Review: The Guy Next Door by Lori Foster, Susan Donovan and Victoria Dahl

Warning the review for the 3 story in this book contains spoilers

Ready, Set, Jett by Lori Foster

A vacation from her no-strings romance with her sexy next-door neighbor. That’s what Natalie Alexander needs to get her head—and heart—together. But her solo trip south turns into a disaster when gorgeous Jett Sutter turns up with another challenge.

Natalie and her neighbor, Jett, hit it off right away in the flirtatious-omg-your-so-hot kind of way. They eventually begin a sexual relationship with no strings attached – but Jett wants more. He wants to get to know Natalie and even though he knows some of her background, because he’s a private investigator, he wants to know who she is deep down inside.

He devises a plan and ends up tying her to the bed one night during sex. She’s forced to talk to him and Natalie – the one who never opens up to anyone – finally decides that they can try and take their relationship to the next level. But has their relationship moved up one step on the ladder or did it shoot straight to the top?

This was a very cute story. I adored Jett and what we saw of his sisters and loved that he really tried patiently to break Natalie out of her self-imposed shell. Jett was adorable and I loved reading about the two together.

Part of the story was that Natalie, who had a close relationship with her sister, couldn’t reach said sister via phone. It was left up in the air because apparently all of the stories in this book are set-ups for upcoming series. While that was frustrating I loved that Jett and Natalie’s romance was brought to a nice HEA.

Gail’s Gone Wild by Susan Donovan

Single mom Gail Chapman insists on chaperoning her teenage daughter’s spring-break trip to Key West. But she never expects to face temptation—in the hunky form of Jesse Batista, the mysterious man in the cottage next door.

Gail puts her foot down when her seventeen year old daughter wants to head off to Florida on spring break with her very voluptuous friend. She does decide that Florida is a place she could head to herself and takes the girls with her to Key West. There are tons of things she wants to do as she hasn’t had a vacation in a long time.

Gail meets her neighbor, Jesse, on the first day that they arrive and though they don’t hit it off immediately they are soon inseparable. Jesse is hiding who he really is though and when Gail finds out she’s not a happy woman.

Another cute story. I thought it was wonderful to see Gail spreading her wings and having some fun for once. She was quite a bookworm when at home and being a single mom she hadn’t gotten out much in the past few years. Jesse was good for her as he was fun and liked to try new things. I didn’t care for the fact that Jesse was trying to hide who he really was but I understood the reasons behind the decision.

Just One Taste by Victoria Dahl

All-work-and-no-play businessman Eric Donovan won’t be distracted by a “businesswoman” who’s all wrong for him. Beth Cantrell owns a women’s erotica shop! And she has a juicy little secret. Can she tempt him to put pleasure before business for once?

At a business convention Eric sees a woman who’s so understated in her sexuality that he’s drawn to her. He finally decides to stop and talk to her and Beth thinks that Eric is actually his brother, Jamie, who has a reputation with the ladies. Eric, thinking that he can finally be someone who takes the bull by the horns, decides to leave Beth in the dark about his real name and who he is. (Oh, I wanted to shake Eric to bits! Wrong decision!)

Beth is hiding something as well. She works at what would be considered a high class sex shop and loves it. But everyone believes that because she works there she’s a highly sexual person – which she’s not.  Her friends also believe if she did choose a man that she would choose the same type that all the employees do…a man with tattoos and piercings. Beth actually goes in for the preppy hottie. Beth wants Eric – the man she thinks is Jamie – she just doesn’t want anyone to know about it. Eric thinks he’s ok with the secrecy but is he really?

I must admit that I normally don’t care for stories where someone is lying about who they really are to this degree. Despite that fact I was into this story and was totally anxious to see how it all played out – how Eric would admit the truth, how Beth would take it, etc. Imagine my surprise when it ended! No resolution – at least no HEA. No honesty and coming clean. I was shocked and frustrated to say the least.

From what I understand this book will have a resolution in the trilogy that Dahl is writing about the Donovan family. But dangit I’m impatient and want it now! Lol Despite the unfinished business of the story I really liked it. Eric and Beth were great together and incredibly steamy together.

Overall a good read by three great authors.

Rating 4 out of 5


This book releases on 2/15/11

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