Tantalizing - Lori Foster - 2/5 - Josie’s sister sets her up with a blind date, Bob, a staid and professional guy and Josie has no interest. She wants to have some fun. She’s surprised when she meets Bob and finds him sexy and charming and ready to give her that fun. She doesn’t know that Bob is actually Nick, Bob’s womanizing partner. When he meets Josie he feels something special and has to get her into his bed. When she learns the truth, she extracts a deal from him - he’ll show her everything about pleasure, no strings attached, and she’ll look past his lies. But neither of them expect it to become love.
This author is typically hit or miss for me. The mistaken identity thing is a bit tough for me to buy into most of the time that it’s done...and if I’m not wrong, this author has done it before. It’s just that, so much lying isn’t exactly a great way to start a romance. And it makes the hero seem awfully slimy that he’s won’t fess up to being someone else for fear of losing his chance to have sex with the heroine. And his lies just continue on from there. He manipulates things so that he can draw out their affair and he can get the “full” few months that he usually gives women. He kinda gave me the creeps. And what’s worse is the heroine knew all this about him, that he was “arrogant, cocky and used to female adoration” and that he lied and manipulated so casually and she just overlooks it...falls straight into love with him for what redeeming characteristics exactly? I’m not quite sure. I do appreciate the fact that he feels some remorse over his lies and found quite a bit of joy in the ways the heroine set him back with his cockiness, but he remained entirely too smug and his character and integrity were definitely quite questionable.
His Every Fantasy - Janelle Denison - 2 /5 - Leah’s boyfriend has just popped the question, but she’s not sure if she can go through with it. For one, there’s no passion...and she’s still kinda hung up on her brother’s best friend, Jace. So she propositions Jace for a weekend of sex to help her a) get Jace out of her system and b) find her sexual confidence so she can up the passion in her relationship with her boyfriend. She doesn't expect things to go so well with Jace and after the weekend, she isn’t sure she wants to be with anyone but Jace. This is basically a lot of sex and very little plot. The sex is pretty hot, but the premise of this story was problematic for me. Leah isn’t sure she wants to marry Brent so she goes off to cheat on her boyfriend to see if she can marry him. The problem here is that as soon as she realized she could cheat on him she should have realized she had no business marrying him. I was uncomfortable with the fact that she was unfaithful in a committed relationship to Brent and didn’t like what it revealed about Leah’s character that she even considered it. And given that Jace also knew about Brent it makes me uncomfortable that he never once questioned her cheating on Brent with him.
Playmates - Crystal Green - 3/5 - Fiona and Sean have learned the hard way how damaging love can be. When they find themselves working side by side doing PR for two celebrities in a volatile second chance romance, a simmering attraction between them, they agree to an affair. Even more, they make a wager that the other will become emotionally involved before the end of their 30 day affair together (while the other walks away unscathed). Neither bargains for the fact that they both fall and find themselves in a quandary, neither wanting to admit to the end of the bet or the affair and neither wanting to face the risk of rejection by admitting their feelings. So, contrary to popular opinion (as evidenced by other reviews) I liked this one the best. Not to say I loved this or anything, I mean, these guys are doing game-playing and power plays galore and I pretty much hate that sort of thing in a romance. But the characters themselves, while not necessarily likeable, had plenty of depth and dynamics and it really felt like these two MCs were learning as they went. I really liked how Fiona poured on the angst there at the end by “disappointing herself before anyone else could disappoint her.” I did hope for a bit more emotional punch in their reunion, but overall I think this ended quite well. As a story, this one didn’t feel like a superficial, way too short novella...it felt complete and engaging (even if I didn’t like everything about it).