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Hot Stuff
Love Is for Losers
Or so Laurel Kane believes. After wasting too many years looking for "the One," the attractive, level-headed journalist for the Washington tabloid DC Scene is convinced that mad, passionate, crazy love is an impossibility past thirty. A practical, sensible system's the only way to choose a spouse. And she's willing to argue her theory with anyone -- including the criminally gorgeous coffee guy, Joe, who supplies her with her daily caffeine fix.
It turns out Joe has strong opinions of his own on the subject, and Laurel figures her readers might enjoy sharing their fiery exchanges of ideas. But once the coffee cart debates become the hottest thing in print, Laurel finds herself in hot water -- because sexy Joe is suddenly determined to prove to her that head-spinning, knees-weakening love is possible. And in this particular battle of the sexes, the loser might actually win . . . if she ends up losing her heart!
Or so Laurel Kane believes. After wasting too many years looking for "the One," the attractive, level-headed journalist for the Washington tabloid DC Scene is convinced that mad, passionate, crazy love is an impossibility past thirty. A practical, sensible system's the only way to choose a spouse. And she's willing to argue her theory with anyone -- including the criminally gorgeous coffee guy, Joe, who supplies her with her daily caffeine fix.
It turns out Joe has strong opinions of his own on the subject, and Laurel figures her readers might enjoy sharing their fiery exchanges of ideas. But once the coffee cart debates become the hottest thing in print, Laurel finds herself in hot water -- because sexy Joe is suddenly determined to prove to her that head-spinning, knees-weakening love is possible. And in this particular battle of the sexes, the loser might actually win . . . if she ends up losing her heart!
375 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
5 people are currently reading
195 people want to read
About the author
Elaine Fox
43 books84 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
September 1, 2010
BOOK COVER IS AWFUL. STORY IS AWESOME.
WITTY DIALOGUE. BANTER. SARCASM...PASSION?
Laurel Kane: a 35 year old career woman (journalist) who feels disillusioned by love, romance and all that jazz. She's decided forgo it and try the arranged marriage route.
Description: level-headed, reserved/shy, and risk averse.
Joe Squires: a 40 year old divorcee. He's intrigued by Laurel finding her witty, intelligent and sexy. But unsure about her views on Romance.
Description: spontaneous, charming, confident and witty.
MATURE ROMANCE. OPPOSING VIEWS. COMEDY.
A SERIOUS WOMAN. A SPONTANEOUS MAN.
The story starts out with Laurel not trusting Joe (to the point of acting almost hostile) because she (unfortunately) suffers many misconceptions regarding his job, personality and dating habits).
CONFLICT. HOSTILITY...ATTRACTION..?
However, when Laurel's boss orders Laurel to work with Joe (after Laurel had interviewed him as an anonymous source for a previous article), they develop a friendship which questions Laurel's anti-romance beliefs...
IN DENIAL. CHEMISTRY. EXPLOSION.
ADVERSARY. FRIEND. LOVER. HUSBAND..?
CHICAGO. COFFEE. SPEED DATING. LOVE?
HOSTILITY. FRIENDSHIP. CHEMISTRY. LOVE.
NOT a fluffy chick lit. It's extremely romantic without being gushy. I enjoyed witnessing the interaction between Laurel (a no-nonsense personality) versus Joe (easy going charm offensive).
I highly recommend it if you enjoy romances where the woman isn't constantly drooling over the hero and possess self-determination and a strong (but endearing) personality.
WITTY DIALOGUE. BANTER. SARCASM...PASSION?
Laurel Kane: a 35 year old career woman (journalist) who feels disillusioned by love, romance and all that jazz. She's decided forgo it and try the arranged marriage route.
Description: level-headed, reserved/shy, and risk averse.
Joe Squires: a 40 year old divorcee. He's intrigued by Laurel finding her witty, intelligent and sexy. But unsure about her views on Romance.
Description: spontaneous, charming, confident and witty.
MATURE ROMANCE. OPPOSING VIEWS. COMEDY.
A SERIOUS WOMAN. A SPONTANEOUS MAN.
The story starts out with Laurel not trusting Joe (to the point of acting almost hostile) because she (unfortunately) suffers many misconceptions regarding his job, personality and dating habits).
CONFLICT. HOSTILITY...ATTRACTION..?
However, when Laurel's boss orders Laurel to work with Joe (after Laurel had interviewed him as an anonymous source for a previous article), they develop a friendship which questions Laurel's anti-romance beliefs...
IN DENIAL. CHEMISTRY. EXPLOSION.
ADVERSARY. FRIEND. LOVER. HUSBAND..?
CHICAGO. COFFEE. SPEED DATING. LOVE?
HOSTILITY. FRIENDSHIP. CHEMISTRY. LOVE.
