Beyond Daring

The Red Choo Diaries #2

by Kathleen O'Reilly

Up-and-coming publicist Jeff Brooks is assigned to hot Manhattan celebutante Sheldon Summerville, whose scandalous behavior threatens the marriage proposal brokered by her tycoon father. The heiress hates being a commodity, but daddy bankrolls her extravagant lifestyle, so she's dealing the only way she knows how: shoe-shopping and party-hopping.

Jeff is supposed to retool sexy Sheldon's wild-child image (thereby earning his PR superstud merit badge). Only, he knows from media makeovers that he's a "recovering player," and should be cleaning up his own reputation.

But all his extra-naughty urges come roaring back the second Sheldon sets a stilettoed foot outside her limo door. She's headstrong, hard-bodied and seems determined to show him who's on top!

Genres: Harlequin Blaze, Contemporary Romance, Harlequin, Fiction, Romance, Ebooks

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 2005

About the author

Kathleen O'Reilly wrote her first romance at the age of eleven, which to her undying embarrassment was read aloud to her class. After taking over twenty years to recover from the profound distress, she is now proud to announce her new career - a romance author. Kathleen lives in New York with her husband and their two children who outwit her daily.

Reviews

[Megan]

Great dialogue and an intense push-and-pull relationship between the heroine and the hero. What really made it work for me was how Sheldon and Jeff related to their individual families (because O'Reilly writes family relationships SO WELL and makes them relevant even in these super short Blazes), and what that meant for how they related to one another. Sheldon started out frustrating, and I'm still not sure if I think O'Reilly successfully flipped the initial caricature believably enough for my liking, but I ended up liking her anyway, and her emotions were my emotions by the end. Namely, her emotions at the awesome, awesome grand gesture, and a sharp twist of the knife when she realized this was a gesture of love, but also a farewell gesture. (Don't worry. A HEA still ensued.)

[Netanella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute in places, irreverent, slightly raunchy. I'm not sure that I liked Sheldon, who pretended to be a brain-dead slut instead of telling her dad she didn't want to marry for money. The extremes that she went to, rather than just communicate with her parents, were a little unrealistic to me. Then again, maybe I'm just too vanilla. Whatever.

Jeff Brooks was great, the middle child of the Brooks siblings around whom this mini series revolves. And that's the best part about this - the interactions between Andrew, Jeff, and Mercedes in their quest for happiness in Manhattan. And that's very cool.

[Darla Stokes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a fan of Kathleen O'Reilly's writing; this one isn't one of my favorites, mostly because of the heroine. By the end of the book, our heroine, Sheldon, (one of my pet peeves, which I thought had disappeared in the 90s--giving heroines masculine names, either to make them seem stronger, or to confuse & irritate the reader) is redeemed, but after spending the bulk of the book disliking her, I just didn't have enough goodwill left.

[Mina · Rating 3 out of 5]

An unusual and unexpectedly likable heroine. A sympathetic though unexciting hero. Well written, but nothing very special.