Customer Reviews

Hot Night

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

After locksmith Zan Duncan rescues her from a horrible blind date, Abby Maitland tries to forget her gorgeous rescuer. Although Abby finds Zan very attractive, he's a bad boy and the last thing Abby needs is another bad boy boyfriend. Even if he does star in her sexual fantasies and tempts her to break her own rules and engage in an affair.

But a simple affair is not in the cards for Abby and Zan. A psychotic madman has set his sights on the pair. Little does the couple know that they are being manipulated to fulfill his evil plan. With time running out, Abby and Zan have no one to turn to, but to each other.

I was willing to sell body parts for a chance to read Hot Night by Shannon Mckenna, although I was a little worried that I might not love this latest book. I've only been waiting for what seems like a million years for it to arrive. And oh boy, the wait was so worth it!

I devoured Hot Night. I loved it so much that I threatened to run away to Mexico with it. Zan is exactly the type of Alpha hero I adore. He's intense, powerful, smart and I want him for my own. Abby is beautiful, loyal, intelligent and it's so not fair. She is all that and she has Zan. Did I mention I am in LOVE with Zan?

I am crazy-mad for Hot Night and cannot say enough good things about this book. Hot Night is ohmigod, burn up the sheets, get out the HAZMAT suit, hot. The suspense is thrilling and wonderfully crafted. It is delicious in all ways! I have always been a Shannon McKenna fan, but after reading Hot Night, I am an uber fan.

Annmarie
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

How much did I hate this book? An awful, awful lot. I'm not sure I can do justice to my hate in such a short space. And I cannot believe how generously this book has been reviewed in light of the central relationship and its frankly rather disturbing overtones.

As always with Ms McKenna's books, you have the beautiful, quirky heroine in distress and the ALPHA-male hero. The plot is driven by a campy, over the top villain with nefarious intentions and some suitably goonish underlings. Fine. It's ridiculous, but amusing in a high-camp kind of way. I even liked Abby. I liked the little details about her life, I liked her wardrobe; she comes across as a good depiction of a single, successful modern woman. And yes, the chemistry is sizzling and the sex is hot and it is everything we have come to expect - So far so McKenna.

It all comes unglued with Zan. This is a guy who comes across as normal in the beginning of the book; bit of a meat-head, yes, with a limited vocabulary and not a lot of social polish (Vintage McKenna), but certainly cute and studly enough to catch the eye of our heroine. The aforementioned sizzling chemistry and hot sex ensues.

And then it goes horribly wrong.

Before my eyes, a cute, light hearted romance turns dark and nasty. Zan is transformed into a crude, controlling monster. He is jealous, controlling and violent. The worst thing is, it's never resolved. There is no moment of enlightenment; Zan's complete disregard for Abby's work, her career, his inability compromise - an issue that is NOT resolved by the end of the book - left me speechless. He is a graceless, sulking hulk in Abby's world, a great big black hole of negativity and stupidity. He has no interest in her life and by the end of the book, you can't help but wonder what smart, intelligent, beautiful Abby would want with a giant dick - besides the obvious. Don't get me wrong, I like them alpha; I like them domineering. But this was not cool. Zan's relationship with Abby was not cool. And it was jarring precisely because McKenna is a good enough writer that you expect more from her than this unequal, unappetising pairing.

Abby Maitland is trying to put her past to rest. She picks the wrong guys every single time she steps up to plate. Her latest set-up is a real winner and to top things off she's locked herself out of the house. She calls a locksmith who just so happens to like to play hero stopping a potential rape and beating. Abby can't help but be drawn to the handsome dark stranger named Zan but she has to her sanity demands it. But like always the one thing that seems to be the worst for her is all she wants. She finally gives into the sensual draw he generates and this should make things better...but it doesn't instead her life gets much more complicated and Zan is at the center of it all. Her best friend has been killed, people think it's a suicide and bad things keep happening to her. But there is a killer out there and he is closer then anyone knows. Will Zan and Abby be able to stay one step ahead of him or will a killer strike one more time?

Ms. McKenna is an automatic buy for me. Her stories have it all! Great alpha males that are very endearing to the reader, sexy romance between the main characters, and evil baddies straight out of a nightmare. If you are looking for a stay up late night of reading you won't want to over look this page turning effort. Like I said it has it all!

I loved Abby, the heroine. She was trying to get over past mistakes and have a "normal" life. She was a loyal friend who was the only one who believed her friend didn't commit suicide but was murdered. She wouldn't let that stand and pursued trying to find the killer. She was a beautiful woman who didn't see herself that way. She loved her job working for a museum as the fundraiser despite the fact that her boss was the boss from hell. Her friends keep setting her up with awful blind dates and on one of those dates she finds herself locked out of her apartment. This is when the hero shows up. He runs a locksmith business on the side.

The hero starts out as a guy we'd like to know but Abby, despite her attraction, has decided Zan has all the bad boy characteristics of prior bad boyfriends each of whom ruined her life. Two days later she's on a blind date, the date being a total jerk. He's locked himself out of his car and Abby calls Zan. He takes her home and before you know it its bedroom time.

Zan turns out to be a guy who doesn't care about Abby's concerns or what Abby wants. He doesn't care about how important her job is to her and ends up getting her fired due to his jealous, uncontrolled behavior. He follows her around spying and jumps in everytime he sees her doing something he doesn't want her to do. On one of his spying trips he gets infuriated when he spots her talking to another guy. His character being what it is he jumps to the wrong conclusion and there is the first of many nasty scenes between the two of them were his jealousy or his I want what I want mentality lets us see how unlikeable he is. Each time he storms away leaving Abby crushed by his abusive treatment. After each of these incidents, when he's calmed down, he tells her he's sorry and admits he behaved badly but before you know it, the scene repeats. Every time she admonishes him and says she doesn't want this type of turmoil and cruel behavior in her life she's having to take those words back when they fall back into bed.

