Review: HOT IN HERE by Sophie Renwick

HOT IN HERE
Sophie Renwick

Release Date: April 2009
Publisher: NAL

From the Cover:
She wasn’t his kind of dish—until someone turned up the heat…

Celebrity chef and infamous ladies’ man Bryce Ryder can’t believe the thoughts he’s having about his old friend Jenna McCabe. She’s always been the shy girlnext- door, but when some bad publicity threatens everything he’s built, Jenna gets down to business— and shows a side of herself that is take-charge and totally irresistible.

Soon things are heating up in and out of the kitchen—and all of Jenna’s secret fantasies about Bryce start coming true. But will she be the one to tame his heart, or is the sexy chef just indulging another one of his cravings?

Review: 

There were two things about HOT IN HERE by Sophie Renwick that hooked me.

One, the hot guy on the cover with the strategically placed female hands.  Wowzers, I don’t know if I’ve ever been so jealous of a hand before in all my life!

Two, the hot bod on the cover belongs to a silver-tongued celeb chef.  I think I’ll die right now.  There is nothing sexier to this Lonestar Gal than a man who knows his way around the kitchen.  And if he’s well-versed in the art of using chocolate syrup, peach bellini, and any other of his many concoctions, in alternative ways, then his hotness level just went through the roof!

Bryce Ryder lived up to my expectations, but the poor guy had a rough start.  A not-so-pleasant childhood coupled with an ex-girlfriend from hell, left Bryce more than a little commitment-phobic.  Now, he’s a playboy out for a good time.  When his reputation is threatened after a less-than-stellar magazine article, he turns to the one woman he’s ever counted on to help him.

Jenna McCabe has loved Bryce since they became friends in high school.  She knows him better than he knows himself…

She knew he was a womanizer.  Heck, he went through women like NASCAR drivers went through tires, but she also knew that the Bryce she had fallen in love with all those years ago was not a heartless cad.  If he was, he never would have bothered to befriend an awkward, unfashionable girl.

Jenna is desperate to get Bryce’s attention and so a plan to play vixen to his playboy forms.  Page-after-page, I grew increasingly irritated with Jenna.  Especially when it was obvious that Bryce wasn’t in it just for the sex.  And really, with the way he was worshiping her size 14 body, how could she be all that unsure of herself?  It really showed how insecure Jenna was and how seeing Bryce with a different flavor every month for so long did a number on her heart.  I understood where she was coming from, but after a while, her hang-ups seemed too forced to me. 

 

As a whole, I thought the book was good.  Once they visited their hometown of Lucan things really picked up for me.  Jenna’s sister and Bryce’s brother, Sarah and Trey, play a huge role in this book.  I’m intrigued by their relationship and what will come of it.

One complaint I have is that there were a lot of typos in the Kindle edition.  At times it was jarring and took me completely out of the story.

HOT IN HERE receives a B from me strictly because I loved Bryce’s character development.  If I were judging it on Jenna alone the mark would be considerably lower. 

The Cowgirl's Secret by Laura Altom

The Cowgirl’s Secret is an emotionally-charged story with so much anguish that it completely distracted from the romance.  I’ll be very honest: if you’re a survivor of any kind of sexual abuse, this story could be triggering, and at the very least, painful to read. 

Daisy Buckhorn left Weed Gulch, Oklahoma ten years ago, pregnant and fearing for the safety of herself and her unborn child.  For years, Daisy was molested by a trusted family friend.  And as any truly evil child predator will do, he put a fear so deeply into her soul that she had no choice but to run without telling anyone.  She’s made a new life for herself as Julie Smith, a successful lawyer in San Francisco.  She yearns for home and the people she left behind.  Most especially she misses Luke Montgomery, her high school sweetheart.

The Buckhorn family has never stopped looking for Daisy.  Luke follows-up on one of the leads, finding himself face-to-face with the woman who broke his heart so long ago.  Luke wants answers that Daisy is having a hard time giving him.  She wants to trust him with what happened to her, but the shame she still feels is so heavy that she can’t.  When Daisy’s son, Kolt, arrives suddenly, Luke realizes she took much more from him 10 years ago than he ever would’ve guessed.  To Daisy’s credit, she doesn’t try making excuses for not telling Luke she was pregnant.  Her apologies were that of a woman who’d spent many years feeling guilty for what she’d done.

