Casee‘s review of Real Men Last All Night by Lori Foster, Lora Leigh, Cheyenne McCray, and Heidi Betts.

Luring Lucy by Lori Foster
All Lucy was looking for when she went to her vacation home was in innocent fling to quell the yearning she had felt since her husband died four years ago. She never expected her longtime friend Bram to lure her into a love affair so hot.

As I was reading this first story in the anthology, I had a major case of déjà vu. I could have sworn that I had read a book by Lori Foster about someone named Lucy years ago. I blamed it on the pain pills and continued. I didn’t get much farther before I realized that I HAD read it before and that Luring Lucy is in fact a re-print. That annoys me. Especially when the back of the books says “In this hot new collection”. Notice the word new? I almost decided not to continue, but I really like the other three authors.

In Luring Lucy (first published in the Hot and Bothered anthology), Lucy has returned to the beach house where she caught her husband cheating. At 39, Lucy is determined to get her life back; to start she’s going to have a hot affair with her lawn boy. That’s before Bram shows up and throws her plans all to hell.

Bram has been in love with Lucy since the moment he met her. When she married his best friend, David, he stepped aside, never revealing his true feelings. When he learns that she’s on a mission to have an affair, he races to the beach house to inform her that any affair she’s going to have is going to be with him.

My annoyance about the whole reprint thing aside, I really liked this book.

4.25 out of 5.

Cooper’s Fall by Lora Leigh
Former ranger turned bar owner Ethan Cooper never expected to get an eyeful of prim Miss Sarah Fox from his attic window one hot summer afternoon. But now his blood is on fire for the delicious little minx.

Cooper’s Fall begins in typical LL fashion. Ethan Cooper is in his attic (it was never really revealed why he’s in the attic) and see’s his hot next door neighbor, naked and touching herself down by her pool. When he sees some interesting body piercings she has, Cooper starts thinking that “Miss” Sarah may not be the good girl she portrays herself to be.

Sarah Fox moved into a small town hoping to fit in. After a tragedy in her past, all Sarah wants is peace and a little happiness. She thinks she can find it the small Texas town she moved to. After two years of living there, Sarah has almost no friends. When she goes to the bar, she gets hustled out like she’s someone’s kid sister. She’s enraged when she finds out that Ethan Cooper is behind her getting snubbed. She decides that the town is not for her, but before she leaves, she’s going to give him a piece of her mind.

Cooper felt protective of Sarah from the moment she came into town. He put the word out that she wasn’t a conquest for any of the men that were only looking for that. When she confronts him, he realizes that his initial order has gotten way out of hand.

Sarah was a good heroine. Cooper was one of those heroes that had to have a heroine that would stand up to him. Sarah would take any of his crap. I also appreciated how she made no bones about her feelings for him.

4 out of 5.

The Edge of Sin by Cheyenne McCray
Zane Steele lives a life of extraordinary danger as a government agent and has never let anyone get too close. Then he sees the one woman who changes his life forever.

When Zane first see’s Willow, he’s instantly attracted to her. Though he has no plans to approach her, he can’t keep his eyes off her. What he doesn’t realize at first is that she has noticed him too. He also learns what a force Willow can be.

On the day they meet, Zane and Willow have sex in a restaurant they’re at for their first date. It sounds totally sleazy, but it was hot. They just had this instant attraction to each other that they can’t deny.

As they get closer, Zane continues to ignore the problem at hand. As a top-secret government agent, anyone close to him can be a target by people like the mafia, terrorists, etc. He doesn’t want Willow to get hurt b/c of him, so he’s kind of stuck. On one hand, he doesn’t want her hurt. On the other hand, he doesn’t want to let her go.

I enjoyed this story. I really liked Willow at first, but as the book went on, I found myself thinking “Seriously?”. I mean really, who acts like she does? And it wasn’t the sex in the restaurant that did it either. It was any number of other things. It just seemed that a girl like Willow wouldn’t have lasted long in the world. She seemed too good to be true.

3.5 out of 5.

Wanted: A Real Man by Heidi Betts
Claire left her high school sweetheart Linc, in search of a better life. Ten years later she needs his help as a U.S. Marshal to find her missing daughter…Linc’s daughter. Reeling with the knowledge of a daughter he’s never known, Linc sets out to claim what’s his.

This is my favorite story in the whole book. I love reunion stories; I can take or leave secret baby stories. In this novella, I had both. And they worked very well together.

Claire left her small Pennsylvania town when she was 18, determined to not fall in the footsteps of everyone else in town. The hardest think she ever did was leave Linc, the boy she loves and always thought she would marry. She just doesn’t want to restrict herself to small town life.

What she didn’t know when she left was that she was pregnant with Linc’s baby. I never really did understand why she didn’t go back. She hadn’t been in California for very long before she realized she was pregnant. Instead, she married some guy who said he would take care of her. That was the only part that I didn’t really get.

When Claire decides to divorce her husband after 10 years, he takes her daughter and leaves town. His family is uber powerful, so Claire is convinced that they’re going to falsify DNA documents so Jonathan can get permanent custody of Sara. Scared and worried, Claire tracks Linc down who is now a US Marshal.

Linc has never forgiven Claire for leaving him the way she did. When she comes and tells him that he has a daughter, he is floored. And furious. He didn’t think there was any other way Claire could betray him, but he finds out there is. When she tells him what’s going on, he agrees to help her, albeit unwillingly.

Linc and Claire have always had an undeniable connection. When they travel back to San Francisco, they can’t ignore the pull. I loved the relationship between these two. You could just tell that no matter what happened, they were meant to be together. I loved it.

4.5 out of 5.

Overall, I would have to say 4 out of 5.

This book is available from St. Martin’s Press. You can buy it here.

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