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Synopsis:

When Hollywood heartthrob Mark Delaney heads home to Colorado against his agent’s wishes, a snowstorm touches down (no doubt conjured up as punishment from said agent) that lands his Maserati in a ditch. Stranded, he knocks on the door of the first house he sees—the same house that his former math tutor grew up in. Expecting to find an elderly couple donned in robes and hair curlers, he’s knocked off his feet when an all-grown up Lacey Robertson answers.

Lacey opens the door to find a Prada-clad, most eligible bachelor two years in a row staring back at her. She tries to push twinges of her teen crush from her mind. Mark Delaney is all man. But she couldn’t possibly compare to the gorgeous starlets he must be used to. And Lacey isn’t about to become one of the faceless women begging for his attention.

But when she finds out that he hasn’t stopped thinking about her, despite his A-list life, will she fall into his arms for a single night of pleasure? Or will she dare to hope for more?

My Review:

Being a big fan of Diane Alberts, I was thrilled to come across Captivated by You (Book #1 in the Superstars in Love series).  As always with Diane, I loved this story!

Lacey is staying at her childhood home, housesitting for her parents and enjoying a quiet evening alone with a bottle of champagne.  Sure, there could be better ways to spend Christmas vacation, but she was happy here…happy in her hometown in Colorado teaching elementary school like she had always dreamed. But a knock on the door during a snowstorm threaten to show Lacey just how unhappy she is when it comes to her love life. Forgotten memories of a now-famous-star childhood best friend and hopeless crush, Mark, come screaming to the surface and are a blaring reminder of what she’s been missing since he left for Haollywood.

Mark should have listened to his agent when he told him not to go home to Colorado…especially having a huge red carpet event the following day.  He did not need to be staring at his car in a ditch, wondering what the hell he was supposed to do now.  Luckily, right down the road, was the home of his tutor, and childhood crush, Lacey. Hopefully her parents still lived there and would let him stay the night.  He’d get back to L.A. tomorrow.  Imagine his surprise when it wasn’t Lacey’s parents that answered the door, but Lacey herself.

One chance meeting after eight years of being apart is all it would take to reignite the spark that had been smoldering between Mark and Lacey for most of their lives.  Now, the question is, will they let it burn into a flame or will they snuff it out?

What a fantastic wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am read this was!  It’s a hot and sweet story packed with a lot of intensity and emotions. From start to finish I think the night Lacey and Mark spend together works out perfectly. It had just the right balance of angst and ease that made this really enjoyable.  I also really appreciated that the main characters were the only two we spent time with.  So, even though this wasn’t a long story, it was a focused story.

If you’re looking for a quick and satisfying read, then you should most definitely add this to your list!  Thank you, Ms. Alberts, for yet another wonderful story, and, of course, you know I’ll be chomping at the bit for more!

Four Loves

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Synopsis:

Graduate student Grace Locke moves from the Midwest to New York City to complete her Masters degree in Criminology. She longs to one day be a college professor. It is a field that is dominated by men. She is worried about succeeding in such an atmosphere. Past sexual relationships have caused her to feel intimidated. Her experiences with college men have left her jaded and unsatisfied. She gives herself a challenge. Time to toughen up or she won’t make it in a career she yearns for. She decides to surround herself with alpha males so that she can practice becoming what she sees as a strong confident woman. She finds power and defiance in her new attitude……..until Vinnie.

When Grace takes a part time secretarial job at a private investigator office, she assumes it will be interesting to watch how the cases unfold. It is close to her campus apartment and gives her the extra cash she needs as a struggling college student. Even more perfect is that the office is surrounded by street wise hardened males. Now, she can get the needed practice at increasing her confidence among men. She wasn’t prepared for Vinnie Lewis. A former hit man who decides to go straight, he is the ultimate “bad boy”. After growing up with a prostitute mother on the streets of New York City, he has no patience for nice girls like Grace. He is difficult to work with. She finds him just plain scary with his six foot four frame, bulging biceps, and a scar from a former knife fight that goes across his right ear to his chin. She shakes in his presence but then ……. is shocked when she can’t stop thinking of him.

My Review:

Nice Girl is the debut work from Kate Baum and also the first in the Girl Series.  I was intrigued from the moment I read the synopsis and really enjoyed this book!

Grace and her friends, a group that has been together since practically forever and friends anyone would love to have, have decided that their love lives have completely sucked.  None of them have ever experienced sex like they read about in smutty novels.  Nope, none of them have ever felt the quivering in their belly or experienced all consuming desire.  More importantly, none of them have had the big “O” with a man.  Enter: The “O” Pact.  They all decide that they WILL find men capable of giving them each a scene right out of a smexy book. Unfortunately, they are each headed in their own directions in life, Grace to grad school in New York and her friends all in other directions across the country.  Thank God for Skype because they are so gonna need those girl chats!

Grace starts her adventure in NYC by quickly acclimating to grad school and landing an officer manager position at an up-and-coming private investigation firm which she loves form her very first day.  Well, everything except one of the owners, Vinnie, and his perma-scowl and lack of communication skills.  Too bad those turn-offs can’t overrule the turn-ons….his handsome face and killer body can’t be hidden behind that gruff personality. And when that personality turns less and less gruff when he’s around her, she realizes she is in way over her head and can’t help but start to hope that he’s the one to cancel her membership in the No “O” Club.

The last thing Vinnie is looking for is a nice girl.  He is way to f*cked in the head to ever be good enough for someone like the new hire at the firm.  His whore of a mother and screwed up childhood made damn sure he’d never get anyone like Grace.  So why did he continue to find himself hoping beyond hope that he could change and be the kind of man she deserved?

Together, Grace and Vinnie are really well written opposites and attract beautifully.  His roughness to her softness mesh really, really well and I was pulling for them from the moment they met.  The attraction between them grew at a perfect and believable pace…it was refreshing to read that kind of normal life progression.

This was a great read with a lot of fantastic characters woven in between Grace and Vinnie’s interaction.  The staff at the firm is instrumental in helping Grace and Vinnie overcome their misgivings and help them realize that it just may be worth a shot and to step out of their comfort zones.  I hope we get to see more of them as the series progresses.

I think this is a great debut for Kate and I am looking forward to reading more from her and the Girl Series! Thanks, Kate, for a great intro and for a fabulous read!

Four Loves