Daisy returns home to Oklahoma without Kolt the first time.  She wants to clear the air with family and she needs them to know her secret.  Everyone assumes the secret is that she was ashamed of a teen pregnancy.  Luke is blinded by the pain he felt when she abandoned him, and now the added loss of missing out in his son’s life.  There were times his words were downright cruel. Despite everything, Daisy makes the decision she and Kolt will move back home to Oklahoma.  This isn’t an easy task.  On top of all the anger from everyone, the man who molested her still lives on her family’s ranch.  Her days are spent dealing with the guilt everyone is doling out at her for leaving and keeping Kolt away; while she’s consumed with fear over seeing her molester again.  If she had to say “I’m sorry” one more time to Luke or any of her family, I thought I’d cry in desperation for her!

It takes coming face-to-face with her molester for Daisy to find the courage to speak.  And once her secret is out, I hoped to see Luke and her family rally around her.  They did to a point.  Luke’s reaction was hard for me to take.   While the pieces seemed to fall into place, and he suddenly recognized all the signs he missed, it stopped there.   He couldn’t look past his own feelings of betrayal to understand that he had nothing to do with her leaving.  I had to remind myself that he was hurt, too, but I really expected much more from him. 

 

I don’t want to be too hard on Luke.  He spent a lot of time after Daisy left wondering if he did something wrong.  There were many countless hours of wondering if she was alive or what horrible thing had happened to her.  The same feelings her family experienced.  I’m not saying any of their emotions are wrong.  Her family loves her deeply.  Luke loves her deeply.  I just wish I’d been able to see more of that in the book and less ridicule. 

The Cowgirl’s Secret gets an A+ for the spot-on emotional portrayal of child molestation.  However, this is a romance, and honestly it pains me to say, but I found it lacking greatly in that area.

GRADE: B

Two Against the Odds by Joan Kilby

Whenever I’m reading a book I like to give the author a creative pass.  Whether the book is a contemporary single title by one of today’s leading ladies of fiction, or I’m passing the time with a series romance from one of my favorite Harlequin lines, I give the same courtesy to all writers.  I’m always willing to overlook the occasional “That would never happen!” in the name of a good book.

Which brings me to the story of Lexie Thatcher and Rafe Ellersley in Joan Kilby’s “Two Against the Odds.”  Rafe is a 26 year-old investigator with the Australian Tax Office.  He’s not your typical numbers cruncher.  Very early on we learn that Rafe’s job is simply a means to get where he wants to be: owner of a fishing charter boat.  

Lexie is 38 years-old; a carefree, spirited artist who can only be defined (and is in the book) as scatterbrained.  She seems much younger than her age, and that immaturity distracted me throughout the book.  The fact that she couldn’t be bothered to file a tax return for 4 years I could’ve dismissed.  To ignore those pesky tax agents for 7 months is extreme.  Who has the guts to not return letters or phone calls from those guys?  Not me!  They’re scary.  But we’re talking about Lexie here, and not me.  She obviously thought nothing would come of it which is how she winds up with a visit from Rafe, his dog Murphy, and a threat to involve Federal police if she doesn’t comply with the audit.

I really wanted to like these two characters, and at times I did.  Despite Lexie’s many eccentrics she has this take-life-as-it-comes outlook that I envy.  I thought “Two Against the Odds” would be a light read without the emotional war zone of the books I’ve recently been reading!  Let me tell you that wasn’t the case.  It turned out to be emotional in a way that I didn’t expect as Lexie and Rafe are thrown a curveball that will accentuate the differences mostly there due to the gap between their ages.  If you’ve read enough Harlequin romances you’ll probably guess what it is.  I was supremely disappointed in Rafe’s actions during the last half of the book even if I understood a few of them.  He comes through in the end, but by that time I couldn’t bring myself to love him as Lexie did.

I appreciate what the author was trying to accomplish in this book.  “Two Against the Odds” did pull at my heartstrings and bring tears to my eyes.   The lack of connection with the characters is what kept me from fully embracing their story.

GRADE: B