Review: Love Me If You Dare by Carly Phillips.

Posted August 6, 2010 by Rowena in Reviews | 1 Comment

Rowena’s review of Love Me if You Dare by Carly Phillips.

Hero: Rafe Mancuso
Heroine: Sara Rios

The perfect catch is about to fall for the the one woman he’s always resisted … until now! When hostage negotiator Rafe Mancuso takes a bullet to save Sara Rios, his ex-partner, his actions make him a bona fide hero—and New York City’s newest most eligible bachelor. Then Rafe admits that Sara is much more than just another woman he’s rescued. Suddenly, a firestorm of gossip turns him into exactly what he doesn’t want to be: the Bachelor Blog’s newest new hottest topic. His only solution is to leave town and get himself out of the spotlight… and sexy, jaded Sara out of his mind.

Have you ever had a brain fart where your brain just refused to see what was directly in front of you? Yeah, that’s what I had while I was nearing the end of my reading adventure with this book. I kept putting up dumb questions when the answer was staring me directly in the face (even after I was finished with the book). I blamed my lack of sleep when I was reading this book. LOL.

Anyway, this is the second book in the Bachelor Blog Series and it’s Cooper from Kiss Me if You Can’s best friend Sara’s book. At the end of KMIYC, Rafe Mancuso saves Sara from getting shot, earning him the new face for the Bachelor Blog. Rafe isn’t at all happy about all of the attention he’s getting just for doing his job so he runs away and hides out from all of the media at home with his family in Hidden Falls.

Sara, on the other hand is thrown into her own little drama when she’s called up as a surprise witness in a murder trial and has to lay low herself because the guy she’s testifying against wants to shut her up and where else could she go to hide out, lay low and stay safe but to wherever Rafe has gone?

When Sara shows up at Rafe’s parents house for dinner, she sees a side of Rafe that she never knew before and inevitably, they’re drawn to each other and the chemistry that was simmering just below the surface when they were partners comes to a boil and a relationship ensues. Watching how easy it was for these two to be together was totally believable because of the shared history they had being partners and being friends. Rafe has always had a thing for Sara but because they wanted different things in life, he never pursued a relationship for fear that 1) she didn’t return his feelings and 2) he didn’t want to ruin their friendship.

But when Sara comes to Hidden Falls for his protection, he can’t walk away from her and soon, he can’t stay away from her. Watching Rafe fall in love with Sara was great fun because he made it easy to fall in love with him and you just wanted him to get his happy ending with Sara.

For me, it was all about Rafe. Sara was good and all but her issues with relationships and commitment made me roll my eyes and because she came around, I was able to forgive her quite easily.

I enjoyed the secondary story between Rafe’s brother Nick and his wife Angel. I thought that was a cute addition to the story but the whole drug storyline with Uncle Pirro was silly enough to make me laugh. Phillips did a great job writing a fluffy, contemporary read that is perfect for the beach in the summer. I enjoyed this addition to the series and am sad to see that it’s all done. I would have enjoyed getting Amanda’s story since I enjoyed her character in both books. I loved seeing Coop again in this book and I thought it was a cute story all around.

Final Grade: 3.75 out of 5

The series: