters aren't too annoying, but there's just no meat to it. Even the Black Moment and the reconciliation were a snore. And nobody got any comeuppance for their bad behavior at the end either. On the whole, I can't recommend this one as anything other than a completely mindless veg-out read.


The story opens with Carly working as Luis's housekeeper. She's been working for him some undefined amount of time but it's long enough for her to have become well acquainted with Luis's manwhore ways. We get a fun little montage of memories from Carly at the beginning where she recounts how many times she's stumbled across naked supermodels in the house who were lying in wait for Luis. And then there were all the times she's found abandoned lingerie in the pool or on top of the flagpole...

So yeah, right from the start we've got no illusions about Luis's character up to this point in his life. He hasn't been one of those alpha heroes who gets chased by lots of women but only has discreet affairs with a select few of them. Nope, Luis has been happily partaking of the wham-baam-thank you-whatever-your-name-is lifestyle. For YEARS. Luis actually says that women are as meaningless and interchangeable to him as the tires he used to get through during his racing days. Damn. That's a dyed in the wool manwhore right there...

Luis is technically retired from racing but he recently participated in a charity race during which he wrecked his car, resulting in a shattered pelvis. The race took place in England, which is why he's been stuck at his English manor house for weeks while he convalesces. Ordinarily he prefers much more exotic climates. And since that is the case, he and Carly have rarely crossed paths the whole time she's been working for him. Now, however, they've been in forced proximity for several weeks and it's about to get worse.

You see, Luis is so ungodly handsome (apparently) that he effortlessly and completely unconsciously casts a spell on every woman who enters his stratosphere so that they all inevitably fall in love with him, even when he's being incredibly arrogant, demanding and down right rude. The latest victim of this magical effect is Luis's physical therapist. A no-nonsense, ultra-practical, stiff upper lip British woman who is appalled by her own lack of professionalism at allowing herself to fall for her client. Luis has noticed her increasingly omnipresent blushes when she's around him and knows that yet another empty-headed female has succumbed to his irresistible charms and he thinks less of her for it. He, too, despises her lack of professionalism and he fires her.

Then he decides that Carly, his housekeeper remember, will now take over as his physical therapist. Giving him thrice-daily massages, helping him through his exercises, and swimming with him in the pool. He insists it must be her. No one else will do. He's fed up with hormone-addled bimbos who can't stop throwing themselves at him and since he's known Carly for a long time and she's proven resistant to his charms, she's the best option. He couldn't possibly, you know, hire a MALE physical therapist instead... Nope, it's Carly or bust.

Never mind that she's got no knowledge whatsoever about PT and DOES have a real full-time job of keeping his house in order. Nope, none of that matters. Both he and his recently fired female PT insist that it "isn't difficult" to do the PT's job and that the she can show Carly what to do in just a matter of minutes. And that smell you're noticing is all the bullshit lying around and getting trodden on by this ridiculous plot. My sister is a PT and my sister-in-law is a massage therapist and both of them had to go through extensive training to do their jobs because you can absolutely injure someone if you don't know what the heck you're doing. And considering that Carly's dream is to be a doctor and she spends all her time studying for her prep courses, you'd think that she, of all people, would refuse to perform these tasks without the proper training. And it's absolutely hysterical that Luis tells Carly to just go ahead and hire a temporary housekeeper to do Carly's real job while she's busy helping him with his PT. Yep, it makes total sense to hire someone to fill a position that's already filled so that the original employee can move over to do a task they're not qualified for instead of just hiring a PT in the first place. And, I'd like to add, the housework is never, ever mentioned again after this. So we don't know if she hired someone off-page or if she and Luis were just happily letting the dust bunnies take the place over...

But anyway, now that plot contrivance has gotten us on the path, we spend a few weeks, first in England and then in the South of France, with Carly giving Luis massages all the time and feeling embarrassed to be in a swimsuit in front of him. See, Carly is a "curvy" girl and she's got low self-esteem because of her backstory. Her mother always wanted to be a model but couldn't make it. So when she was blessed with a naturally beautiful daughter (Carly's sister), she put all her love and focus on giving that daughter everything she wanted and needed to become a star while ignoring and belittling Carly.

Also, when Carly was 16 she went to a party where she was sexually assaulted, but not full-on raped, by a drunk rich boy. Carly's mother convinced her not to report the crime because it was Carly's word against the boy's and since his parents were rich, no one would believe her story (which honestly is probably EXACTLY what would have gone down). So those two factors have led Carly to want to do everything in her power to keep attention as far away as possible. She deliberately dresses in shapeless clothes, doesn't wear makeup and just fades into the background everywhere she goes.

We get a few of Luis and Carly's interactions described but not many, really. Not enough to establish any kind of bond between them. There's a lot of focus on how Carly is feeling either embarrassed by her body or embarrassed by her body's response to Luis's proximity and hopes he hasn't noticed, but nothing much in the way of conversation. We don't get much of Luis's perspective but what little we do see doesn't really help the situation much. In the beginning he found himself attracted to Carly and he was rather unflatteringly shocked at his own body's response. He refers to her as Miss Mouse and other equally derogatory things while mentally comparing her to all the other women he's slept with in the past and finding her lacking.