NOT a fluffy chick lit. It's extremely romantic without being gushy. I enjoyed witnessing the interaction between Laurel (a no-nonsense personality) versus Joe (easy going charm offensive).
I highly recommend it if you enjoy romances where the woman isn't constantly drooling over the hero and possess self-determination and a strong (but endearing) personality.
February 9, 2008
Oh Lordy! The head-hopping and endless questions! The author may have intended to write Laurel as the logical, intelligent type of heroine, but she failed miserably.
Laurel was annoying and wouldn't stop with the questions - even during sex (which I might add lacked total chemistry). Example: "His words flashed along her nerves, thrilling her while raising a dozen questions she couldn't ask. For her? for him? Was it some sort of existentialist comment?" (Joe had asked her how she felt.) Who thinks like this while knocking boots with the man of your dreams?!
This was the first book I read by Elaine Fox and I'm pretty sure it will be my last. Even the humor fell short and I didn't understand where she was going with physical descriptions. Another example: "He liked hands, always noticed them, and hers reminded him of birds." Of BIRDS?! Seriously? Definitely not a keeper on my bookshelf.
Laurel was annoying and wouldn't stop with the questions - even during sex (which I might add lacked total chemistry). Example: "His words flashed along her nerves, thrilling her while raising a dozen questions she couldn't ask. For her? for him? Was it some sort of existentialist comment?" (Joe had asked her how she felt.) Who thinks like this while knocking boots with the man of your dreams?!
This was the first book I read by Elaine Fox and I'm pretty sure it will be my last. Even the humor fell short and I didn't understand where she was going with physical descriptions. Another example: "He liked hands, always noticed them, and hers reminded him of birds." Of BIRDS?! Seriously? Definitely not a keeper on my bookshelf.
August 7, 2015
In this book you will find Laurel and 35yr old who feels she has just gotten to old with love and after reading a book she sets out to prove she can get herself married and happy without love. Joe a 40yr old who knows a thing or two about love lost and yet still believes that love is what really counts is out to prove her wrong. Joe and Laurels banter is what really makes this book great to me, but the even better part of the banter is sometimes Joe didn’t even have to say anything; Laurel would do it for him. She had to have control and he loved to bring chaos to her door. This is a cute, warmth filled, great read, and the ending is impossibly too sweet for words. Betweens its humor and its ability to suck you I don’t know how anyone could deny loving this book.
January 26, 2010
What happens when you read a book and it turns your life upside down, well let me tell you extreme hilarity. Laurel has seen the light or so she thinks, she know believes that women of a certain age shouldn't be looking for love. No they should be looking for companion-ship, something simular to an arranged marriage, but when Joe acts as the rebuttle on every point she makes things get real interesting.
This book was a quick read for me, I found myself not be able to put it down. I would recommend this to everyone and anyone.
This book was a quick read for me, I found myself not be able to put it down. I would recommend this to everyone and anyone.
July 10, 2010
3.5 This was almost a four star book for me. I liked the characters (although Laurel was a little dense), and the story was cute. What I wanted was a little more "bang" at the end, or a fun epilogue. The book built up to the ending nicely, but then wrapped up too quickly. (This is actually a problem I see often in romance novels. There should be workshops for romance authors on how to evenly pace the last scenes of a story to bring closure while making it fully satisfying for the reader.)
Overall, I like Elaine Fox as a writer and storyteller, and this was a worthwhile read.
Overall, I like Elaine Fox as a writer and storyteller, and this was a worthwhile read.
April 17, 2013
This book made an impression on me. It made me think, and my thoughts steered into a path rarely explored by romance writers. 3,5 stars.
The protagonist Laurel is over 30, still single, and tired of it. She stopped believing in love some time ago: after all, love has never worked for her. So when she reads a book entitled Love Is Not the Answer, which promotes the cerebral approach to selecting a spouse, the approach based on common values, as opposed to the emotional approach, based on passion, she becomes an avid proponent of the book and its message. She decides to arrange her own marriage without love.
Her only problem is Joe, the owner of a coffee cart in front of her office building. Joe is a romantic; he believes in love and he wants a love-based marriage… with Laurel.
While Laurel’s mind resists her attraction to Joe; it plays havoc with her cool and rational husband-hunting operation, her body has ideas of its own, and all these ideas are centered on the handsome coffee man Joe: his engaging grin, his muscular body, his capable hands. Their mutual mating dance makes for a lovely, if unconventional romance novel, sometimes funny, sometimes sad.
As love blossoms between them, both hero and heroine come out well-defined and sympathetic; I wanted them to find happiness. The plot that outlined their search for happiness was absorbing, if a bit slow, but what attracted me most to this book was the idea behind it.
