6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Illicit pleasure -- Very highly recommended, December 8, 2001
This review is from: Nights Before Christmas (Heat) (Harlequin Temptation) (Paperback)
Suzanne Tabot falls into one of the oldest mistakes of all when she believes the bad boy stories that have garnered a sexy reputation for maintenance man Greg Stone. Rumor has it that Greg specializes in healing the broken hearts of many of the women in the building. Suzanne assumes, from friend's comments, that his sexual process provides the necessary healing balm. Indeed, just the mention of Greg gives Suzanne a jolt of forbidden pleasure. She tries to convince herself that Greg's safe because he's temporary, thereby filling a specific need before moving on. Her best friend tells she needs a rebound man: someone to spend wild, sexy nights with that she'd never dream of making permanent. The truth is that she wants a whole lot more than temporary with him.
Greg's been watching Suzanne the entire eighteen months she's occupied her apartment, and was secretly pleased when her unappreciative boyfriend disappeared. He's put himself in a quite a quandary regarding women. He refuses to go back to college for the degree everyone thinks he needs to live up to his potential. He loves working as a maintenance man; work that leaves him imagination free to roam the books he's read the night before. He loves the opportunity to talk to women with breaking hearts; usually a bit of counseling and encouragement is all they need. Too bad that most of the blue-collar girls of his acquaintance just don't have a lot to say after sex. The classy, intellectual women of his apartment building would never settle for a man with less of a paycheck than they earn. And they certainly wouldn't appreciate his toolbox in place of a business suit. But he would certainly give Suzanne a chance, if she wanted it.
Gossip and innuendo provide illicit pleasure for both men and women, as Vicki Lewis Thompson so astutely observes in THE NIGHTS BEFORE CHRISTMAS. While it's traditionally been the woman who's been on the receiving end of blow to the reputation, Thompson deftly turns the tables and then provides a delightful outcome. Although this heroine does fall into the trap of believing her friends, she does not fall into the trap of snobbery also observed by many women of her acquaintance. Greg's safe, they assume, because he's a maintenance man and therefore not on their social and economic level. And while his paycheck may not match their paycheck, his zest for life and love of books clearly indicates his intellectual prowess. Of course our heroine wins the guy; she's the only one in the building willing to look beyond his reputation and appearance to the man beneath. Best of all, Greg does not compromise his identity to get the girl. Very highly recommended.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely a Blaze, November 19, 2001
This review is from: Nights Before Christmas (Heat) (Harlequin Temptation) (Paperback)
Greg Stone is a gorgeous, college-dropout, maintenance man living on site in an expensive apartment building running over with well-educated YUPPIE women (WYW). He's made a name for himself among many of these female residents because he offers such a great listening ear when they have been dumped by selfish-pig boyfriends. However, he has never had sex with any of them for fear of it leading to him losing his job or having his heart broken, as it has been in the past by another WYW. Unfortunately, his reputation has been blown out of proportion by some of the women he's helped out, and word has it that Greg is some kind of unpaid sex therapist willing to do hands on self-esteem building for emotionally battered women.
Suzanne Talbot is one of the many attractive WYW's in Greg's building. A close friend of hers strongly recommends Greg's "services," and after he spends time in her apartment repairing her sink and chatting with her over a cup of soup, Suzanne decides since she's suffering from sexual inadequacy, and he's a hunk and willing to be used for sexual healing, she might as well grab the goods. No sooner than she makes her decision, she immediately strips from her prim business suit and all her underwear and slides on a skin-tight black jumpsuit (which she just happens to have in her closet even though she is portrayed as conservative and repressed). Then she slithers down to the basement to apply for aid and comfort from good ol' Greg.