Eventually the passion that has been building bubbles over in the massage room and Luis is all set to have sex. But then he says something insufferably arrogant and it yanks Carly back to reality. She reflects that Luis is way out of her league and (rightly) assumes that his sudden interest is just a result of propinquity. So she pushes him away. He's completely thunderstruck that any woman could or would resist him and demands an explanation. Carly blurts out that she's a virgin and that makes her a "freak" as if it's something shameful. Then she runs up to her room. Luis follows her and she confesses to her almost rape. He insists that what she needs is not a trip to a therapist so she can work out her issues in a healthy way, but rather a visit to Love Dr. Luis's sexual healing rehab center. She agrees to give it a shot.

The next day, Luis gives his staff the day off and prepares to seduce Carly "the right way" by starting with dinner. But Carly has gotten cold feet and started fretting about whether to call the whole thing off. She's in her room dithering when Luis comes to find her and basically just won't take no for an answer, though it's not really a forced seduction. Of course the sex is mind-blowing and they get it on all night.

Luis leaves her bed before dawn to slip back into his own room so the servants won't know that he's banging the help...but then he slips right back into her room a few hours later before Carly can go down to breakfast because he's so hot for her again that he doesn't care what the servants will think if he's caught and tells Carly that she shouldn't either.

After this we fast forward through several weeks with just a paragraph stating that they've been getting it on every night while supposedly having a nice time with each other during the day. Too bad we never saw any of that relationship-building time on the page....Eventually he takes her out and gives her a Cinderella moment but it's late enough into their relationship that it doesn't feel tacky like it so often does in romance novels. Luis actually was attracted to her the way she was. And it didn't bother him at all to be seen in public with her, despite her unflattering and unstylish clothes. It's only when Carly complains about feeling self-conscious because she doesn't fit in with all the gorgeous people in Luis's set that he decides to buy her the clothes. Luis was refreshingly unsympathetic to Carly's self-deprecating insecurities, which I liked since I hate self-deprecating heroines. He told her straight up that he loved her body but that if she didn't, then she should do something to change it, not just sit around whining about it. Too right!

Eventually Carly's sister sees a picture of Carly and Luis in a magazine and sends Carly an email demanding to know what's up. Carly gives a generic response just saying that she's there in a professional capacity. After weeks of (allegedly) being happy, Carly knows that things will have to end soon. She's thinking about it by the pool one day when Luis asks her what's up. He, too, had been thinking it was about time to end their affair. He had business to get to and he knew that the longer things dragged out, the greater the chance that Carly would fall in love with him just like all the other women, and he doesn't want that.

He indulges in a rather prolonged session of patting himself on the back as he reflects on what a great favor he's done Carly by sleeping with her. That he'd single-handedly gotten her over her attempted rape and now she'll be able to go on to have a healthy relationship with some other man. A fact that doesn't give him even the slightest twinge of jealousy or displeasure. He then fully canonizes himself by deciding that he'll doing her another great favor by breaking things off with her before she develops feelings for him. So when he addresses her questions about what'll happen when they return to England, he makes it plain that their affair is at an end. Carly is heartbroken because of this but hides it.

Then Carly's sister turns up unannounced and really embarrasses herself by very obviously flirting with Luis. Luis isn't tempted by the sister at all and neatly sends her packing when she starts fishing for a dinner invitation. Carly walks her sister to the door and as soon as they're alone, the sister makes disparaging remarks about Carly's new clothes and insultingly demands to know if she's been dumb enough to sleep with Luis. She tells Carly that she's a fool to let Luis pump and dump her just because he's bored, which is obviously all it would ever be to him with a girl like Carly. Carly, used to a lifetime of being belittled by her mother and sister, and fresh from having Luis essentially break up with her, doesn't stand up for herself at all.

Then she goes back to Luis and asks him if he was attracted to her sister. He gets really offended by her implication that he'd turn around and bang her sister after becoming Carly's lover. Even though he'd given a very long and impassioned declaration about how men are physically incapable of being faithful to one woman and that he's got no qualms about sleeping with any and every willing female who at least possesses opposable thumbs. You see, Luis's "tragic" backstory is that his father cheated on his mother with her best friend. This led to Luis's mother letting herself waste away in her grief and cause the OW's husband to commit suicide. So since his father, a man who had been married to his wife for over twenty years and claimed during that time that she was his soulmate, could cheat, every man must necessarily be a cheater.

Luis, in his outrage at Carly's accusation (which she didn't actually make, he essentially put the words in her mouth) comes down on her like a ton of bricks. Saying that she's a coward for not standing up for herself and not being brave enough to get out into society. That she liked to think of herself as unattractive and of him as a manwhore because it was easier to go back to being unnoticed. I didn't totally agree with his speech but he wasn't totally wrong either.

