COPYRIGHT: 2007PAGES: 363
SETTING: Contemporary
TYPE: Straight Romance
SERIES: No
SENSUALITY: Warm
SUMMARY:
She has caviar dreams on a SPAM budget
Trophy wife Darcy McDaniel has just discovered that, thanks to her embezzling husband, her posh, upper-class life is gone for good. Now she's trading her suburban palace for a trailer park and her weekly salon appointments for a job. Darcy needs a new man--fast--one who'll keep her in the manner she darn well deserves. Problem is, the hottest prospect around is the my-way-or-the-highway hunk who's making off with her beloved Mercedes!
He doesn't want trouble...until she saunters in wearing high heels
Ex-cop turned repo man John Stark is sure that hiring the furious woman in his headlights is a colossal mistake. He knows Darcy's high-maintenance, designer-labels-only type--after all, he's used to taking their cars. But he never expected this hellion to have the smarts and the spunk to go from receptionist to repo agent in record time...or to drive him insane with desire. She's the last thing this tall, dark, and dangerous loner needs...and everything ne never knew he wanted.
THOUGHTS / OPINION:
I was very pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed HW&HH. My first book by this author, I Got You, Babe, was a keeper and the next two were pretty good, although not as good as IGYB for me. In HW&HH the heroine, Darcy McDaniel, returns from vacation with a girlfriend to discover her husband has sold their house, emptied their bank accounts and disappeared. Darcy is a trophy wife who traded on her youth and good looks to a man old enough to be her father so she can live the easy life. All she has left is her fancy car and her dog, Pepe. She has no money and no where to live and no job skills. So back to the trailer park she goes to live with her parents until she figures out what to do. Darcy was not a very likable character at first. But her character development along the way was very nicely done.
John Stark is an ex-cop who now owns his own repossession company. Darcy's husband was not making the payments on her car and John tracks her down in order to repo her car but Darcy catches him at it. There is a very funny scene where Darcy tricks him while he is trying to repo her car so that she keeps it from him. But he eventually catches up with her and gets the car. But he ends up offering her the receptionist job in his office and then the sparks start to fly. The snappy dialog was funny and the plot was fast paced and entertaining. I really started to like Darcy and became sympathetic to how she got in her predicament and how she works hard to get out and be self sufficient. John was yummy and the sexual tension was delicious. Even the secondary characters are well done. Although Darcy's mother was rather cliche, her father turned out to be very human and likable. This was a fun read guaranteed to make you smile. I'll be reading Graves's next book Tall Tales & Wedding Veils which features John's employee, Tony.
GRADE: B+
5 comments:
This sounds good! I haven't read anything by this author before, so I'll be checking some of her books out.
I also haven't read this author before. The book sounds good, and I love me a cop Hero!
Dev: I like Jane Graves. She's a very solid writer and reminds me a bit of SEP and Susan Andersen.
Chantal: I don't think many people have heard of her but I think she's worth checking out.
Renee: I really liked this one too. If Darcy had stayed the same it could have been a wall banger, but instead we got to see her start taking on life and learning what to do with it. I liked that about the book.
I've enjoyed quite a few of Jane Graves's books and also her books for Harlequin under Jane Sullivan - in the canceled *damn them anyway* Temptation line.
Kristie: Yes, I agree totally. Her character growth was key to me liking this book. I have only read one Jane Sullivan and didn't realize 'til recently that she was Jane Graves. I loved Tall, Dark and Texan (B+).
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