Review: Living with Temptation

Living with Temptation by Melinda Hale

My rating: 1 of 5 stars



This review was originally posted at Hearts On Fire Reviews where I received the book as a free reviewing copy.

Recently separated from her cheating husband, Chelsea needs a place to stay for a few days. Playboy millionaire Dean needs some help to keep the media at bay, and change his image. A mutual friend connects them to solve both their problems. What starts out as a helpful offer becomes a lot more when their attraction sizzles with their continued close proximity.

I wanted to like this book. Who doesn't like a second-chance at love story? And the cover promised me smexy times and some fine lingerie. I was in!

To the author's credit, I liked the way the bedroom scenes were written. The story is based on the passion the characters feel, and the culmination of that was infrequent, but effective. There was little demonstrated sexual tension between Chelsea and Dean, but when they were on, they were on fire!

Apart from the smexy time, what ensued was confusion, mostly mine, brought about by the inconsistencies in the story. The characters can't seem to make up their minds about how they feel or what they want; not that unusual in a romance story, I hear you say, and right you are! But when it happens continuously, within the space of a page or two, then a reader might start to wonder what they'd missed. The characters would think one thing, and then say and do something completely different, leaving the reader adrift. and it didn't only happen with the two main characters. At one stage the friend who introduced them and pushed Chelsea to accept Dean's offer, telling her he was a good guy, was also the friend who ended up warning her not to trust Dean completely. Say what?

Adding to the frustration, the author employed the tactic of telling, not showing. I wanted to read more of the interaction between Chelsea and Dean, to see for myself through their communication and actions how much chemistry there was and how those feelings evolved to reach the satisfying conclusion at the end of the book. Instead, the characters were portrayed often in scenes where they were thinking about each other and working through those feelings in their head. The reader is able to see first hand how the characters feel from the narration, rather than from the scene descriptions of when Chelsea and Dean are together. Other readers might not mind this as much as I did.

I would be interested to see what improvements this author could make when they start describing the story, rather than narrating it, but I understand that this type of storytelling is very much a personal preference. Lovers of Harlequin category reads might get a real kick out of this one.




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