Carly is hurt by what he says but strikes back by calling Luis a coward too. That he was hurt by his parents' fiasco and didn't want to risk feeling any hurt again so he adopted the "no love" mantra for his life to avoid that possibility. He basically tells her that she's got a long way to go before she could become a doctor of psychiatry because her conclusions are all bunk. Then there's kind of a weird shift in the tone of the discussion/fight when he offers to pay her the last bit of money she needs in order to start medical school immediately. He then tells her not to bother refusing out of some misguided attempt at pride because he could well afford the money and it wouldn't gain her anything to refuse it.

Carly agrees to take the money and decides to "give him a gift in return." And that gift is to declare her love. This, in her mind, is an altruistic thing because she wants him to know that he's loveable, not because of his looks or his money, but because of who he is on the inside (whoever that is, since we didn't get to see it in this book..) He pretty brutally spits on her declaration and she runs off so he won't see her cry.

Next chapter picks up several months later. Luis is bored and restless but can't understand why. He basically sits there wondering about his bad case of ennui for several minutes until it finally occurs to him that he misses Carly. He then says that he "knows what he wants but it's a big ask." Then he races off to Carly's medical school. He ambushes her in front of some new friends she's made and asks her for a word. When alone, he declares his love and Carly tells him to get lost. He persists for a while, with her throwing up roadblocks and him battering them down until she finally admits that she still loves him.

The epilogue picks up 6 years later with Carly having just graduated medical school. We get a recap of how they made their relationship work despite them being in very different social positions and Luis having financial investments all over the world while she had to stay in England. They've gotten married and we get a short description of how jealous Carly's sister was and how astounded her mother was at Carly's "luck" at landing a rich man. Neither of them cared a bit that Carly had put herself through med school.

And that's the end of the book. Carly's mother, sister and attempted rapist get no comeuppance at all for their poor treatment of her, which I thought was a missed opportunity. The sister, at least, could have become a more 3-dimensional character. It wouldn't be hard to give her a few lines explaining that she, too, had been made to feel inferior her whole life because of their mother's obsession. That she'd had it drilled into her mind her whole life that her only worth lay in her looks. That Carly was "the smart one" and that she herself shouldn't even bother trying to learn something. But no, that's too deep for this book. The sister's just a shallow, self-involved twerp.

We also never find out what happened to Luis's father and his lover, which is irritating. Did they live HEA together? Or did their role in the deaths of her husband and his wife poison their relationship? Lame.


So yeah, it was just a very tame story with absolutely no surprises in store. The Black Moment wasn't even really all that black and Luis's discovery that he loved Carly was very uninspiring.

[Mtve41 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unpopular rating and review. But I liked it! Predictable and safe and not very long. I loved both the h and H. Both were extremely modern and gave each other space.

Carly is a sensible housekeeper biding her time until she has money to enrol into med school. Luis is your non-average alpha who is into car racing and thanks to an accident is currently recuperating.

One fine day he asks his evasive housekeeper to be his masseuse, basically because every other female masseuse would already be planning a marriage and babies with him.

Carly is shy yet she can totally talk back to this arrogant alpha. Working in close quarters leads to hot sex and Carly loses her v-card on the relentless persuasion of Luis.

Carly has some baggage that makes her reserved. Luis has some too that obv makes him a commitment phobe.

Some distance and reality checks later there is a sweet HEA. I loved Carly. She was smart and non-clingy. She was also a semi-nerd. I thought she was adorable and I loved her waspy replies to Luis’ incessant arrogant bully behaviour- If you can call it that. He was also a bit of a sweetie.

I will re read this one! Wish there were babies!!

[Nirit · Rating 2 out of 5]

אני לא אוהבת רומנים של הוצאת שלגי. בדר"כ מדובר ברומנים מאוד תבניתיים ונטולי ערך מוסף שכתובים בשפה קלישאתית ולעיתים אפילו מגוחכת. הרומן הזה לא שונה.
קרלי היא סוכנת ביתו האנגלי של לואיס, נהג מרוצים ארגנטינאי מליארדר וסקסי. הוא מחליף נשים כמו צמיגי רכב (דימוי שלו) והיא מנסה להעלם אל הרקע מבלי למשוך תשומת לב, ורק רוצה לאסוף מספיק כסף כדי ללמוד רפואה. אחרי שפיטר את הפיזיוטרפיסטית שלו שהתאהבה בו מחליט לואיס לקחת לתפקיד את קרלי, בעיקר כי היא נראית פשוט ועכברית, כך שבוודאי לא תתאהב בו והוא לא ימשך אליה. באורח קסום - ולגמרי בלתי מובן מבחינה עלילתית - בשנייה שהיא נוגעת בו הוא מוצא את עצמו נמשך אליה. לאורך כל הספר לא הצלחתי להבין מאיפה המשיכה הזאת הגיעה ואיך שתי הדמויות התאהבו כל כך מהר.
בקיצור, עלילה לא אמינה, לא מרתקת במיוחד, מאוד נוסחאתית. מתאים רק למי שמחפשת ספר שימלא לה כמה שעות פנויות ונטולות מחשבה. מזל שקיבלתי את הספר הזה במתנה ולא הוצאתי עליו שקל.

