Her Best Friend's Lover [Paperback]

Shiloh Walker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2004

Dale loves women, and they love him. His love life is a revolving door. No one special, no one stays, except Lauren, his best friend. She's a sweet, beautiful, talented woman. His rock, the steadying influence in his life. So why is he starting to see her differently? Where are these lustful thoughts coming from? Guys don't sleep with their best friends. Lauren has loved Dale for five years, from the moment she saw him. She loves his smile, his walk, his deep, sexy voice. But he isn't in love with her. She's his pal, his confidant. Until one hot, steamy night…

Product Details

• Paperback: 238 pages
• Publisher: Ellora's Cave (April 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 141995041X
• ISBN-13: 978-1419950414
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 4.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #823,027 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Shiloh Walker has been writing since she was a kid... she fell in love with vampires with the book Bunnicula and has worked her way up to the more...ah... serious vampire stories. She loves reading and writing anything paranormal, anything fantasy, but most all anything romantic. Once upon a time, she worked as a nurse, but now she writes full time and lives with her family in the Midwest.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This sexy story will touch your heart, July 11, 2005

By 

Stacy ~ "book lover" (Chicago 'burbs) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Her Best Friend's Lover (Paperback)

Love at first sight. That is what Lauren experiences the first time she sees Dale Stoner, and has been living with those feelings ever since. After years of loving Dale, Lauren knows something has to change. It hurts too much to even be around him anymore when all she can do is wish he felt the same way. She tries to lose herself in her art, creating visions of sad beauty that echo what's in her heart.

But Dale is not in love with her. Instead he sees her as only his best friend, his rock. The one constant in his ever-changing world of women. No one will ever take the place of the one who owns his heart. It will never be his to give to another anyway. However rather than live a celibate life like his friend Lauren, he chooses to drown his sorrows in temporary encounters where there are no strings attached and no one gets hurt.

With both experiencing the pain of unrequited love, eventually something was bound to happen. A bittersweet reminder from Dale's past leads to a night of passion, only Dale is too drunk to remember who he made love to. Now he's haunted by erotic dreams of a sexy mystery woman who fulfills his every fantasy, and he can't stop thinking about her, wanting to be with her. If that wasn't making him crazy enough, now he's constantly struck by sexy images of his best friend Lauren, and to make matters worse, he's beoming irrationally jealous of this mystery man she's so desperately in love with, whoever he might be. Lauren's not talking.

"Her Best Friend's Lover" will touch a chord with anyone who's ever been intensely in love with someone who didn't feel the same way. It will break your heart and make you smile, and ultimately have you believe that sometimes love does grace us with its presence when we need it the most. It's moving, sexy, and erotic. Definitely a keeper.

32 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shiloh Walker's first Ellora Cave's book, April 24, 2005

By 

Jenny (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Her Best Friend's Lover (Paperback)

is a mesmerising page-turner. It is no accident that she is now a fast rising star in the romantica genre.

Lauren and Dale are neighbours and the best of friends, only Lauren wants to be much more than that. For five years, she has lived with the painful knowledge that she is in love with someone who can never love her back and watched as Dale ran through a succession of women. Then one night of mind-blowing sex changes everything. Both Lauren and Dale must overcome insecurities and shadows from the past before they can be happy together.

The plot device may not be new but Shiloh Walker's unique voice and strong characterisation gives the story an exquisite poignancy. Lauren and Dale are sensitively drawn with layers that are slowly revealed as the story progresses. Their journey to happiness is by turns heartwarming and heartwrenching.

While the sex scenes are incinerating, they never come across as indulgent. Infused with tender emotions, they reflect how Lauren and Dale's relationship have evolved. This is a story that will linger in your heart long after you have closed the covers on the book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected, April 19, 2011

By 

JJ - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Her Best Friend's Lover (Paperback)

Lauren has lusted after her neighbor and best friend Dale, for five years. The moment she saw him she fell in love with him. Dale however, has never thought of Lauren as more than a best friend and continues to think he's in love with a woman from his past. Dale tends to date a lot of women to ease the pain of not being able to have the one he truly loves. Lauren wishes Dale would fall in love with her, but being abandoned by everyone in her life keeps her from getting her hopes up. One night she finds Dale drunk and the two of them end up having sex. In the morning though, Dale remembers nothing and Lauren decides to keep her mouth shut. One big problem comes up; she gets pregnant and has to decide if she's going to remind Dale of the night they shared.

The book started out pretty good, but after a while things became confusing. Lauren was in love with Dale, but at times she pushed him away. And some of it did have to do with her past, but she was finally getting what she wanted from him and yet she acted like she didn't want anything to do with him. Because of her past and just how independent she was, it was understandable she'd be leery of Dale's feelings, but it seemed like he told her the same thing over and over and she didn't believe him yet she wanted him to love her. Dale was an okay character, but at times he was confusing also. While having sex sometimes Lauren would tell him no and he'd keeping going. She wasn't trying to hard to shove him away and he probably would have stopped if she had, but even her saying no in a firm way should have caused him to leave her alone. It was kind of a weird pull between the two of them. And how after the baby was born Dale didn't think it was his, I don't know. The doctor even thought the baby looked like him. I did feel bad for him that he'd missed out on knowing it was really his baby all along and felt bad for Lauren that she was scared to tell him, but she still should have sooner.

There were some typo's and at times quotation marks were missing so it was hard to tell when something was being said until the quotes came at the end. Every so often other viewpoints besides Lauren and Dale's were added in for a quick second and then never brought back into the story. It slowed the story down and made things more complicated. There was plenty of sex in the book, but the descriptions were kind of the same. Towards the end things got a little silly and repetitive, but overall the book was okay.