Suddenly Sexy by Linda Francis Lee

When a legendary bad boy returns to town, Kate must summon her inner temptress.
Kate Bloom’s ordered world is turned upside down when notorious bad boy and superstar athlete Jesse Chapman comes home. Seeing him again reminds Kate of all the reasons she harbored a Texas-sized crush on him back when they were kids. But she isn’t a little girl anymore . . . and she’s ready to show this hell-raising playboy just how sexy she can be.
After a reporter starts digging into his past, Jesse Chapman returns home looking for space. The last thing he needs is a distraction, but that’s just what he gets when he sees his little Katie. Suddenly the girl next door is hot and sexy–and more than even this legendary ladies’ man can handle.

First let me say woooo hooooo! I'm outta my reading slump! I started this book yesterday afternoon and finished today! Or I think that's when I started it. Anyway . . . back to the book.

Kate (or Katie to our hero) and Jessie, what a pair. Friends since childhood, Jessie is four years Kate's senior. He's the one she runs to every time her mom divorces or remarries (5x's). She's the one he opens to when his mom dies and he has problems with his father. But while Kate is completely open and honest with Jessie about her problems and her feelings for him, he withholds. Partially because how can he go into detail about issues with his father that involve sex, smoking and drinking when he is 11 and that would only make her 7. Jessie learns quick to become a buddy to his dad and to turn into a wild boy in order to keep his father close and not lose him like he lost his mother. But he also loses his brother in return, or at least his brothers respect. But with his brother being 7 years older he should have been the one protecting his younger brother from the bad influences of their father, not begrudging him the attention he got or the way he turned out. Which makes for a lot of sibling tension through the book. One of the things Jessie picks up while always with his father is golfing. Which he takes to from the start. So as he lives his wild life he becomes a professional golfer. He has women, he has his game and he feels he is in no way good enough for his Katie. So when on the day of his brothers wedding Kate walks in on him naked and offers herself he pushes her away. But not before he let himself see how sweet it could be with her, he stops in the nick of time. After telling her no and to leave, she flees crying.
So when Jessie comes back into El Paso and into Kate's life she is a bit weary. Her job is falling apart she is "dating" a great guy that she just can't drum up any passion for and just the site of Jessie makes her melt.
Time after time we see the simmering heat between our h&h. After awhile I'll be quite honest I felt like screaming "JUST DO IT!!!" I did love the character development in the book. We really got a good glimpse of who these characters are and what made them the way they are. But there was just to much getting it on to a certain point then just stopping between Kate and Jessie. You know? I get she was going for good sexual tension but it got old real fast.
We do get a big surprise for our hero in the middle of the beginning of the book that really puts a sweat and emotional turn on the story. But to which I don't' think the author knew enough on the subject to write it as well as it should have been.
With Kate being a News Anchor I also felt that there wasn't enough on that, we never really got to see what she was before her ratings plummeted and made her resort to doing "Getting Real With Kate" while the GRWK segments were funny they lacked reality of what that job would really be like.
I did love the friendship between Kate and her two best girlfriends, Chloe and Julia. In the beginning of most of the chapters we read emails back and forth between the girls. It was fun and added to the story a lot.
All in all it was a good book, I just felt as if the author should have tweaked it a bit more before releasing it. So it made me want to read the next book and also hope it's written just a little bit better.

Grade~ B-

Read them all:
Suddenly Sexy
Sinfully Sexy
Simply Sexy


*****Editing to add something I forgot******

The surprise that I told you about...with the hero? Well in the end of the book it never got an ending so to speak. Pretty annoying...

Grade must go down to a C+ for that alone.

Cover Snob or Not?

Hi my name is Nicole and I AM a cover snob! I am not by any means ashamed of reading romance but I am also not ashamed to admit I am embarrassed by some of the covers of romance books. See it's like this, I'll be reading say.....Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie

and I love this cover. No you cannot tell right off that it is romance from the cover. But if someone asks what I'm reading I'll tell them and not shy away from the fact that it is romance.

And don't think I only like non-romance looking covers. I have a huge selection of covers I like, some scream romance in a very classy or fun way, just not a stupid way.

Another thing I completely HATE about covers, and I was just discussing this with our very own Rene Lyons, is when a heroine is blond in the story but a brunette on the cover. Now hello, does that make sense to you? Rene did explain that authors don't always have a say in their covers. But still you'd think the cover artists would at least get some knowlege on what the heroine and heo's coloring is like before they go to work.

But enough negativity! Here are a few examples of covers I love:


Very historical romance, but very tasteful too. Not two half naked people groping each other.



Now I usually HATE any type of faces on covers, after all, I am reading to use my imagination. To escape the world as everyone else sees it. Let me use my imagination, don't force what you have in your head on me. But.....

Love this! This cover just gives a glimpse at a feature and the rest is left to your imagination. Perfection, just like all KMM's other covers.




Love the funky chick vibe on this cover! Carly Phillips for the most part has really great covers too! On all of her more recent books anyway.




I really like Laura Lee Guhrke's covers of both this book (which is my favorite by her) and Guilty Pleasures. Very unique in my opinion.

But one of the reasons I won't read Blaze or Harlequin books is because I am totally horrified by the covers. They are so cheap looking, they look like they are stuck in the 70's and 80's. I just cannot help being ashamed. Sorry but does that make me a bad person? I don't know. But I'll tell you I'll only read one of these books if they are very highly pimped out. And then, only at home or behind a magazine cover.
Examples....






I simply have no words for these covers! I'm sorry they may very well be great reads. But I just cannot buy the covers. Like I said "I'm a cover snob".

Are you???