"To Merge or not to Merge?"

The Real Deal by Lucy Monroe is the first Brava by one of my new favorite romance authors. If you liked her Harlequin Presents then you will LOVE her Bravas.

With the exception of her best friend Jillian, Amanda has always been considered sadly lacking first by her family and then by her ex-husband. After discovering her husband was cheating on her, Amanda is determined never to get involved with anyone again. When she is sent to Seattle by her boss to finalize negotiations between the merger of Extant Computers with the family owned business of Brant Computers.

From the moment she arrived, Amanda sees that her biggest obstacle to the deal is Simon Brant the sexy, reclusive inventor, who also owns a majority of the stock. Amanda gets Simon to agree to her proposal, but before she can do that she has to grab him when he comes out of his lab.

Simon has no intention of agreeing to the proposed merger. But the intense attraction he feels for Amanda takes him by suprise. He knows she is attracted to, but also fighting her feelings too.

THE REAL DEAL just may be one of my favorite books of the year. The more I read author Lucy Monroe, the more addicted I become. She is definitely an author worth watching. Not only are Simon and Amanda memorable, but so are the rest of the cast of characters.

THE REAL DEAL is definitely finding a home on my keeper shelf, in fact, I think Im going to have to create a whole new shelf for future Lucy Monroe books.

Reviewed by Barb Hicks
Posted August 28, 2004

Summary

SHUT UP AND KISS ME

The most important thing in Amanda's life is negotiating a successful merger between her company and Brant Computers, a family-held competitor. It should be a done deal: Company president Eric Brant is on board with the idea. But when Amanda arrives in Eric's office, it is his cousin Simon Brant who greets her-and Simon is anything but agreeable. He's not about to give up control of the family company or lay off loyal workers. Squaring off against the sexy, brilliant, sexy, obstinate, sexy, eccentric, not to mention sexy Simon is completely frustrating-and a total turn-on. And when he walks out on her presentation, sidetracked by another one of his brilliant ideas, Amanda is shocked...and intrigued...no, furious!...and...and...and so attracted she can barely enter data into her Palm Pilot...

Simon has never met a woman as passionate and driven as Amanda, or as devastatingly attractive. He can't decide if he wants to put her on the next plane home-in the cargo hold-or kidnap her and spend a long weekend showing her exactly the kind of negotiating he likes best. Come to think of it, if the lady wants war, maybe they should engage in full-on battle...in the bedroom...and see who will be the victor. But when intimacy leads to an explosive passion, it might be time to think of a different, more permanent kind of merger...one that's less about business and all about pleasure...