[atomickitten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dunno, 3-3.5 stars?

This was a weird book.
Pretty good but weird either way.



And for a hero who was acting like a major ass for the majority of the book, he should have grovelled waaaaay more.
One 'i'm sorry' doesn't do it to me.

But I liked the heroine.
She surprisingly had a brain and ambitions and that was quite refreshing.

But she was still too weak to stand up to that bitchy sister of hers and that was a big bummer.
Because the mentioned sister annoyed me like no other and she, together with Carly's selfish mother, deserved to suffer.

And yet they didn't.
So that was really disappointing.

Also, I wanted more longing from the hero throughout the story, not only at the end.

But like I said, it was an okay read.

[Melanie♥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars. Rather a bland read, with the heroine very self conscious of her body image. Glad she refused to marry him until she was almost finished with med school.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Τα 5 αστέρια είναι πολύ λίγα γι' αυτό το εξαιρετικό άρλεκιν. Έχει τη μαγεία των παλαιότερων άρλεκιν και τον ερωτισμό των καινούριων. Υπέροχες, ρομαντικές σκηνές και ένας άντρας που ξέρεις να κάνει ερωτικές εξομολογήσεις. Από τα καλύτερα που έχω διαβάσει τελευταία.

Αυτό που με εντυπωσίασε ιδιαίτερα είναι η εξέλιξη στην πένα της Sharon Kendrick. Πάντα έγραφε εξαιρετικά αλλά τα γραπτά της έκρυβαν μια μελαγχολία και μου έδιναν μια αίσθηση καταπίεσης και βεβιασμένου συναισθήματος με έμφαση στην κανονιστικότητα των ρόλων του ζευγαριού σε κάποιο υπερβολικό βαθμό κάποιες φορές. Αυτή τη φορά η πένα της είναι γλυκιά, τρυφερή και αισιόδοξη, αλλά ταυτόχρονα εξαιρετικά συμβατή με την εποχή της και έντονα αισθησιακή. Καταφέρνει να μου "ζωγραφίσει" τις εικόνες που μου δίνει με φωτεινά χρώματα και στο τέλος μου προσφέρει αυτό το "κάτι" παραπάνω που πάντα αναζητώ στα βιβλία που διαβάζω.

Αν η τελειότητα ήταν ένα συγκεκριμένο αντικείμενο θα ήταν αυτό το βιβλίο. Μηδέν ψεγάδι!!!

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This reminded me of the Pygmalion story. A playboy hero decides that he can take his plain jane innocent housekeeper and make her a sexy desirable confident woman.

Very entertaining, great alpha male character, sweet and vulnerable ambitious doctor heroine. I loved that both hero and heroine are struggling in a very real character arc/growth. They both have issues but they face their demons and find the inner strength to overcome their dark past.

I would have given it 5 stars but an epilogue with no babies is a big no for me!

[Griffinyarn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kendrick has an easy writing style with better than average characterisation. The hero was typically flawed (your average commitment-phobic playboy) but I like that he didn't pander to the heroine's insecurities.

'If you don’t like your appearance, then change it, but don’t keep doing nothing and then complaining about it, because it’s boring.'

I also like that he didn't allow the sister's arrival to blow out into a massive misunderstanding

For me, it's not a keeper, but it was still very readable.

[Giovanni · Rating 3 out of 5]

A promising romance. The plot is almost the same with another HP long time ago, well, don't they all? Anyway, the hero's feeling was unbelievable. I couldn't feel his happiness, sorrow, love, basically it's flat. So, when suddenly he said "I love you"? I rolled my eyes big time.

I loved the heroine, tho.

[Maura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Luis Martinez is an adrenaline loving playboy who is recovering from a race-car accident that broke his pelvis. His skill with the women is evidenced by the fact that his physical therapist has just fallen in love with him and he's had to fire her. So he brings in his plain, staid, mousy little housekeeper, Carly Conner, to oversee his recovery. She's worked for him for years and managed to hide her attraction to him, but now that she's in close quarters, he notices. He'a also intrigued why she hides her femininity, why she has no sex/social life and why she's still a virgin. Since he's bored and grumpy, he sort of makes her his project - he shows her what sexual pleasure is like and teachers her how to be feminine, but he's clear from the start that it's nothing more than sex. But while Carly has been learning all of this, she's also learned a lot about Luis. He's hiding just like she is, to protect himself from getting hurt. When their time together is over, will he care that she's fallen in love with him?

So after reading some reviews, I was expecting a fluffy sort of romance...which doesn't ring true in my experience with Sharon Kendrick. And this didn't come across as fluffy at all. The angst was more subtle, having to do with each character's progress and growth towards becoming "relationship ready." Carly, thanks to Luis's attentions and her own realizations because of them, goes from mousy-plain-shy to more confident, a little more aware of her appearances and with enough backbone to walk away from Luis when he can't give her what she realizes she deserves. But I like that she didn't change completely...when she left, she left that glamorous stuff behind and just took the growth with her. Luis also makes strides. He isn't an asshole, but he is also not a nice person. He's blunt and pretty uncaring of how his words hurt Carly. He's selfish and hedonistic and unapologetic about it all. He starts out wondering how on earth he could be attracted to such a plain girl and then just rolls with it, determined to get her out of his system. I liked how that selfishness sort of slowly melted away, but was disappointed at how little introspection we get on his part. Carly throws out her opinions about his lifestyle and when she's gone he changes them, but there isn't enough of his reflection about it.

