Lovin' los libros

 

 

Being a fan of Samanthe Beck's books and Brazens in general, I was excited to read this one as I am a fan of office romances. While I enjoyed this one overall, I didn't quite feel the connection between the characters, which I generally require in my romances. Chelsea and Rafe have quite the assortment of sexy times, but I needed to see more of their actually getting to know one another to fully buy into their romance.

 

Chelsea and Rafe start out with quite the bang (in a coat closet at the holiday party), but Chelsea mistakenly believes Rafe, who is playing Santa, is her boss and lover, Paul. Rafe doesn't know this until the end of the encounter where she wishes 'Paul' a Merry Christmas. I was a bit horrified for her at the moment she realized she didn't have sex with Paul, but with some stranger instead. She fears she's slept with an older, married man, and I can understand that being a disturbing feeling to have. While she did notice subtle differences between Rafe and Paul, (Rafe being broader) she still didn't stop the encounter and let the good times roll.

 

Rafe is known for being a playboy and for not having romantic attachments, as he is incredibly dedicated to his work and doesn't want anything to deviate from that. He is in line to take over for his father and has to have three successful acquisitions to do so. While I liked Rafe's character, I am a bit over the whole indecisive act when it comes to committing to anything besides their career. Rafe doesn't want a relationship, but he can't help but want Chelsea because one time wasn't enough. He gets possessive when it comes to her, but he won't actually take the initiative to make her his until it's almost too late. That can be a bit frustrating because when it comes to being in his head we can see where things change for him, but it takes a bit to actually put himself in action. I also liked Chelsea and I understand her being a people pleaser and how hard it is to be unapologetic about some things. After unknowingly sleeping with Rafe, she finds out her boss/boyfriend has been doing some sleeping around on his own and has now gotten their HR lead pregnant and they are now engaged. Even though Chelsea loves working at Las Ventanas, there is no way she can stay and be a part of that mess. She ends up moving to Maui and while she still doesn't have the position she wants, she still someday hopes to be general manager in the luxury hotel business. Her path once again crosses with Rafe's and he is relentless in his pursuit of her. She knows she doesn't want to get involved in that type of boss-employee relationship again, so she is pretty reluctant. Her new hotel is one of the ones he hopes to acquire so he ends up spending time there to learn the ins and outs and Chelsea is his liaison to doing so.

 

Overall, while this was a typical steamy Brazen book, it wasn't one that wowed me like Beck's previous novels have.