A Man For The Night, by Miranda Lee

Harlequin Blazes are my guilty pleasure, and I read one, A Man For The Night, by Miranda Lee, the other day:

Josie Williams needs a date for her ten-year high school reunion. When she showed up five years ago, she came away with mortified memories of a night in tears. This time she intends to arrive with her boyfriend in tow, ready to sparkle and dazzle. Too bad she breaks up with her current boyfriend just before the reunion. At a friend's suggestion, she arranges an escort for the evening. When she meets, however, Josie's fantasies take flight, and she dreams of taking him home as her sex slave for the night.

Callum McCloud's younger brother makes big bucks escorting attractive women. But when his big break comes for his acting career, he is scheduled for a date with Josie. So he convinces his older brother to fill in. Callum did not expect such a sexy lady, and suddenly his libido kicks up to high. Now he is determined to fill every fantasy Josie has on her wish list. But more than lust brews in their heated encounter, and emotions will demonstrate a will of their own.

This one was a C+, and it felt more like romantica than romance to me. It had exciting and exotic sex, though the least convincing part was the romance. I must confess that the sex here wasn't exactly to my taste. A bit too much male-dominant, which makes me a bit uncomfortable. I'm fine with a bit of variety and playing, but this felt too one-sided.

I also didn't like Callum much. I thought he was a bit patronizing towards Josie, too much of a stereotypical womanizer and a bit of a sexist (we see him thinking, for instance, about how "women all want marriage and booties"). I did like him better when he fell for Jose near the end of the book, but even this was too abrupt to be completely satisfying.

As for Josie, I don't know, really. I liked her acceptance that she hadn't had a good sex partner but she would probably enjoy sex with someone who knew what he was doing. It made for a nice chance from all those heroines who are just convinced they're frigid because they had one bad experience. And I really admired her adventurousness, but she was a bit too ready to let Callum do whatever he wanted with her. *Sigh* My own problem, probably.

Oh, and there were certain things I disliked about her, like her comment at the beginning when she was talking about how the guy she was dating had turned out to be bisexual. She made it sound as if that fact alone meant that he was promiscuous and an unsafe partner. Also, I didn't like how ready she was to give up her business for him, and all the emphasis on trying for a kid.

BTW, this one was set in Australia, something I enjoyed.