Each time the scene is written from Zan's point of view, it typically shows him going over ways to manipulate her to get what he wants and totally misinterpreting a situation whenever he spys her with another man, whether work related or not. He knows he's wrong following her, but he does it anyway. When he attacks a prominent donor to the museum at a fund raising ball, just because Abby was having to do her job and entertain the guy, he gets her fired. He later tells her she can get a job somewhere else. She didn't want somewhere else, she loved the job she was in.

I don't get what Abby saw in Zan or why she kept taking him back. The only positive thing about him was the fabulous sex. There's nothing that tells us why Zan fell so uncontrollably in love when he barely knew her. His love was toxic and abusive. He is the type of person women take out restraining orders against. I was pretty angry with his character by the time I finished this book.

This author is one of my very favorite brand-name picks and her books are immediate purchases. This is one of her strongest--yet darkest--stories to date. The male and female leads are strong, passionate characters with great chemistry that starts from the get-go and just keeps sizzling.
However, her villians are truly hideous excuses for human beings and left me troubled. Her ability to write tortuous death scenes almost overwhelmed her sensual moments until I was relieved to finish the book and have the bad guys out of my head. It speaks to a writer's skill to create such memorable characters--both loving/sensual and horrible.

Let me start by saying I LOVE SHANNON McKenna!...I've read all her books so far with "Standing in the Shadows" being my favorite...I pre-ordered HOT NIGHT and eagerly awaited its arrival...and was sooooooooooo disappointed!...One of the things I've always liked about her books was the fact that the characters had other relationships/family...that provided a great insight into the central characters...Zan's family wasn't explored...He was the typical "alpha" male - which I have LOVED in Ms. M's other books...but Zan was just incredibly UNLIKEABLE and uncouth in not a charming way...I look forward to Ms. M's continuation of the last of the McCloud brothers...Get the other books....much better reflection of Ms. M's work...

Arriving home with her blind date from hell, Abby Maitland is dismayed to realize that she won't be able to make a quick getaway without her house keys. After calling an all-night locksmith, Abby quickly realizes that her blind date is spiraling out of control.

Zan Duncan was intrigued by the voice on the phone asking him to open her front door. When the call is suddenly dropped after what sounds like a scuffle of some sort, Zan rushes to Abby's apartment to find her being assaulted by a man.

After a strange first meeting, Zan and Abby are drawn to each other again and again. Abby is determined to rebuff his advances because the last thing she needs or wants in her life is a "bad boy". Zan is exactly what she's not looking for, with his tattoos and motorcycle. Zan has other plans for Abby, whom he doesn't intend to let getaway.

When Abby's best friend turns up dead after talking to her about her crazy boyfriend, Abby goes on a mission to prove that it was murder, not suicide. With Zan along as an unwilling accomplice, they dig deeper into Elaine's life and try to find her mysterious boyfriend. All the while, Abby is trying to get an exibit ready worth millions at the museum she works at. While there is a lot going on in this book, as far as different storylines, McKenna ties it up very nicely in the end. This is a fantastic book.

Hot night had a good plot, a smart and fiesty heroine, and sizzling sex. However, Zan, the "hero" was over the top and ruined the book for me. I enjoy alpha male stories, but this guy was manipulative, controlling, and everything a woman should avoid. He would act like a jerk to Abby repeatedly and then say "sorry, it won't happen again." Two pages later, the jerk is back. Yuck.

I'm not sure what I can say about this book except to say that you probably need to make sure there is a lot of water in your house, because you will need to keep yourself hydrated ;) This book will make you feel very sweaty! It is a very engrossing, great read that will take you from confusion, to sizzling sex scenes, to fear for her, fear for him, confusion again...on and on and on. What a great storyteller Shannon McKenna is -- she takes the alpha male character in romance books and ratchets him up a couple hundred notches.

That Zan...hmmm...not sure that I could handle him. In fact, I know I couldn't. I really felt for Abby during a lot of the book, because it's obvious she is way in over her head too! :) Half the time I was reading it I would have to get up and walk around the room because I wanted to just DO SOMETHING! ACK! You really get caught up in the things going on in the book and just can't put it down.

If you like thriller romance with great sex scenes, totally overboard alpha male characters, women you can relate to who are completely in over their heads but who manage to pull through, then these Shannon McKenna books are for you! She is WONDERFUL :)

In Silver Fork, Oregon Abby Maitland comes home from a date from hell when she realizes she is locked out of her home. She calls a locksmith while her date Edgar gets rough until the locksmith Alexander "Zan" Duncan shows up and fixes everything.

Abby is working on a project to best display the new Spanish treasure exhibit at the Portland science museum. Unknown to the exhibit development manager is that someone plans to steal the gold and eliminate any witnesses. However, the predator delays implementation when Zan seems to always be around her.

Abby is attracted to Zan and he reciprocates her deepest feelings. However, though her body and soul desires Zan, she has doubts about going out with the centerfold of bad boys. It is not just his black leather or the tattoos that scare her; it is also his fighting skills when someone attacks them that make her wonder what this locksmith used to do. Still as they fall in love, the culprit has revised the plan to eliminate two blockades to the gold.

HOT NIGHT is a torrid romantic mystery as the audience like the heroine will wonder about the so called bad boy who seems to always be in the right place at the right time to either steal kisses or rescue the damsel in distress. Abby is a fabulous independent female who wants a caring man in her life, but though she desires Zan she is unsure if he is good for her. Zan is a bit of enigma at first, but fans will know quickly there is more to him than a pick and a tattoo. Shannon McKenna provides a heated XXX romantic suspense thriller.

Harriet Klausner