I’ve been downloading free books for the Kindle lately, and after a string of questionable reads, I finally found gold here. I read this book all one sitting the other night.Maddy Turner’s sister, Tabitha, tells her that their step-mother plans to “buy” a gigolo at a charity bachelor auction and cheat on their father with the man. Tabitha convinces Maddy that she must “buy” the man instead. Maddy reluctantly agrees because she loves her father and doesn’t want to see him hurt
Jake Wallace, a paramedic, is roped into participating in the bachelor auction to repay a favor. What neither Maddy nor Jake knows is that a mix-up in the bachelor bios has occurred. Maddy (and others) think Jake is the gigolo. Maddy “buys” him out from under her step-mother, then tries to avoid him. But circumstances and other people intervene.
I really liked the characters in this book. Maddy is refreshingly *not* a perfect size 2 blond. Even though she has a lot of (family) money, she has a job and seems to enjoy normal activities like baseball and eating burgers. Jake is a nice guy, too, who is at first offended when he realizes that Maddy thinks he has sex for money. But unlike romance novel heroes who piss me off, he doesn’t blow a gasket, accuse her of all kinds of horrible deeds, and make the misunderstanding worse.
I initially worried that this “big misunderstanding” about Jake’s line of work would be drawn out past plausibility, but that didn’t happen. Jake – as noted above – figures out that there has been a misunderstanding, lets it continue for a while, but then comes clean.
The sex is pretty steamy and fun.
However, the story takes place over only a few weeks, and that is one of the weaknesses. It’s hard to believe that two people could truly fall in love in such a short time, but at the same time, I understand the limits that this short novel format imposes. There simply isn’t space to draw the story out further.
The only other drawback relates to something that was never addressed – again probably because of the length of the story. Jake and Maddy come from *very* different backgrounds and social classes; true love can conquer a lot, but finding a happy middle ground where they can both happily coexist would be a challenge.
Overall, though this was a quick, sexy, fun read. I’ll definitely be looking for more of Ms. Kelly’s books.