"…I was a bit disappointed.”
Reviewed by Cara M.
Rating: 
Brenda Novak is most recently known for her gripping, scarily realistic romances featuring the heroes that do whatever it takes to keep those they love from harm…so when she switched gears a bit and went back to her contemporary romance roots I wasn’t sure what to expect as I didn’t follow her novels back then. And honestly, well, I was a bit disappointed. What I got was Simon O’Neal—a spoiled, emotionally stunted hero who was hurt by a conniving ex-wife so he used his fame and good looks (or so it seems) to sleep with as many women as possible, get into as much trouble as possible, and drink himself into abandon. Until our brave PR heroine—Gail DeMarco—steps in and tries to right the situation and tell him to grow up. To which he fires her for…until it becomes apparent he needs her to fix the publicity disaster that has come to be his life so he might regain some visitation with his small son.
Honestly, if I go on I’ll probably give too much of the plot away. I will say this in Ms. Novak’s favor, her town is wonderfully realistic and her characters have a depth that makes you care about them by the end of the book. But I’m not sure if it was the ‘has it all and acts like a jerk’ actor that didn’t work for me—that I couldn’t really relate to in any form—or if it was the plot/situation itself that struck me as odd and not at all enjoyable. The marriage of convenience was almost unbelievable—though probably not for the type of people who do things for the sake of publicity—but in the end, I just didn’t feel like these two would be together for the long-run. I’m truly sorry I didn’t enjoy this book, though, because Ms. Novak is certainly one of my all-time favorite suspense novelists. That all being said, I do plan to read the next book in this series. I’m a fan of her writing, if not this specific subgenre.
Book Details:
- Harlequin MIRA
- August 28, 2012
- ISBN-10: 0778313514