Review: A solid debut from Samanthe Beck.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 16, 2013
Ellie Swan has just returned to her hometown to open up her practice as a doctor, but to also look after and care for her diabetic father. She's got these really good intentions for returning home and she's a really great woman, if not a little naive, about what her goals are and how she'll accomplish them. While in a diner and trying to be as unnoticeable as ever - she overhears a conversation at the next table that piques her interest; something which wouldn't normally happen since she's not the type that's into local town gossip, she's more of the nose-in-a-book type. She learns that her long-time high school crush, Roger, is finally single. She also overhears that he has a taste for... a more adventurous type. So Ellie gets it into her head that she can become that perfect woman for him! However, she has no idea how to do that except to maybe find someone that would be able to teach her.When Tyler Longfoot - his name is very suggestive and bad ass but I wanted to learn more about his heritage, even though his childhood pretty much sucked, who also went to the same high school as Ellie and Roger - crashes onto Ellie's front porch that things fall into place rather quickly. Tyler was shot in a very unfortunate drunken-accident caused by his good- but very jealous when drunk- friend who saw that his woman was coming on to Tyler and things got heated very fast. After that he didn't know where else to go but to Ellie's for her to doctor him back to health since he didn't want any police involved since it wasn't an act of maliciousness. Upon arriving at Ellie's and finally getting her to begrudgingly cooperate in return for a favor.Her favor more than surprises Tyler, I mean, the last time he saw her she was still "Sparky" from high school, the awkward, bookworm of a girl, but she's obviously grown up into a beautiful woman that Tyler is able to finally notice and very much appreciates. When Ellie goes out and buys how-to books and essentially tells Tyler that she has whole lessons planned out for each relevant chapter, which was quirky and hilarious but also kind of a turn on for Tyler.He'll teach her how to bring a man to his knees...I really liked that line. For me it really set the level of excitement before going into this book, but then when I actually read it that changed to something... more.It was sexy but not in-your-face and explicit. It was very subtle and drawn out and with a nice intensity that had me fanning my face after reading a very steamy kissing scene. Man alive, after just reading them locking lips it was enough for me, but them when it came to the actual plot line and the fact that their whole "relationship" was based on Ellie snagging Roger... well, that for me was a little wonky seeing as Ellie was a little oblivious to what Roger really wanted whilst everyone else saw it all clearly. But besides that bit, I really liked reading about Tyler, he was such a great guy and he really turned his life around for the better and persevered even though his life was never easy. Ellie had the same sort of issues as Tyler; they both had emotionally abusive fathers so I felt like while the other town's people went about living their regular lives, these two had adversity to overcome and they showed that nothing could keep them down.Overall, the writing was pretty good, the characters were likable and the storyline was entertaining and funny. I look forward to reading more of Ms. Beck's work.An Advance copy was provided by the publisher.