Guest Review: Hard Man by Amarinda Jones

The last place Ashbea Somers wanted to be was stuck at a shoe convention with her crazy boss, selling trashy shoes to drunken women. When Ashbea runs into the surly, hard-bodied Harry, things start to get exciting. After a few terse words, she finds herself skin to skin with him up against a wall in a hot, body-shaking moment. Maybe the convention isn’t so bad.

Harry only ever has one-night stands. Hot, wild sex with Ashbea was supposed to be just that. In and out and over, with no regrets, just a passionate memory. But Harry can’t forget the woman who held him so tight and close. He wants one more taste of her luscious body before he walks away. That is, if he can. There’s something about her that’s unforgettable.

Ashbea isn’t sure what Harry’s problem is but she does know one thing. Sex with Harry Hardman is not something she’s about to give up without a fight.

Ashbea is in Melbourne at a convention with her insane boss. The company she works for makes fuck-me pumps and her boss insists Ashbea wear them. At one point when she teeters on her heels, because she’s not used to 5 inch heels, she runs into Harry who is the convention manager. While the initially fling some harsh words to each other it doesn’t stop them from finding each other attractive and having sex in a storage room. This begins a series of romps that the two can’t seem to help themselves from having. But Harry has some issues from a past relationship that he is dealing with and though Ashbea is falling for Harry she doesn’t want to be a rebound girl for him. On top of all this there’s a small mystery with her bosses shoe company where shoes are being damaged and then stolen.

I really liked this book when I first started reading it and it started off with a bang – literally. While I very much enjoyed Ashbea’s up-front attitude and sense of humor and Harry’s admiration of her, it started to wear on me just a bit. I thought that Ashbea started to be a bit too brash by the end of the story and it didn’t endear her to me at all.

For Harry’s part he seemed like a very sweet guy. He was gun shy with women – not having sex with them, just being in a relationship with them – and hadn’t slept with the same woman twice in the past year. He had been severely hurt by the betrayal of a woman he thought he loved and he needed to time to heal. Him falling for Ashbea seemed meant to be and I liked them together, but for someone who had so many issues he seemed to fall very hard, very fast. The sum of their relationship was about 3 days before they declared their love. That’s just a bit too fast for me.

So, while I liked parts of this book and it’s humor, there were other parts that just didn’t work for me unfortunately.

Rating: 3.25 out of 5