What Zoe thinks…Loving your best friend is never easy – and when he’s sexy and turned you down flat once before…it’s even harder! Loving Grant is what Zoe has always done best…but now it’s time to move on. She already feels like she’s the oldest virgin in America – so she vows to find herself a man!
What Grant thinks…Grant can’t keep his eyes or his hands off Zoe – but she’s his best friend – a no-go zone! The fact that Zoe looks at him like she wants to rip his clothes off isn’t helping the situation… So he implements some important rules for them to obey. First is the No Kissing rule – well, that’s broken before it’s had a chance to be written… Then the Strictly No Sex rule…and that’s out of the window (well, on the kitchen table, actually!).
Then the best rule of all: some rules are only made to be broken!
So I’ve had this in my TBR for about a year and a half. It seems when I read a category (which is not often) it’s a Nocturne…the romance with that paranormal twist. So for this challenge I decided to break out of the mold and read something else. This particular book got my attention because it’s got that friends to lovers romance that I love.
Grant and Zoe have been friends and he’s pretty much been her protector since she was 8 and she was trying to save a cow from being slaughtered. He saved her from the mountain lion that was trying to attack her at the time and saved her cow as well. You see Zoe is a lover of animals and growing up on a ranch where animals get killed on a regular basis is really hard for her. So Grant becomes her best friend because as much as he doesn’t necessarily agree with Zoe’s views, he understands that they are her views. Zoe needs Grant since her parents don’t get her at all.
Knowing that Zoe is a lover of animals Grant asks Zoe to take care of a hamster that he has become owner of. With him taking care of his own ranch and being the multi-millionaire tycoon that he is (ha! of course he is!), there just isn’t time for one more animal. The problem is, Zoe lives in an apartment and already has 2 cats, a large dog, a parrot and a goat. However that doesn’t put Zoe off and she takes Bud the hamster home with her. It turns out that Bud is the straw that breaks the camels back according to her landlady and Zoe gets evicted.
With nowhere else to go she goes to Grant’s ranch. She spends one night at his ranch but their scorching kiss puts Grant into a tailspin and he decides she has to go at once because Grant has a definite No Kissing Zoe rule. The problem is, Grant can’t seem to keep his hands off of Zoe.
So Grant is hot for Zoe – very hot. He can’t stop thinking about her and it’s driving him batty. He pretty much thinks that if he goes out with someone else he can stop thinking about her because he’s pretty sure it’s just a sexual attraction. Z & G got hot and heavy 4 years earlier in the barn but Zoe hadn’t been ready and walked out. Grant had pretty much felt like a big lech since then and vowed to not let it happen again, even though he wanted it to.
For Zoe’s part she had gone away to school right after the incident in the barn and had talked herself into believing that she wasn’t in love with Grant. Even though she’d tried to date and actually almost slept with a guy while in college it just wasn’t Grant. Now she’s back in her hometown and feels that she needs to just do the deed (become de-virginized) and she’ll be over Grant. Yeah, things don’t always turn out like we plan.
This was such a cute story. Grant and Zoe were such good friends but they couldn’t get this sexual attraction between them to go away. There are several times when Zoe gets upset at Grant for something he hasn’t done and vice versa and a couple of other “misunderstandings” that were a little annoying but other than that I thought it was great. There was a whole other side story about issues that Zoe had with her parents that was interesting too, but that part of the story was taken care of a little too easily for my liking.
In the end…an enjoyable read.
Rating: 4 out of 5
I love friends turned lovers type stories. In fact, I’m going with that theme for my third YotC challenge read in March. Great review! I’d heard that Monroe’s categories were good.
Oh, I added your blog to my blogroll. I was so embarrassed when I realized I hadn’t done so yet.
This one sounds really sweet. I love the friends to lovers, too.
I cruised by the eHarlequin site, and tho’ it’s sold out in print, it’s available in ebook format! (score!)
kmont – omg I’m on the blogroll! I’m moving up in the world! lol Thanks!
And thanks for doing the challenge. I didn’t realized how many category romance books I had in my possession until this challenge. More than I thought!
Renee – It was very sweet. Like I said there are a few things that are annoying, but I thought they were minor IMO. I really like Lucy Monroe and haven’t read a bad story of hers yet. I still have a few other Harlequin’s of hers I need to still read.
I have only read Moon Awakening of hers. I really loved it. I have Ready and Willing. I don’t know why I haven’t read them. And she is a super nice lady. You met her at RAW last year, didn’t you?
Sounds cute 😀
Amy – I really, really liked Ready and Willing. Both books were pretty good. Simple contemps but just good reads. And Able was good as well.
I DID meet her at RAW this last year. She was just a super sweet woman and her hubby sat with her the whole time and kept her company. He was a really nice guy. They were adorable together.
Nath – yep. 🙂
Oh, I really liked this one, too. Lucy’s books rock, don’t they?