I read and I wasn’t sure: should I condemn the heroine and her untraditional, loveless approach to marriage or should I embrace her convictions and apply them to my life. Despite the novel’s standard happily-ever-after ending, it seems to me that the author herself sits on the fence.
I’m on the fence too and I have given thought to this issue before. Many romance readers would probably consider my opinion anathema, but look at the marriages around us. Most of them are based on ‘love’, or rather what the majority of young and not so young people view as love—interpersonal chemistry or sexual attraction. Unfortunately, after several years it wears off in 90% of the relationships. Maybe that’s why the average length of marriages in Western society is 7 years. That’s not my imagining; that’s stats. Perhaps, there is a kernel of truth in the idea of an arranged marriage, when a couple stays together because they make a mutual informed commitment, not because they like mutual sex.
In the book, some female characters express their feelings of love as “My heart flutters when he enters the room” or “I’m walking on clouds”, but how long can one walk on clouds? And how far can one trust such an ephemeral footing as clouds? I’d believe in love much more, if a woman said: “He stayed with me after my mastectomy. He cut my toenails and changed the bandages on my ugly scar. He never averted his eyes.” That’s love, not walking on clouds, which is predominantly a chemical phenomenon.
Perhaps, if more people built their relationships on firmer grounds than sensuality and pleasurable coupling, fewer families would break. Perhaps separating marriage and sex into two distinct categories, unnecessary for each other, would benefit us all?
I'd qualify this novel as a romance for older readers and recommend it to anyone looking for love over the age of 30.
A note on the cover art: it’s projecting a different, much fluffier story, but I love it all the same.
The protagonist Laurel is over 30, still single, and tired of it. She stopped believing in love some time ago: after all, love has never worked for her. So when she reads a book entitled Love Is Not the Answer, which promotes the cerebral approach to selecting a spouse, the approach based on common values, as opposed to the emotional approach, based on passion, she becomes an avid proponent of the book and its message. She decides to arrange her own marriage without love.
Her only problem is Joe, the owner of a coffee cart in front of her office building. Joe is a romantic; he believes in love and he wants a love-based marriage… with Laurel.
While Laurel’s mind resists her attraction to Joe; it plays havoc with her cool and rational husband-hunting operation, her body has ideas of its own, and all these ideas are centered on the handsome coffee man Joe: his engaging grin, his muscular body, his capable hands. Their mutual mating dance makes for a lovely, if unconventional romance novel, sometimes funny, sometimes sad.
As love blossoms between them, both hero and heroine come out well-defined and sympathetic; I wanted them to find happiness. The plot that outlined their search for happiness was absorbing, if a bit slow, but what attracted me most to this book was the idea behind it.
I read and I wasn’t sure: should I condemn the heroine and her untraditional, loveless approach to marriage or should I embrace her convictions and apply them to my life. Despite the novel’s standard happily-ever-after ending, it seems to me that the author herself sits on the fence.
I’m on the fence too and I have given thought to this issue before. Many romance readers would probably consider my opinion anathema, but look at the marriages around us. Most of them are based on ‘love’, or rather what the majority of young and not so young people view as love—interpersonal chemistry or sexual attraction. Unfortunately, after several years it wears off in 90% of the relationships. Maybe that’s why the average length of marriages in Western society is 7 years. That’s not my imagining; that’s stats. Perhaps, there is a kernel of truth in the idea of an arranged marriage, when a couple stays together because they make a mutual informed commitment, not because they like mutual sex.
In the book, some female characters express their feelings of love as “My heart flutters when he enters the room” or “I’m walking on clouds”, but how long can one walk on clouds? And how far can one trust such an ephemeral footing as clouds? I’d believe in love much more, if a woman said: “He stayed with me after my mastectomy. He cut my toenails and changed the bandages on my ugly scar. He never averted his eyes.” That’s love, not walking on clouds, which is predominantly a chemical phenomenon.
Perhaps, if more people built their relationships on firmer grounds than sensuality and pleasurable coupling, fewer families would break. Perhaps separating marriage and sex into two distinct categories, unnecessary for each other, would benefit us all?
I'd qualify this novel as a romance for older readers and recommend it to anyone looking for love over the age of 30.
A note on the cover art: it’s projecting a different, much fluffier story, but I love it all the same.
January 15, 2010
Suffering from a lack of things to read, I picked this up at the library. I mean.. it was alright, but I wouldn't have paid to read it. It filled some time up, but the story became redundant and the last 100 pages I sort of wished it was over. But alas, as I said, I had nothing else to read.