I also really liked the ending (even with the separation) and how Luis comes after Carly and puts things on her terms. He doesn't sweep in and take over the way you'd expect a guy like him to do. He offers to walk away and says he's willing to work around her dreams and her schedule - and the epilogue proves it. I was so thrilled that Carly and Luis did not have kids while she completed medical school. She followed through with her dream and he supported her all the way . That more than anything showed how far Luis had come.

[Monika1871997 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I expected it to be a cute harlequin insta love, funny and sexy book. But this was not.
Sure the synopsis says its harlequin but the bad writing says something else.

Carly connor is a poor girl, she works for Luis who is a billionaire retired race car driver. She works in one of his hug mansions that he rarely visits. But after the injury to his leg that leaves him needing bed rest and physio he chooses the same mansion that carly works in spend his time.

Carly plans on becomes a doctor once she has enough money to pay for the tuition. So since Luis is irresistible, all the ladies mainly the physiotherapists fall in love and fall out of clothes more often. So luis fires them all and appoints carly to give him his massages.

As any book, they are attracted to each other. And carly is a virgin. So I liked the intimacy between each other. One day when carly is giving him a massage, one thing leads to another and carly gets scared and runs away. So luis comes back to her room (after a long time coz he cannot wall so well) and learns that carly is a virgin and has issues with her body. They make a pact that they would have a physical relationship and no talks of love. So as all the books, carly falls in love and luis laughs it off. So carly leaves him.luis gives her the money to start her education which she takes and leaves. Towards the end, he comes back to her to her uni and professes his love for her. Finally she does completes her medical degree and they marry. The end.

Now what I didn't like about this book was luis being a dick most of the time. Him telling carly to lose weight and pretty much saying she isn't good enough. And carly just let's him use her as he seems fit and humiliate her when he wants to. Not cool.

[lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

great story and great characters.

[suman · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars there was no romance or tenderness

[Caro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es una novela de Sharon bastante atípica. Tiene puntos buenos y otros que resultan bastante flojos, y aunque sea una autora que me guste por motivos personales, reconozco que tiene cosas en las que falla rotundamente.
Por primera vez, la protagonista no cae redonda ante el héroe, que en este caso es argentino (:D). Tiene sus reservas y no es la típica heroína hermosa y pedante que sube a las tarimas a bailar desenfrenada o sólo por ser bella merece una buena vida. La prota tiene sus pies sobre la tierra y mientras trabaja como ama de llaves está ahorrando para estudiar medicina, aparte de atraerle mucho la ciencia. En el camino, esa tenacidad se pierde en pos del héroe, pero el trayecto está entretenido, ya que ella es muy consciente de sus deficiencias como mujer y su poca experiencia. A mí me gustan las heroínas reales, como esta que trabaja todo el día y no tiene dinero ni para comprarse un conjunto decente de ropa interior.
Lo malo y que terminó por hacerme menear la cabeza en un "no" absoluto, fue la poca independencia que demostró al final. Aceptó que le compraran ropa como a una amante más y que le buscaran un lugar donde pudiera vivir, tirando a la basura su actitud inicial. Y eso que no soy para nada una acérrima feminista, sólo me hubiera gustado que se resistiera más y tratara de salir adelante por sus propios medios.
El protagonista, muy al estilo Sharon. En verdad se comporta como un hombre lo haría.
Ella es virgen salvo por un acontecimiento un tanto turbio de su adolescencia, pero al que SK no le da mucha importancia.
Se lee rápido y es entretenida ^_^

[iamGamz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I truly enjoyed this book. The story is about billionaire Luis Martinez who is recovering after a crash during a charity race, and his housekeeper, sweet, innocent Carly.

Carly is forced to take over Luis' massages and physio toward the end of his recovery after the therapist steps over the line of professionalism.
While she has always kept herself distant, working this closely with Luis bring on feeling that she has a hard time with.
They go from cold, rainy England to the beautiful, warm South of France where they discover each other and help each other overcome their demons.

What I loved about this story is that Carly worked her butt off, scrimped and saved to do the one thing she wanted to accomplish, becoming a doctor. Even in the midst of her affair with Luis and his billions, she never lost sight of her goal.

Yes, it's a typical Harlequin Presents, but that is why I read it. It's light and sweet and fun. However, Carly had backbone. She had integrity and didn't allow herself to lose sight if what she wanted just because she was in a love affair with a billionaire. This story made me feel good.

[Loz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Luis Martinez was nothing short of an arrogant pig in the beginning of this book. I struggled to even like him let alone accept any sort of attraction between them for some time, then it seemed with a click of fingers he was playful, flirty and very desirable. I prefer my heroines with less body issues, but Carly was also a strong, sensible and ambitious character and I was pleased to see she had lived out her dreams and not become a kept women like so many others in romance novels. Good read.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

One review down five more to go: attempting to get them all done tonight. We will see how far I get. With that being said I'm going to try to keep these reviews fairly short and just give my thoughts on the books. But if you've read my reviews in the past you know how well that goes. Anyway let's get started:

4-4.5 stars. Close to five stars.

Initial thoughts:

Overall it was really good and I really did enjoy the book. I liked the set up and I liked both characters as well. I spend through it pretty quickly and found myself very much engrossed in the story of Luis and Carly. There was lots of good tension and angst in the story. The anticipation was there. The passion was there. The love story was there. And I felt for both characters and was definitely rooting for them and their love story. Plus it felt very believable that they fell in love because of how Sharon Kendrick built up the romance and paced it very well to make it believable. Not just have this uncontrollable lust, though was plenty of passion lust in this story, then they suddenly fall in love, which makes no sense, but not of that here so I'm glad Sharon Kendrick took the time to build it up and have the romance simmer over the coarse of the book before going into full steam mode. And that was great and perfect. That's how it should be done unless it a second chance love story. And on top of that it was very well written.

More detail thoughts:

The basic set up is the hero, Luis Martinez, who was known as the world's most renown playboy in the world had been in a horrible car accident that left him severely injured with him needing rehabilitation in order to get back to his normal self. He was walking with a cane to help him get around. The heroine, Carly Connor was his housekeeper and had been his housekeeper for sometime so she knew what he was like a tough, arrogant and uncompromising playboy billionaire and she hated him (cough! cough!), but stayed on working for him because he paid her an extreme amount of money to be his housekeeper of one his houses and only needed to work when he was in town, which wasn't that often, which lead Carly to able to study so that she could go to medical school so she knew she couldn't just throw this job away. When she heard that Luis was injured, she rushed to the hospital to check on him and see if he was alright. He was unconscious the times she came to visit but she would sit by his bedside and hold his hand and just talk to him in her soothing voice. She only stopped coming when she walked in on Luis and a beautiful blonde practically going at with no concern of who would see them, and Luis never knew that Carly even saw them together or the fact that she came at all until a nurse told him one day. Anyway the story really begins with Luis calling for Carly after firing his therapist who made the mistake of falling in love with Luis and Luis wanted Carly to take over the duties that his therapist did. At first, she refused, knowing how difficult he would be plus she wasn't thrilled to get in touching distance of him or any man really after what happened to her in the past, but eventually she agreed to take over while trying to deal with her newly developed feelings for him as well as the fact that she would be touching him during his massage to help him heal. And Luis was dealing with the same thing as Carly, dealing with the fact that she actually wanted. And it happened gradually, which was nice to see, and then slowly built and built until he desired her so much that he was practically bursting with it. The reason he picked Carly to takeover his helping to heal was the fact that he didn't want her and wasn't attractive and didn't desire her at all. But as more sessions went by the more attracted he got, shocking him, and then he had to deal with him wanting her and what he wanted to do about it. So that was the set up.

That was what I liked most about the book was the build up not only of the attraction but their relationship and show a different side to Luis instead of this bossy, arrogant jerk that was used to getting his way and only thought about himself. As he got more involved with Carly, his whole attitude shifted and he became much more likable and a very caring human being especially when it came to Carly. He listened to her while told of her past experience of being sexually assaulted at a young age and making her reluctant to be with any man in the future or even to touch one. It was a struggle for her to even touch Luis at first during an "innocent" massage, but soon she got over that and started to find she liked touching him a little too much and she began to feel desire for him. So with Luis knowing her history and understanding now where she was coming from, Luis vowed to help her and show her there was nothing to be afraid of with physical intimacy and he would enjoy showing her those delights himself, killing two birds with one stone. His desire and her fear. So it was a win-win really in his view. But he never made her feel pressure and let it be her decision whether she would want to carry further with their relationship. And I just liked the fact that he was there for her and really became a friend before they became lovers, and it was just nice to see that development between them. A nice way to build a loving genuine relationship.

Along with their growing relationship and attraction for one another there was great anticipation before they gave into their passions for one another, and it was great to see the byplay between the two of them. It was a slow simmer then it came on full force to a full boil. On both sides, at first at least, they denied they wanted other and why they couldn't have sexual relationship with his reasons being that she worked him while she had the issue of her sexual assault to deal with. And with that denial there was always that push and pull between them which always nice to see happened in a romance novel. It added to the friction and tension whenever they were in the same room with one another and just also increased their desire for one another. It was very cool witness and I could feel all those emotions come off the pages and just all that sexual tension as well and that's great. That's what I want to feel.

Now I touched on this above but I will reiterate. These two had some hot chemistry going on. From the first time they were in the same scene again which was filled with banter back and forth and though it wasn't sexual it was preparing for what was to come. If they could have that much spark fighting, I knew the love scenes would be pretty smoking hot. It just set up the tension from the very begin. I really believed they were hot for each other by the middle of the book between the tension between them as well as their desire and passion for one another. Great chemistry.