Greg at first refuses the amazing sexual come-on of a woman he formerly thought was shy, both because of shock and because, he's simply not that kind of guy. But Suzanne is so devastated at his rebuff, he can't stand it. The poor thing can't take any more rejection after her bum of a boyfriend dumped her, and, after all, Greg has had a huge crush on her for months, and wouldn't he be nuts to pass up the chance for sex with such a beautiful, eager woman? So before you know it, we've leaped into a torrid sex scene. And, since this is pretty cheap sex, there is room for lots of nice conflict ripping them apart afterwards in the form of morning-after regrets. This allows for a chance to slowly build up the will-they-won't-they tension again and lead to more torrid love scenes with lots of regrets after them, too, and so on.
Comments: Soon after the establishment of most new Harlequin's lines (from Duets to Coltons, to this one, etc.), in a short while they begin to take on a predictable voice and plot-setup. It seems Blaze, which in the beginning seemed nicely innovative, has settled on it's tone and modus operandi, since it is already appearing over and over again, to wit:
The heroine (or the hero, or both of them) thinks, "I'm attracted to you, and I don't want to be (almost always because of being burned in the past or simply, in the man's case, not being ready to settle down). So to solve my little problem, I'll have sex with you once, which I am sure will get you out of my system." The second, related version of this setup for a no-strings, "hot, erotic" fling is that the heroine needs to heal her sexuality because she thinks she might be frigid due to a jerky boyfriend who gave her bad sexual experiences or who didn't like her refusing to have sex with him. This book uses both these approaches rolled into one.
My problem with both of these setups is that, for me at least, when either the hero or heroine jumps into bed with the motivation of using the other like meat, it makes me totally disrespect that protagonist as a human being. No matter that this is a common convention in many, many lines of Harlequin over many, many years, I don't like it in any short contemporary because it stinks ethically, whether the man does it or the woman.
Now Thompson has obviously tried to fix this thorny problem by having the hero be a kind guy who truly loves women in general has no ulterior motives for helping them out, and by her presentation of the heroine as a gentle, downtrodden soul. But it doesn't get rid of the heroine's motivation. She thinks good-looking Greg is there for the using, so, what the hey, why not go ahead and use him? (How many women over the centuries have loathed that awful attitude in men?) Yes, she does discover down the road that he's a human being, and a decent one at that, and she does fall in love with him and decide to commit to him. But her eventual emotional reform doesn't change the fact that what she did initially was despicable.
Having said all that, I admit freely Thompson is a good writer in general. Her characters are strongly drawn, in this as in all her books, with clear personalities, goals and motivations, and she has written this book fluently and well. So if you have no quarrel with this kind of plot, or even find this sort of setup sexy, and, most of all, if you are a fan of Thompson, you will probably like this book a lot.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thompson does it again!, November 12, 2001
This review is from: Nights Before Christmas (Heat) (Harlequin Temptation) (Paperback)
Plot Summary: All Suzanne Talbot wants for Christmas is Greg Stone. She's fantasized about the sexy handyman for months. And she's recently heard from other women in her building that leaky pipes aren't all Greg fixes. So she decides to go for it... and quickly learns just how good Greg is with his hands... All Greg Stone wants for Christmas is Suzanne Talbot. Only, Suzanne's so classy, so sexy, so damn tempting. Why would she want a guy like him? But once Suzanne makes the first move, Greg can't resist her. They come together in explosive, sensual encounters that are as mystical, as magical as the season itself. And now all Greg has to do is convince Suzanne that the nights after Christmas can be even better...
Once again, Vicki Lewis Thompson manages to pull together well-developed characters, believable romantic development, and imaginative and original erotic scenes. Suzanne is a wonderful character, shy yet sexy, and her need for order is given a good reason. And Greg is one of those caring, generous men we all wish we could meet! While Thompson gives Greg good justification for his bias against well-educated women, I appreciated that he didn't hold onto that bias beyond the point of reason (sometimes male romance heroes are downright unbelievable in their adherence to bias).
In addition, Thompson once again manages to give us steamy scenes that stand out from the crowd. When you read a lot of romances, sometimes the erotic scenes can become a bit ho-hum, but Thompson always manages to give her lovemaking a fresh approach.
This is one of the best I've seen in the Temptation line -- a good balance of erotica, romance, and good characterization. Keep 'em coming, Vicki, and I'll keep reading!
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