Sex Appeal by Lori Foster

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Genre: Contemporary romance
Format: E-book borrowed from library
Heat level: Somewhere between warm and hot; sex is described but not at the erotica level

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I don't know why this book was on my library wish list. I thought it might have been on that NPR list of 100 swoon-worthy romances that they posted a couple years ago, but it wasn't. Surely I must have gotten the recommendation from some romance review blog or podcast because I've avoided Harlequins since high school. Anyway . . .

Sex Appeal follows the nearly instant romance between Shadow Callahan and Brent Bramwell. The book is set during winter, and Brent takes a spill on the ice right in front of Shadow's novelty shop. She has an immediate attraction to him and tries to sign him up for a sexiest-man-in-town contest that all the shop owner's in the strip mall are participating in to drum up business. He is attracted to her, so of course, he pretends to go along with it -- for the time being.

This book is better than the Harlequin romances I read in high school, in that there was snappy banter between the hero and heroine that kept me turning pages. However, it does have the same problem that plagues many category romances, or at least the ones I've read. There isn't much real conflict keeping the couple apart. The B-plot that was supposed to add suspense was predictable and did more to push the couple together than to separate them. The characters just needed to wake up to what was right in front of them and then the story was over.

At 224 pages, Sex Appeal is a quick romance perfect for deck chair reading on your next cruise. It is part of Harlequin Temptation's Blaze/Heat line, so you may only want to hand it off to your more liberal cousin.

Sex Appeal on Amazon