There were many hot scenes between the two, but I think my favorite was the massage, which was beyond sexy, which was weird because all Carly did was massage and nothing else occurred and I think that's what made it so hot because there was so much electricity in that scene that it felt like she did more that massage his aches and pains away. Both of their desires were heightened. Her hands shook when she touched and soon began to love it and feeling his bare ski against her hands as she massaged him, memorizing the muscles in his back and the smoothness of his skin plus she got to admire him from behind with him not looking. While on his part, every time she touched him he went up in flames and got more and more turned on and then he began to notice more and more how attracted he was in fact to her and his desire grew more and more the more she touched him. But fire built within him and never went away. Then that desire lead to him caring then to his love for her. So that scene was really the beginning of a passionate romance and I just loved it. I had to fan myself through that scene. It just had so much in it and just added to the anticipation to what was coming down the road.

There major love scene that was in the book was just as hot and sexy and beautiful. It was her first time and after the assault she faced, Luis knew he had to take his time when initiating her into love making for the first time. He very sweet and very caring and thought about her pleasure first, wanting her to enjoy the experience and know that not all intimacy was bad. That it was okay to want someone. I liked how the love scene played out, and it was hot. I liked that the scene was healing for her and that she could enjoy lovemaking with him with the biggest reason was that she trusted him and was starting to develop feelings towards him at that point and might been half way to being in love with him. And I liked that he was willing to help her and at that point he was at the beginning stages of caring deeply for her.

He wasn't only willing to help her sexually though, he encouraged her to be the best person that she could be, and I really liked seeing that and just showed how much he wanted her to succeed in life. He showed her what she could be and what she was capable of and didn't need to hide from the world because she was in fact a capable woman. So I liked seeing that he was healing her emotionally while she was helping him heal physically.

So it was nice symbiotic relationship. Their love for one another healed them as well as made them stronger people. They each grew as individually and I liked seeing that and I liked that love can make characters better people and love was catalyst to that. And they needed to have that relationship in order for that change to happen, and that's what happened in Luis and Carly's case.

I liked both characters like I said, and I liked the fact that she wanted to be a doctor. I haven't read a lot of doctor books so that was a nice change for me, and made her unique. I felt for her and I felt bad of what she had to go through in the past, but I was glad that Luis helped her through it and that helped her so much in life.

Luis. At first I didn't like he because he was just utter jerk and arrogant and someone needed to put him in place and I am glad that person was Carly because she had the strength to stand up to him and tell him that he was arrogant jerk playboy who was just a selfish bastard at times. The accident was a good thing for him because it change him and the way he looked at life and people. Plus Carly helped him like I said. So I really liked seeing his character development and how much he grew within the story. He definitely became man in this book. And just to see him love was great because it was obvious how much he loved and cared about her and how he thought about her even encouraging her to finish medical school and that he would be her side always while she did. All he wanted to do was be with her that was the most important thing to him.

In conclusion, this was a real great love story with real issues being explored and overcome with the power of love healing both Luis and Carly. It was nice to see their relationship grow and develop over time. I was glad there was no insta lust or insta love but started off with a slow burn before simmering over the edges. The two of them had some hot scenes together and only increased in heat until they came together in the ultimate culmination. I loved how they made each other stronger and their love made them better people. It was a very enjoyable read and very well written. So well done Sharon Kendrick

[Dini Annisa Humaira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carly Conner sdh bertahun-tahun bekerja sebagai pengurus salah satu rumah milik Luis Martinez. Luis yg tenar sebagai seorang pembalap mengalami kecelakaan.

Carly senang bekerja sebagai pengurus rumah karena biasanya Luis berkunjung ke rumahnya di London hanya sesekali jdi ia punya banyak waktu luang untuk belajar mengejar impiannya.

Setelah kecelakaan Luis tinggal di rumahnya yg di London. Menurut Carly, Luis akhir2 ini menjadi semakin menyebalkan. Mudah marah dan banyak maunya.

Sampai suatu hari, tiba2 Luis meminta Carly untuk menjadi pemijit menggantikan terapis yg selama ini ia pekerjakan. Sikap Carly yg biasa saja tanpa disangka meyulut gairah dan rasa penasaran Luis.

Karena merasa makin gerah, Luis menawarkan Carly untuk mnjadi kekasihnya. Dengan syarat tidak boleh jatuh cinta tentunya. Tipikal pria anti komitmen.

Awalnya Carly ragu, meskipun saat ini ia tidak ada rasa apapun pada Luis, tapi ia sadar Luis adalah seorang pria memikat yg selalu dikelilingi oleh wanita. Dengan meyakinkan diri untuk tdk jatuh dlm pesona Luis, Carly akhirnya menerima tawaran Luis.

Luis memperlakukan Carly dgn sangat baik. Hingga lambat laun Carly jatuh jg dlm pesona seorang Luis Martinez. Tpi, hasil pembicaraan Carly dgn Luis, Carly tahu Luis tdk akan membalas perasaannya. Tdk akan pernah.

