Customer Reviews

Just Between Us . . . Kiss & Tell (Harlequin Blaze)

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

 

 

This is one of my favorite read for several reasons. First, it's the third in a trilogy and the sexual tension had a lot of time to build up by the time you get to this one. Second, the characters are best friends which is always one of my favorite romance senarios. The sex sences are steamy and endering thanks to the yummy hero Jack. You don't have to read the first two to enjoy this one but I'd recommend them. Both good reads and fun characters. Sexual Content: Strong

When Mallory Woodruff, Layla Hollister, Reilly Chudowski, and newspaper columnist Jack Daniels (no comment needed) became best friends, they agreed the one male was off-limits. However, Mallory and Jack stilled ended up in bed together that very night the pact was struck. Since then Mallory and Jack have been a hot item, but serendipitously hide their affair from their two buddies.

Newspaper columnist Jack is tired of hiding how he feels towards Mallory. He knows he risks a lot as the sex is great and he loves her, but he needs their relationship to come out of dark bedrooms and into the light of friends. However, documentary director Mallory feels otherwise as she is contented with an illicit relationship that does not interfere with her friendships and her career while providing great sex. Jack and Mallory still generate more heat in Southern California than the sun, but are they heading to a supernova over whether to come out or not?

JUST BETWEEN US fans of Team Carrington, this is an amusing torrid romance that burns up the sheets (of the novel as much as the boudoir). Mallory is an intriguing protagonist who feels commitment to the man she loves that she fears will cost her commitment to the career that means everything. Jack is heroic as he plays cat and mouse with his phobic beloved to show there is room for a permanent duet helping each other achieves their best artistic endeavor. This is another winner from one of the best writers of the sexy romance.

Harriet Klausner

I'm giving Blaze 113, Kiss & Tell: Just Between Us, the third in a series by the brilliantly sassy husband and wife writing team of "Tori Carrington" four stars. The Carringtons generally get five stars from me; they are just that strong of writers. Only, strong writing is not the problem with this book. It's the third and last in the series - and maybe thankfully - because it shows the series being stretched to make that third book and really "thin" on plot because of it. To the Carrington's writing credit that pushes the limit of hot, once again, the sassy prose grabs the readers and keeps them reading despite the really shaking premise.

In the first two books, Night Fever: Kiss & Tell, Harlequin Blaze, 105 and Flavor Of The Month: Kiss & Tell Harlequin Blaze, 109) we've met four very close friends, Leyla, Reilly, Mallory and Jack. Since all three women had wanted to jump sexy Jackson Daniel's bones, they make a pact none of them shall. Fine. But for that to be the crux of a conflict, they needed to make it the FIRST story in the series - not the last! In Night Fever, Leyla the doctor gets engaged and Reilly coffee shop/ice cream shop owner and Ben, owner of an up and coming restaurant do their story in Flavor of the Month. This leaves Mallory, the budding documentary producer, and Jack - we have little idea what he does other than writes a column for a paper - to do their turn. However, by doing this story last - they pull props right out from under the whole premise. WHY should Leyla who now has Sam, and Reilly who now has Ben, care if Mallory and Jack are doing the "wild thing"? Jack wants to tell them they have been involved from the very start, Mallory prefers to keep hiding it from her "good" friends.

These are friends to whom you tell everything. These very friends pitch in and give Mallory a small fortune to finish her documentary, yet she has been lying to them for years and prefers to KEEP lying to them? To compound errors in plotting, The "great friends" have been so close, sharing every woe, every success, yet Mallory (while jumping Jack at every chance she gets) know absolutely nothing about Jack and is content with that. It's only after Jack demands they tell their other two friends, and threatens to cut off the sex, that Mallory stops and wonders how Jack spends his time when he is not in her bed (we are talking over three years here).

The issue of Mallory "dating" Jack would've only been a bone of contention amongst the three women, when they were ALL single and all had yearnings for Jack. Now the other two are paired off, why should it be a problem Jack and Malloy should have to hide their romance? How can four friends be their little bastion against the world and not care more about each other to notice Jack and Mallory were "doing it"? Sorry, a man and woman involved sexually cannot hide it! Small responses toward each other send off signals. If they had made this the lead book, when all three women were lusting after Jack, then the premise would have worked. It would have also made the fact these so-called devoted friends knew so damn little about each other. Of course, I don't put the whole blame on them. Where was the editor? Their editor should have seen this problem coming front point one.

The Carrington's strength in their books is their sizzling writing. The dynamic duo is right on target there. They are daring, sassy, saucy - everything you expect from this writing team. I enjoyed the first two books very much, so I was able to continue reading the last in the series despite it has such a week, shaky and out-of-order plot. Lori and Tony seemed to define the Blaze line, for their story blazes...

It just would've been so much more believable had they put this book at the front of the trio of tales where it would've made more sense. So, just go with the flow, suspend questions and enjoy the talented writing teams magic antics. People reading the other two will enjoy this book more and be willing to ignore the gaping holes in logic. A person not having read the "Carringtons" before, would be advised skip this one and start with one of their others first.

the chemistry between Mallory and Jack is white hot. The no sex vow was broken within days. I liked the way that they played it cool in front of the other friends. If you like white hot Passion then this is the book for you .It is the last one in Mrs.Carrington's Kiss and Tell series and this one is the most romantic one of all of them.

enjoy it.

I have been faithfully reading the Kiss & Tell series by Tori Carrington. I really got involved into the lives of the characters, feeling like I knew them as well as my friends. <g> It is about a quartet of three women and one man, who met for the first time in LA and became fast friends. They have been together through thick and thin, and the only agreement was that they would not sleep with Jack, the male friend.

JUST BETWEEN US...the final book and features the last two friends, Jack and Mallory. We learn that it didnt take long for the no sex vow to be broken, and that these two have been having a torrid on and off affair for years. Neither wants commitment....or do they? Jack wants more than an occasional one night stand but will he convince Mallory she is his for life? Interwoven within the romance is a bit of a mystery. Mallory is working on a documentary involving a long ago murder mystery, but it is just a background to the romance, and hot bedroom action. It all gets tidied up in the end, and you get to see more of the characters from the first two books.(NIGHT FEVER and FLAVOR OF THE MONTH) It was fast, funny and just the story to warm me up on cold nights.

If you like your romance hot and burning the sheets, with a little mystery and lots of romance, then pick up JUST BETWEEN US...

From the back cover:

"When Mallory, Layla, Reilly and Jack became best friends, the three women agreed that their tall, gorgeous male buddy was off-limits. Only, Mallory ended up toppling into bed with Jack that very night. And she hasn't been able to keep her eyes - or hands - off him since. But little does she realize that their blazing secret love affair is quickly burning out of control....

Nothing can describe how good Jack feels with Mallory hot and wanting in his arms. But illicit sex just isn't cutting it for him anymore. Jack wants to bring their relationship out from under the covers. Mallory, however, likes keeping him - and everybody else - in the dark. Still, with the heat the two of them generate, something is bound to be exposed soon. And Jack can only hope it's Mallory...."

I was really looking forward to reading this book having enjoyed this author's, a wife and husband team, before. I was distracted from an enjoyable story by really poor editing/proofing. Some things were annoying like the heroine Mallory having her nickname spelled Mall like a shopping mall. Some errors were bothersome like grammatical ones with incorrect tense. Some were hillarious like the word subversive, used in reference to sexual play, when hopefully they meant submissive. Other than these blunders the story was cute, Jack really sexy, Mallory feisty in standard romantic form. Just, please, get a better proofreader next time.