"Fun and sexy fantasy and role-playing!"
Three novellas, kicking off the new Harlequin Blaze line. Sensuality Guide: Fantasy and role playing "Mystery Lover" by Vicki Lewis Thompson BJ has been in love with Jonas her whole life, but he
treats her like a sister -- after all, they grew up
together on the Arizona ranch where her dad was head
wrangler for his father. BJ works on the ranch, knows how
to fix engines, can ride and rope and wrangle; she doesn't
think she can compete with all the sexy women Jonas is used
to. And Jonas is now the local Casanova; every woman in
town wants him, and he's let most of them catch him
temporarily. But then BJ takes shelter in a dark cave when
she's out riding during a storm, and Jonas ends up doing
the same. He can't see her face, doesn't know who she is.
BJ recognizes the perfect opportunity to be someone else,
someone Jonas would be attracted to. And she can keep her
secret identity and continue the game while she's
housesitting for a friend -- if their fantasy includes
blindfolds along with the body oil, feathers, and fantastic
sex. The anticipation and build-up of sexual tension are
excellent and the sex is hot, hot, hot. Jonas's discovery
of her true identity is fun and well-handled, and the
misunderstanding between them doesn't last long. I'm eager
to read the upcoming Notorious, about BJ's sister and
Jonas's brother. "After Hours" by Stephanie Bond Rebecca designs wild, fantastic, imaginative costumes for
parties and theaters. She often wears some of her more
sedate costumes while waiting on customers in her shop.
Since her fiancee recently ran off with another woman, she
likes to spend her evenings dressing up in the sexier
costumes and fantasizing about one of her customers. She
does this in private, of course, after the shop is closed --
until Michael, the object of her fantasies, unexpectedly
stops by after hours to discuss ideas for dressing up the
waiters at his restaurant. Is this bustier-and-stocking
clad vampiress the same woman he'd seen that morning
wearing a nun's habit? Hmm, playing dress-up can be fun
even when you are not a little kid. He's willing to be
Zorro to her Spanish lady if it ends up with them naked on
the couch . . . or in her bed . . . or on the counter . . . "Show and Tell" by Kimberly Raye Laney and Dallas were both from very poor, dysfunctional
families. But when Laney was six, she was adopted by a
wealthy couple from the oldest and most respected family in
town. She has spent the 20+ years since then trying to make
herself into the perfect Merriweather, trying to be the
daughter her parents can be proud of. She became a lawyer
like her father, dresses in upper class elegance and wears
the same hairdo as her late mother. And she tried to ignore
her lifelong attraction to Dallas, who was the bad boy and
troublemaker all through school. But now Dallas is
successfully running his own construction company, trying
to live down his youthful reputation, trying to forget that
he was never good enough for Laney Merriweather. After not
seeing one another for all these years, they meet at a
naughty lingerie party, and both realize the attraction is
still there. But they are both caught in the public images
they feel they have to project in order to be accepted by
the rest of the world. Although not a bad story, this was my least favorite of the
three. There are touching flashbacks to Laney and Dallas'
childhoods, but the characters just didn't grab me -- ten
years after high school, they are still acting and thinking
like teenagers. And although both hero and heroine have
built successful professional careers, they seem to have
done nothing else with their lives; I didn't find it
realistic or romantic that apparently all they'd done for
ten years was think about each other and replay childhood
in their heads. Dallas was a really nice guy and Laney was
sweet and a loving daughter, but I never felt connected to
or all that interested in them as people. Courtesy Sensual Romance
Reviewed by Raelene Gorlinsky
Posted July 4, 2001
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