MAN CANDY BY MELANIE HARLOW - SIGNED PAPERBACK GIVEAWAY

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MAN CANDY BY JESSICA LEMMON - ARC REVIEWS

Dax: After spending the summer buried up to my eyeballs in my family’s affairs, I’m ready for a break. The kind of break where I can spend two solid weeks camping and fishing in the company of absolutely no one. Then I find myself directly in the path of a drop-dead gorgeous tornado by the name of Becca Stone. Who can resist a night with a damsel in distress? Especially when she happens to be a leggy blonde? The last thing I expect is for Becca to show up on my cabin doorstep the next night, shivering in the rain and ready for seconds.
Becca: One minute I’m admiring the rock-hard jaw of the Magic Mike lookalike who walks into my bar, and the next I’m getting fired by my own brother. Loudly. In front of everyone. Luckily Dax Vaughn is a gentleman who aims his white-hot smile at me. Oh, it’s on. Wham, bam, thank you ma’am. Then a torrential storm washes out the main road and causes a massive power outage, giving us two whole weeks to enjoy each other’s company. At which point Dax will go back home, leaving “us” in the rearview mirror. That’s the plan. Or it was . . . until I started falling for him.

I enjoy Jessica Lemmon's books. She has a knack for writing relationships and scenarios that are believable and have you invested in them from start to finish. Man Candy is a great example of that. It's hot, steamy and was fun to read.

I got Becca right from the start. I liked her. She was fun and someone I could see myself hanging out with and someone I would support and go to bat for. I loved her reaction to Dax, that immediate pull. I was rooting for her throughout the book.

Dax wasn't someone new to me as I've read the other books in this series. However, if you haven't read Jessica Lemmon before (why haven't you??) this is a great book to start with. What I loved most about Dax was how he pushed Becca and his confidence in her. It was really a side to him I didn't fully expect.

These two have sparks flying from the start. It was fun to watch how they progressed together. The sex was hot and steamy, but there was more to them and they certainly weren't expecting that from each other. I loved the growth of their relationship-and the ending was sweet.

Jessica Lemmon's writing just flows. The pacing works and the story is spun so that it seems new and fresh. I believed how this story played out. Again, this is the third book in this series bu tit can absolutely be enjoyed as a standalone. I read this book in one sitting simply because I didn't want to put it down. I enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

Forced proximity books are fun. The idea that 2 people who would not have been attracted to one another (or who would have been possibly attracted but not acted on it) are put into a situation where they are not able to ignore one another, well, this appeals to me.

Dax and Becca are attracted to one another. He is a guest at the wilderness retreat hotel where Becca works. He is supposed to be in one of the cabins that is far away, and is planning to be camping...so they should not have any time with one another. But, life (and nature) intervene and we get a really hot romance.

I love the characters Jessica Lemmon writes. How real and compelling they are, and how much they seem like the kind of people you would want to know. This makes them easy to read about, and makes them characters it is easy to invest in. And, how fun this is.

The romance is hot, the sex is steamy, the characters are at time funny and charming. Becca's brother is frustrating, her family bond interesting, her relationship with her coworkers adds depth without overshadowing the Dax and Becca romance.

This book is a part of the "Real Love" series...and that is how it feels. You think they will be ok, that they will work out in the long run. And, this is hard. You need tension and conflict in order for the story to be interesting. Too much tension and you doubt that you are reading about a couple who is in it for the long haul...not enough, and you feel like you are reading about 2 characters who are not invested in the relationship. The balance in this title is excellent and the story is enjoyable.

I recommend this book.

MAN CANDY BY MELANIE HARLOW-REVIEW

He’s back.

Not just back in town, but living in the flat right beneath mine. And he looks good enough to eat, which is just one more reason to stay away from him.

But I can’t resist.

The sex is incredible (pretty sure we’ve shaken the house right off its foundation), but he can’t fool me—not this time. A degree in marketing and five years in advertising have taught me that “true love” is a fairy tale used to sell lipstick, diamonds, and perfume. It doesn’t exist.

He thinks I’m wrong, and he wants to prove it.

I think he’s crazy, so I dare him to try.

It might be the biggest mistake of my life.

Melanie Harlow is a favorite of mine. A drop everything I am reading to read her new book favorite. There are a number of reasons for this: her characters are genuine; her writing flows and is a pleasure to read; she tells stories of people I would want to know in real life; she describes scenes and settings in a way that I feel like I am there.

Man Candy was a bit of a different story. It is usually the woman in the story who knows how she feels and the man who is unwilling, reluctant, or afraid to commit. In this case, Jaime is the one who is not willing to believe in love and commitment. Quinn, on the other hand, is pretty sure that she is the one for him…he just needs to talk her into it.

This is a friends to lovers story. Jaime and Quinn knew each other when they were younger, Quinn is friends with her brother, Alex. This is how they meet, how they know one another, and ultimately how they end up living in the same duplex.

The story begins with Jaime in a closet. Literally, it is the first line. With a game of chicken, and with a little history so you know why she is in this closet. Still literally. You find out why Jaime is reluctant to believe in love, you find out about her family, her career, and all of the things that have happened to her in her life that resulted in her belief that love isn’t real and doesn’t last.

Quinn believes in love that lasts, that is work, and that builds into something permanent and deeper than the first attraction. He decides to show Jaime that love is real, and she dares him to try. The book is their story, their dates, his attempts to show her that love is real and her determination to resist believing it is anything other than a fairy tale.

Quinn is instantly likable. He is funny, charming, caring and ridiculously attractive. He’s genuine, and life experience has taught him that he wants to take a path that has more meaning than the one he is on, so he is back in Detroit to make some changes in his life, to find a new direction. It is admirable and he is appealing.

Jaime is likeable, but at the same time, you are a little frustrated with her unwillingness to see what is right in front of her, the chance at real love with Quinn. Harlow does an excellent job of portraying someone who is afraid and reluctant without making the reader dislike her. You understand where Jaime is coming from and what she is thinking, and the talent in Harlow’s writing is this ability to write a character who maybe should be frustrating or hard to relate to…but isn’t. As a reader, you really like Quinn, so you would think it would be hard to relate to Jaime and her reluctance to be with him fully, but you like her, and you understand her, so you never reach the point where you dislike her, even though she is difficult. Credit goes to Melanie Harlow for the writing, the characters, the plot, all of it, for being able to relate to Jaime through the entire book.

Man Candy is delicious. Take a bite.

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