Customer Reviews

Heated Rush (Harlequin Blaze)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Who'd of thought a Harlequin Blaze could have held such a wonderful story? The heroine, Annie, attends a charity bachelor auction to buy a date for an impending family anniversary party. The man she had been seeing had turned out to be a lying, manipulative and married (unknown to Annie) man. After telling her mother all about the wonderful man she had been dating, she can't very well show up to her parent's anniversary party without him! Also, she's from a small town and her parents have always feared that when she left to move to the "big city" of Chicago that she would be hurt physically or emotionally. She had to prove them wrong. She bids on a bachelor whose bio lists him as an EMT for the city of Chicago. Unbeknownst to all involved, the bios were mixed up at the printers and the man she bids on is actually an international business man who has a past history of being a high priced male escort. Annie is so taken with the picture of the man (Sean) that she bids $5000 on him and wins. That's when the sparks start to fly. They immediately feel an attraction towards each other. She resists because of her recent disaster with the married Blake and Sean resists because he can see that Annie is truly a nice girl who he feels is undeserving of someone with his sordid past. Needless to say, neither can resist the attraction and a wonderful story ensues. The last several chapters were so poignant and touching. For those who believe a Harlequin can't fully capture an in-depth story and characters, this one will prove them wrong. There is a nice combination of heat and wonderful, compelling story to go along with it. Bravo to Ms. Kelly for a wonderful book. I was actually teary eyed during the last few chapters. If you want a wonderful love story, pick up this book! It's fabulous!!

This book has the same basic setup used in Slow Hands (Harlequin Blaze), the 1st book in the miniseries, but I didn't do so much eye rolling this time. The case of mistaken identity was more believable in this book because it wasn't dragged throughout the whole story, so there wasn't really a Big Misunderstanding and the Small Misunderstanding was easily cleared up on the H/h's 1st date. How good it is when people talk to each other! :)

Sean Murphy was a former gigolo - yes, he had been a male prostitute in the past, no sugarcoating the issue there - and current business consultant who had agreed to participate in a charity bachelor auction - as one of the bachelors to be auctioned, of course - as a favor to a friend. He wasn't too enthusiastic about the whole affair and, remembering his former "profession", he dreaded being "bought" by a woman who would expect more than a dinner date with him. He was through with that life and had no intention to take a trip down memory lane, now or ever again. So you can imagine his surprise - and pleasure - when he was "bought" by "good girl" Annie Davis.

Annie attended the charity event to "buy" a date to escort her to her parents' 35th anniversary party. There was no way she was showing up at her parents' alone, not after having told her mother all about the "wonderful" man she had been seeing for the last two months. So what if that "wonderful" man had turned out to be a lying and married man? She wasn't going to share that with her family. She was from a small town and her parents had always been against her moving to the "big and bad city" of Chicago. Knowing how easily she had been lied to by her cheating "boyfriend" would just start her family on their you-have-to-come-back-home-and-marry-a-nice-country-boy speech, and Annie wasn't in the mood for that. So she went to the charity auction and "bought" Sean thinking he was a paramedic, a more than suitable profession for a man she intended to introduce to her family as her "boyfriend". Well, due to a mix-up by the graphic designer responsible for making the brochures showcasing the bachelors being auctioned, Sean's bio had been switched with another bachelor, the real paramedic Jake Wallace - who was the hero in Slow Hands (Harlequin Blaze), BTW - and, needless to say, neither Sean nor Annie came to regret the confusion in the end. ;)

Sean and Annie were attracted to each other from the start, and didn't play games around it. But neither was sure their relationship had any future. He didn't do relationships in general and, once he started falling in love with Annie, couldn't help but feel less than deserving considering his "dirty" past. As for Annie, she didn't know what to expect from him because he wasn't too willing to talk about his family and himself. But when he finally opened up and told her all about it... Oh, that was one good scene! Even though it was a bit rushed, the ending was the best part of this book. Not so much the epilogue, that was unnecessary IMHO, but the small scenes between the moment Sean told Annie about his past and the moment he finally accepted he was deserving of her love. *sighs*

I really like former-bad-boy-turned-good stories, and this one was no exception. Sean was wonderful and I liked the fact that Ms. Kelly didn't choose the easy way out and turned him into a "fake" gigolo - you know, sometimes authors "redeem" the hero by revealing at the last minute that his bad reputation had been only a product of pretense and gossip. Not the case here. Sean was what he was, and it was good to see Annie accepting the whole package. All in all, this was a very satisfying read.

