Sheer Pleasure, by Patricia Rosemoor

Yesterday I read Sheer Pleasure, by Patricia Rosemoor.

Blurb

No question, Annie Wilder's chic new lingerie store inspired sexual fantasies in everybody. Her provocative window displays — full of silks, satins, and oils — sent blood pressure soaring in the hot Chicago neighborhood. It even generated a few mysterious erotic notes. Yet Annie went home every night to bed — alone.

Intrigued landlord Nate Bishop was determined to change that. He wanted to uncover the true Annie even as he uncovered her beautiful body in its fine lingerie. He wanted to make love to her and explore their deepest fantasies together.

So why was this sexy woman suddenly acting so resistant to Nate?

It was an interesting book, although it had some problems... a B-.

It had an edgier feel than most series books; the heroine had some doubts about her feelings for the hero... was actually wary of him at some points. However, this wasn't adequately solved. Her doubts just disappeared because he told her he loved her and the stalker was caught. Her ambiguous feelings about the 2 sides of his personality (Nate and Nathaniel, as she called them) weren't too explored either.

My impression is that this book was too short for the love story and the stalker plot. Both were intriguing (though I guessed who the stalker was almost immediately), but there just wasn't space to develop them well.

Extra points for the urban setting and for the display windows idea. The lingerie / sex-toy shop is way over-used in "erotic" romances, but this one didn't bother me. And very often in these books you just don't see why a certain thing is such a hit, but I can certainly see people checking out Annie's display window regularly to see what's going on. I don't see why it would be picketed, however.