Customer Reviews

Her Sexy Valentine (Harlequin Blaze)

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

 

 

Carol Snow works at a greeting card company by day and chats with other members of a sexy book club by night. When she starts falling for a co-worker, the steamy but standoff-ish Luke Chancellor, the lines dividing her business and personal lives begin to fade. By itself, this would have been a pretty full plot...but the author adds another twist, which causes the entire house of cards to unravel.

Stephanie Bond attempts an homage to Charles Dickens's THE CHRISTMAS CAROL by having Carol live through Valentine's Day past, present, and future. The Dickens conceit is misleading: The structure is much more like the movie GROUNDHOG DAY--it's the same day each time, and Carol gets a chance to re-live the sequence of events. The author copies and pastes parts of the novel, changing only a few words per page each time the day repeats (and, in some cases, changing nothing at all for several paragraphs). Deja vu much? I understand it's the same day, but reading the same descriptive passages over and over spoils the sexy set-up.

HER SEXY VALENTINE is a sequel to Bond's SEDUCTION BY THE BOOK--fans of the earlier novel may find this one to their taste. For new readers, there's too much going on to fit into 224 pages--and the repetition is, well, repetitive.

Director of Finance at Mystic Touch Greeting Cards Carol Snow enjoys her relationship thrills to come from a novel and not a real person ever since her former fiancé burned her on Valentine's Day. As such she appreciates her time as a member of the Red Tote Book Club for romance readers. However, Carol is stunned when the other participants decide on each of them to select their favorite romance novel to guide them in seducing the man of their dreams; Carol problem is she has no man of her dreams outside of a novel as she distrusts males so she plans to fake her tryst.

The nearest male she can think of is her occasional day dreaming about her too oozing charm peer Luke Chancellor. When he shocks her by asking her out on a date, Carol wants to flee back to book reading. However, she bumps her head and soon lives over and over past and future Valentine's Day to include mind boggling sex with Luke. Soon even repeating the greatest sexual trysts of her life is not enough as Carol wants Luke to love her like she does him.

The sequel to Seduction by the Book is an erotic Jane Austen Book Club inside the movie Groundhog Day. Carol is a superb lead character while Luke is a wonderful male who wants his peer as he has for two unfulfilled years. Fans will enjoy this fun whimsical romantic fantasy.

Harriet Klausner

I am all for a determined, non-dormat, and tough heroine but Carol just came out as a female dog ;). C'mon, I understood why she didn't want to give bonuses at first but then all the other times were just her trying to prove her place. Really? I would have been really okay if one of those big things looming over her just ended the whole story. The hero must like the chase because that's the only reason I could think of him pursuing the heroine. Sorry, this book is an utter fail for me.

Yes, it follows a Groundhogs Day-esque theme, but it was a cute romance novel nonetheless. I gave it three stars because it could have been more developed, character wise especially. It was short and definitely had the room for it.