Title: The Sweet Spot: A NovelClassification: Adult Fiction
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Format: Hardcover; 272 pages
Publisher: William Morrow (July 8, 2014)
ISBN-10: 0062234811
ISBN-13: 978-0062234810
Author's Website: http://www.stephanieevanovich.com/
Notes: Received an eARC loan from the publisher via Edelweiss.
Amanda Cole is the owner of a successful restaurant named Cold Creek. She's smart, sophisticated and talented, but when Chase Walker walks into her restaurant, she doesn't understand why the man keeps hitting on her\
She's convinced there has to be something wrong with the guy. Her sweet rejections, however, seem to spur him on and so begins a game of cat and mouse. A game in which Amanda has every intention of never being caught and Chase has every intention of capturing his prey.
Who will win? Well, if Chase has his way they both will.
If you read Stephanie Evanovich's debut novel, Big Girl Panties, last year, then you'll know immediately who Chase and Amanda are. They're the couple who were friends to Logan in that book. So if you haven't read Stephanie's previous book, then I highly recommend you read this one first. Be forewarned, however, that this has a slight, but by no means a full blown version of a Sub/Dom relationship. Chase is Logan Montgomery's best friend and long term client. Chase is a professional baseball player and Logan is his personal trainer. For those of you who loved Logan, he's in this book too, he's just not a predominate character. I found it fun to finally read Amanda and Chase's story and learn the full story of the scandal that was talked of in Big Girl Panties.
Amanda is different from most of the woman Chase has dated, but he knows what he likes when he sees it and Amanda has that special something he's been looking for. She's not rail thin like most of the model perfect women he's dated. She's got generous curves that he'd like to explore and a quick wit he likes to ignite. She's a strong independent woman and he pulls out all the stops to woo her. For him it's love at first sight and her making him give chase just makes everything that much sweeter.
While Chase immediately knows what he wants, Amanda is extremely cautious and afraid to give her heart away. She immediately put up her guard with him due to his agent's rather rude demands. While his agent's actions and attitude are not Chase's fault, Amanda initially believes them to be a reflection of his own. Slowly, he wears her down and she starts to believe he may just be the perfect man he appears to be. That's when she finds out Chase's one guilty pleasure, a pleasure that may prove to be the one thing that could put an end to their relationship. It's up to her to decide whether or not it's something she can live with.
Now I can see how a relationship where the guy is in control would be appealing even to someone who is very independent. It kind of connects with my comments in my review of The Windflower by Laura London. There are some women who when they're in charge of every other aspect of their lives may wish to give up some of that control when it comes to their intimate relations. They want to be spoiled and not have to compete and just let go while somebody else takes charge. For them a more submissive role in a relationship may work. It's all a matter of individual tastes and preferences. I felt Stephanie did a good job of establishing a relationship that was built on mutual trust and understanding of how the relationship would work. While the initial introduction was a bit of a surprise, it was obvious it couldn't have survived without each being open to it. I personally, would have given the guy his walking papers and never second guessed my decision. When the scandal hit, however, I was a bit surprised at what I felt was Amanda's overreaction to it. It seemed a bit overkill for the situation which was described.
I gave this one 3 1/2 out of 5 roses. It was cute, funny and at times very sweet. While I thought Amanda overreacted to the situation that occurred, I enjoyed the overall story. I thought the two made a cute couple and the tattoo made me laugh and shake my head. I'm not sure what I'd think if my hubby got something similar. This story boils down to one of tastes and preferences. Some will probably dislike the relationship and therefore dislike the book while others will probably love it. On the Lisarenee Romance Rating Scale, this one gets a FAN - the temperature in the room seems to have suddenly gone up a couple of degrees and a fan would be nice.
Amanda is different from most of the woman Chase has dated, but he knows what he likes when he sees it and Amanda has that special something he's been looking for. She's not rail thin like most of the model perfect women he's dated. She's got generous curves that he'd like to explore and a quick wit he likes to ignite. She's a strong independent woman and he pulls out all the stops to woo her. For him it's love at first sight and her making him give chase just makes everything that much sweeter.
While Chase immediately knows what he wants, Amanda is extremely cautious and afraid to give her heart away. She immediately put up her guard with him due to his agent's rather rude demands. While his agent's actions and attitude are not Chase's fault, Amanda initially believes them to be a reflection of his own. Slowly, he wears her down and she starts to believe he may just be the perfect man he appears to be. That's when she finds out Chase's one guilty pleasure, a pleasure that may prove to be the one thing that could put an end to their relationship. It's up to her to decide whether or not it's something she can live with.
Now I can see how a relationship where the guy is in control would be appealing even to someone who is very independent. It kind of connects with my comments in my review of The Windflower by Laura London. There are some women who when they're in charge of every other aspect of their lives may wish to give up some of that control when it comes to their intimate relations. They want to be spoiled and not have to compete and just let go while somebody else takes charge. For them a more submissive role in a relationship may work. It's all a matter of individual tastes and preferences. I felt Stephanie did a good job of establishing a relationship that was built on mutual trust and understanding of how the relationship would work. While the initial introduction was a bit of a surprise, it was obvious it couldn't have survived without each being open to it. I personally, would have given the guy his walking papers and never second guessed my decision. When the scandal hit, however, I was a bit surprised at what I felt was Amanda's overreaction to it. It seemed a bit overkill for the situation which was described.
I gave this one 3 1/2 out of 5 roses. It was cute, funny and at times very sweet. While I thought Amanda overreacted to the situation that occurred, I enjoyed the overall story. I thought the two made a cute couple and the tattoo made me laugh and shake my head. I'm not sure what I'd think if my hubby got something similar. This story boils down to one of tastes and preferences. Some will probably dislike the relationship and therefore dislike the book while others will probably love it. On the Lisarenee Romance Rating Scale, this one gets a FAN - the temperature in the room seems to have suddenly gone up a couple of degrees and a fan would be nice.