I didn't think I would enjoy this book as much as I did! I also read "Slow Hands" by Leslie Kelly and liked that too! These 2 books both begin at the same charity auction, so reading them both is like reading a sequel, although they don't need to be read together, nor do they need to be read in a particular order. I actually liked "Slow Hands" a little better, but I think it's because the male character was more my taste in men! Both were romantic, sexy, and had enjoyable characters. I don't normally read Harlequin (although I do like romance novels) but I got one of these free on Kindle, and then purchased the other because it really was that good!!! Buying the two together would make a great gift for someone, or a nice gift for yourself for a long, lazy weekend!

Annie ends up winning the bid on Sean at an aution. The same one that Jake in Slow Hands was bought at. Annie asks Sean to go home to her parents house and pretend to be her boyfriend that she's been telling her family about. Her famly is constantly on her about how she should move home and is going to have something bad happen to her so she creates a boyfirend to get them off her back. Sean agrees to go and also wants to get to know Annie better. She thinks she's bought an EMT, but Sean was a male escort, but is now more in consulting business. As they get to know each other, he might have to tell her the truth about himself and risk what could be between them.

The book was okay. It had some good dialogue. At times it moved slow, but other times I wanted to know what was going to happen. Towards the end it started to pick up and get better. I was impressed with Annie and how she treated Sean after she found out the truth. It was a sweet read that shows how people who are somewhat different can grow and see what's important.

So i bought this book because I read the companion book, "Slow Hands" and really liked it. I was entertained by this one, sure, but definitely preferred the other one...I think because I preferred the female protagonist in the other book, as well as the plot setup in the other book. This female protagonist, Annie, just does not do it for me, and she asks enough times how people think she and the male protagonist are together, and frankly, I agree, because it was hard to envision them together AT ALL. The guy sounds like Colin Farrell (sexy as hell) and she sounds like...I don't even know, Carrie Underwood, except not as cute. No way. I would have been fine if this book had been free, like "slow hands" was, but alas, I had to pay for this one, and in hindsight, should not have.

This is part 2 of the charity bachelor auction (1st was Slow Hands) - Annie Davis needs a date for her parents Anniversary party and decides to spend all her savings to at charity bachelor auction to get a date. The last man her family thought she was dating was married and she can't face going alone to see her family. Annie thinks she is buying a safe blue collar paramedic but due to error in the program she bought Irish Sean Murphy `international professional escort'. I love this author style of writing always a sure thing - buy both stories and enjoy!

Looking forward to the follow Harlequin Blaze novels; Play with Me (Harlequin Blaze) due out February 2010, Midnight Resolutions (Harlequin Blaze) due out January 2010 and Her Sexy Valentine (Harlequin Blaze).

Fun reading material..No brainer romance novel :). Great fantasy put into reality..With plenty of what if's turned into a happy ending.Thinking, "Pretty Woman" here..Hope to read more of this authors materials. Pick up her last book, "Slow Hands" also :)

I liked the story somewhat. I love that the whole mix up caused them to find each other. I loved that they learned to lean on each other. But i did not like that it was so short and fast paced. there was no real romance aspect. they went out on one and a half dates. they slept together the first time out.
we saw nothing of them growing closer in the thirteen days. then the wedding the reveal and it was over.

kind of expecting more.

Harlequin prides itself for still being in the business after 60 years. From the ones I've read, I'd say that simplicity and timelessness are their secrets.

It's no different for this book. Within its simple plot, fast-read quality and even the hot sexy scenes lies timeless lessons on love, family and self discovery. Now that's very formulaic, but whoever concocted it knew what they were doing.

I loved this story. The chemistry between Annie and Sean was so well written I felt like I knew them personally. It made me laugh out loud with her family reunion and actually second guess my prediction for the ending. It was a great love story that actually had a different ending but better and sweet than I imagined.