April 5, 2014
Fun little silly romance story :)
August 28, 2024
A really lighthearted, insanely cute romance I found on my parent’s library. Wasn’t expecting a lot, but it honestly delivered, I was giggling and kicking my feet throughout the whole story. Hot Stuff is that typical book in which you know the characters like each other earlier than they do, and it’s all just a cute road to them ending up together (with inevitable setbacks, of course). I also love the title, this is peak creativity!
March 18, 2015
This book was infuriating.
I read this book when it was first out and in my rose-tinted teenage eyes it was a perfect romance. So perfect that I have kept the book on my shelf ever since. However, I have decided to have a spring-clean and found 'Hot Stuff' hidden beneath the depths of newer but equally as forgotten books.
At first the quick banter and Joe's easy personality made me smile and I thought, well it isn't as polished in regard to writing style as I remembered it being, but it is still good.
No.
Repetitive, flat, boring... Laurel was a lifeless leading lady, and the events were all so similar and predictable - even by romance novel standards.
Needless to say, this long held (Practically a family-heirloom) book is going into the clean-out box.
I read this book when it was first out and in my rose-tinted teenage eyes it was a perfect romance. So perfect that I have kept the book on my shelf ever since. However, I have decided to have a spring-clean and found 'Hot Stuff' hidden beneath the depths of newer but equally as forgotten books.
At first the quick banter and Joe's easy personality made me smile and I thought, well it isn't as polished in regard to writing style as I remembered it being, but it is still good.
No.
Repetitive, flat, boring... Laurel was a lifeless leading lady, and the events were all so similar and predictable - even by romance novel standards.
Needless to say, this long held (Practically a family-heirloom) book is going into the clean-out box.
October 2, 2014
I am seriously in love with Joe Squires. He was the perfect combination of brawniness, humor, cultured sophistication, and education. And sweetness / character (buying the gloves for the street resident...) All in a very unassuming, not-in-your face personality. Sigh! I think the author did a great job of portraying the chemistry between the two leads, though I found Laurel's obtuseness a little annoying and quite silly after a while. And I agree that it ends much too abruptly. If any couple deserve a sequel, it's these two! Thoroughly recommend it for the hero and the general story.
April 25, 2016
I still think the story was long winded, but the characters are really likable. The girl is frustrating not only for the male character, but for the reader. So, I can't fault that aspect of the book. I like the concept and I understood where both characters were coming from I just wished it reached the conclusion I knew was coming sooner.
P.S. I would marry Joe in a heartbeat. He's perfect!
P.S.S. I hate the name Joe it's so boring.
3 Stars: lame cover - long winded - to slow process - horrible title.
P.S. I would marry Joe in a heartbeat. He's perfect!
P.S.S. I hate the name Joe it's so boring.
3 Stars: lame cover - long winded - to slow process - horrible title.
June 9, 2018
Enjoyment - 2.00
Characters - 4.00
Story(s) - 1.50
Technical - 4.00
Overall - 3.00
At first I thought this one had a ton of potential. I absolutely loved the book in the first 5 or 6 chapters! But once the "dating" antics started, I was less than impressed (and fairly bored). This reads more like chick lit than romance, with everything being about Laurel. I did like the characters and really connected with Laurel, but at the end of the day this wasn't what I was looking for.
Characters - 4.00
Story(s) - 1.50
Technical - 4.00
Overall - 3.00
At first I thought this one had a ton of potential. I absolutely loved the book in the first 5 or 6 chapters! But once the "dating" antics started, I was less than impressed (and fairly bored). This reads more like chick lit than romance, with everything being about Laurel. I did like the characters and really connected with Laurel, but at the end of the day this wasn't what I was looking for.
April 15, 2011
I really like the plot line of this novel and the way it ended. I was actually begging for more after I have finished reading it and this is by far my most favorite book written by Elaine Fox. Perfect for a summer read.
August 10, 2009
This book was really a cute read. It kept me interested and entertained. I read it in two days.
July 21, 2010
Ich stelle gerade fest, dass mir die älteren Bücher von Elaine Fox viel besser gefallen. Zum Beispiel dieser Roman. Sehr unterhaltsam.
June 28, 2011
This was an okay story line, but it seemed so slow moving.
August 2, 2011
One of the best books i have ever read!! =)
November 19, 2011
You can find my reviews on the following Blogs :
http://bittenbybooklust.blogspot.com/
http://brewingthethebag.blogspot.com/...
December 25, 2012
Nice romantic book... Love is in the air and everywhere!!!!
June 8, 2013
Great romance.. very pleasurable read
July 13, 2014
Cute easy to read book. A great summer read for entertainment. The female main character Laurel can become frustrating and annoying.
July 30, 2017
awesome book, plot was interesting, and the chemistry between characters was great.
November 14, 2007
read 04.18.07
August 17, 2009
This was wonderful! Love does conquer all.
July 14, 2014
It was ehh.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews