Thirty Nights (Blaze, 5) [Paperback]

JoAnn Ross (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2001 | Series: Blaze, 5

USA Today bestselling author JoAnn Ross brings you a provocative story. . .

Hunter St. John wants Gillian Cassidy. In his bed. . . fulfilling his fantasies. For thirty nights, that's the deal. He's going to make her scream with wild, wanton pleasure. Enjoy a little revenge in the process. The perfect way to get her out of his system, right?

Maybe. Gillian is shocked by his threat to destroy her father if she doesn't agree to his proposition - shocked and aroused. She's never forgotten Hunter and the way he made her feel. But it's emotional blackmail. It could also be the best sex of her life. . . . Except what happens when the thirty nights are over?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A highly sensual romance with sultry yet emotional scenes and a heartwrenchingly tortured hero." -- Romantic Times magazine, Top Pick, 4 1/2 Gold, September, 2001

Heats up the pages with explosive tension between a deliciously sexy hero and an equally spirited heroine. A true keeper. -- Rendezvous

From the Author

I'd like to share a secret with you: Thirty Nights was not originally written for publication. It began as a story I made up to amuse myself - and my husband - while snowed in at our mountain cabin. My personal fantasies have always revolved around the dark and dangerous. Even as a child I preferred Beauty's Beast to Cinderella's Prince, Batman to Superman and my favorite old black-and-white movie was The Phantom of the Opera.

I adore reluctant heroes with tragic pasts, men who've put themselves in harm's way and have been wounded, physically, emotionally, or both in the process. Hunter St. John is such a man; the quintessential "beast" hiding away on his remote island, he's built an impenetrable wall around his emotions. But Gillian Cassidy is determined to tear down that hateful wall, unlock those chains around his heart and expose Hunter to the healing powers of love.

Thirty Nights is a very special book to me. Writing it allowed me to follow my characters on their edgy, erotic journey. Hunter is not an easy man to love, but by the time I wrote THE END, Gillian and I had both fallen madly, passionately in love with him. I hope readers will too.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Harlequin (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0373790090
• ISBN-13: 978-0373790098
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,299,632 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I wrote my first story -- a tragic romance about two star-crossed Mallard ducks -- as a second grade writing assignment. The paper earned a gold star. And I kept writing.

I've since written around a hundred novels and have been published in twenty-six countries. Two of my titles have been excerpted in Cosmopolitan magazine and my books have also been published by the Doubleday, Rhapsody, Mystery Guild, and Literary Guild bookclubs. As a New York Times, U.S. Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller, I'm also a member of the Romance Writers of America's Honor Roll of best-selling authors.

I'm currently writing my Shelter Bay series, set on the magnificent Oregon coast where, when I was eighteen-years-old, my high school sweetheart bought me a bag of taffy, then proposed. The smartest thing I ever did was say yes!

My husband and I live in our beloved Pacific Northwest, with three rescued dogs who pretty much rule the house. (And, in case you're wondering, that taffy store is still there! )

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly Romantic!, September 20, 2001

By 

Heather Reed "Heather R." (Tennessee) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thirty Nights (Blaze, 5) (Paperback)

First, I want to say that I loved this book. I was a little worried at first because of the 'slave' part. However, having read several Johanna Lindsey novels set in chauvenistic Medieval times - where a conquer enslaves a woman because he's enthralled by her beauty and ultimately he falls in love with her - and the stories turned out to be a wonderful romances, I gave it a try.

ANDI LOVED IT!

If you get past the heroes scars (which are both emotional and physical) caused by lots of negative events in his past, you'll see that Hunter St. James is a tender (he doesn't force her into anything she doesn't want to do), caring (he takes care of her after their first time together), albeit sexually daring man (well, you'll just have to read the book for this one). In perfect contrast to him, Gillian is the sweetheart we all love in a heroine. She's smart (runs a very successful music career), sexy (something you have to see for yourself), talented (heck, she plays the piano), and determined to get the man she loves (has always loved). So after Hunter gets it through his head that someone can love him and that he can love someone, the story turns into a true Beauty wins Beast (although I don't feel that Hunter is a Beast by any means) over fairy tale. A truly great example of the wonderfully written stories we're all used to reading by JoAnn Ross.

Now, I can't tell you to buy the book if a bit of conflict turns you away. Or if watching a couple overcome great odds isn't your cup of tea, but I can tell you that this story is not any different from any other where the hero is a bit egotistical, a bit arrogant, a bit afraid of love, and determined to avoid commitment. I can tell you that if you read it carefully, you will fall in love with Hunter just as Gillian does.

As my parting words, I'd like to say that the ending was superb. Better than I've read in a long, long time and I read constantly (sometimes 3-5 books a week).

So, I want to assure you that this book was NOT TERRIBLE and the HERO was just that (especially at the end!). He was NOT a MAD scientist nor was he out to make tons of money.

Happy reading!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Love with a hook, February 22, 2002

By 

camille (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Thirty Nights (Blaze, 5) (Paperback)

While a graduate student at MIT, Hunter's work is stolen by his professor. The professor scoffs at Hunter's anger and urges him to understand that the best way to succeed is to eschew emotion and look out for oneself. Hunter goes on a bender for several months and then straightens himself out, academically speaking, and goes onto a brilliant career in genetics. His research is based upon his "discovery" that one can predict human behavior with over 90% accuracy based upon DNA (which theory I just did not buy, but I was willing to suspend my disbelief). Both the Defense and State Departments are paying him for his research and various terrorist organizations want to kill him, which led to a letter bombing resulting in facial scarring and the loss of one hand. He lives and works on an island in Maine, where he has a lusty, but merely friendly, relationship with a fellow scientist. One night the woman brings over a video of his former mentor's daughter, who is a world-famous pianist, Gillian Cassidy. Hunter is immediately smitten and decides to accomplish two goals at once: revenge on his mentor and sex with Gillian. He forces Gillian's father to convince her to be his sex slave for 30 nights or he will reveal the father's long ago mendacity (the father now on the downslide of his career, everyone would believe the currently envogue Hunter). Although Gillian, who is a 25-year old virgin, has precious little love for her father she agrees, largely because she had a crush on Hunter when she was 12. All of this set up is packed into a relatively short amount of pages and the book truly begins when Gillian appears at Hunter's island. In some ways, I found the resulting love/sex scenes a let down because after Gillian immediately talks back to him and he confiscates her underwear, Hunter retreats to his lab to watch Gillian roam around his house via hidden cameras. Somehow, after several days of barely seeing him, Gillian is hot for him. Although the sex scenes are well done and different (especially the one in a sleigh at a winter carnival), I was expecting more from the story's set up. (Note: Some readers may be bothered by the use of Hunter's hook in the sex scenes.) The subplot about Hunter's work and the resulting violence committed on both him and especially Gillian seemed almost unnecessary -- I thought that there was enough of a story there without terrorism in Maine. Overall a good read.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely fabulous--if you like it hot!, September 20, 2001

By 

Terescia Easterly (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thirty Nights (Blaze, 5) (Paperback)

This book starts out with a tortured hero out of a gothic romance. Hunter St. John wants thirty nights of wild, wanton sex with Gillian Cassidy in return for his silence about an incident involving her father. Because Gillian has always harbored a secret crush on Hunter, she agrees.

Of course the book has lots of sexual tension. I mean, lots and lots of sexual tension. At first, Hunter seems to be a little hard, a little bit of a beast. But he never crosses the line.

He likes to pretend that he doesn't have any tender feelings, but he's always proving that he does. By the end of the book, I was thoroughly in love with this hero. Let me tell you, Hunter St. John is not a monster.

Loved the book, and I would gladly purchase it again. This beauty and the beast story has one of the best endings I've read in a long time. Excellent!