--
Ceritanya biasa. Maksudnya, kan hq itu ceritanya begitu2 aja, nah buku ini cocok banget dgn deskripsi itu. Gaada yg menarik banget. Tpi cukup memuaskan buat dibaca di waktu luang atau lgi pengen baca novel romantis penuh mimpi wkwk

[Mattie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't like it. I wasn't a fan of heroine working for hero for two and half years as his maid, living in the same house he was sleeping with other women, talked to them the morning after and washing the sheets he slept with other women in. Also gross to me that she would find lingerie in random places, then his last girlfriend proudly showed off marks on her neck the morning after sleeping with him. At least they weren't really attracted to each other until after his accident.

I didn't like the hero at all, when first introduced to him in the beginning he yelled for heroine to come to him from across the house demanding she massage him.
He viewed women he slept with as interchangeable as tires. He didn't believe men could be faithful.
He didn't think heroine was that attractive and was surprised his body reacted to her.
He imagined that heroine would one day be with someone else one day and was proud that he helped her get over her issues (she was almost raped at 16 and avoided sex and men in general), he didn't experience any revulsion or jealousy at the thought.

I didn't feel their connection was all that great. He broke up with her with zero hesitation. It took him months to realize he loved her.

I didn't like the epilogue, it took them 6 years to get married because heroine wanted to become a doctor first. Np.

[Pauline Destinugrainy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carly adalah pekerja di rumah Luis, seorang atlet balap motor yang mengalami cedera parah. Ketika Luis memecat terapisnya, dia meminta Carly untuk menggantikan terapis itu.

Luis adalah pria yang demanding. Dia terbiasa untuk diikuti keinginannya. Sementara Carly, meski dia tahu posisinya, dia bisa memberikan argumen yang cerdas di mata Luis. Hingga akhirnya Luis memberikan kesempatan untuk mengajari Carly tentang hubungan seksual, dengan catatan tidak akan menerima Carly jika gadis itu jatuh cinta padanya. Carly melanggarnya, dan Luis dengan sopan memintanya pergi.

Kisah Luis dan Carly yang kebanyakan narasi ini sebenarnya biasa saja. Tapi karakter Carly yang menarik. Meski dia posisinya secara sosial di bawah Luis, dia punya pendirian yang kuat. Dia berjuang untuk masa depannya, meskipun tidak didukung oleh keluarganya.

[Melinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another one of those predictable happily ever after romance stories. While this makes for a quick read, the story is rather forgettable and simple. There really is like minimal character development when it comes to Luis. We get the classic handsome rake who will never settle down when he has thousands of women throwing themselves at him and the classic homebody who's unassuming beauty and humble charms somehow equals to them falling in love and living their happily ever after.

One thing I did like was that Carly isn't useless, she actually does something with herself after they part ways. Like focusing on her goal of being a Doctor, despite her private heartache, which we all know will only last as long as Luis admits he is an ass and loves her.

[Bookworm1522 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I sometimes feel tired of stories where the heroine is a housekeeper or secretary and forever giving the hero’s exes tea and sympathy (or in this book - asking a naked supermodel spreadeagled to leave), this was a very sweet book. Hero was a celebrity and enjoyed all the perks that come with money and fame but jaundiced with his lifestyle as well as his parents’ history. Heroine was made to feel like the ugly duckling by her own family and impacted her adult life in a big way. Both their story lines made sense. I liked that the romance was a slow burn, the sex scenes were steamy, and the hero came chasing after the heroine in a big way. And she made him wait 6 years so she could concentrate on her education before she would marry him and have kids.

[Carmelita Clardy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book

The h is a very beautiful, sweet and feisty woman. She doesn’t let the H get away with being a bully, her only issue is she is insecure about her looks. Her mother and sister made her feel invisible and a bad experience at a party messed with ideas about sex. The H was someone who didn’t do commitments. He had a bad childhood experience that broke up his family. When they broke up, the h left and didn’t look back, the H had to get his self together before they were reunited. Good ending.

[Mary Shreffler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Louis was rich, handsome and recovering from a racing accident. Carly was his housekeeper but became his masseuse after being released from the hospital. Louis was also a playboy but as he got to know Carly better he seduced her and took her virginity. Carly gave him all her love but he didn't believe in love so Carly left and went to medical school. Quickly Louis found he was in love and 6 years later louis married Dr. Carly

[Nikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ouch. This was bad. Not much falling in love around here. Like the heroine, get your doctorate girlfriend! Why was the hero rich? I mean he races cars but why is he uber rich? Why did we have the sister come in? Way to late and she just came in to cause a fight. Ugh you want better for the heroine, you really do. I think she will get bored with his loser ass. Skip.

[Karen Geurts · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the story.Carly is strong and determined to make something of herself. Her employer, Luis, is recovering from a horrific accident. She helps with therapy and together they learn to love and trust.

[Francesca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of her best but if you looking for something easy and light hearted to read then its for you. Good for a lazy afternoon.