jmc_bks

The date for posting about your February read for Avid Reader's TBR Challenge was last Wednesday, but I missed it. Better late than never, right?

The proposed theme for February was virgin heroes, but I couldn't find one on my TBR shelves. It's possible that he could've been hiding there, but I didn't feel like making a huge effort to find one. Instead, I pulled Kathleen O'Reilly's August 2009 Harlequin Blaze Hot Under Pressure from the shelf.

She hates flying... Until he gives her a reason not to!

Boutique owner Ashley Taylor hates flying. Especially when there's a sugar-fueled little hellion on board. But then David McLean (sexy!) sits next to her, and suddenly Ashley finds herself hoping the delay will last forever -- and that

David won't notice her comfy pink bunny slippers (sadly, the opposite of sexy).

David does notice Ashley, and when the flight is delayed overnight, they can't get to the airport hotel fast enough. Off with the slippers and in with the zing! Fortunately, America is filled with cities -- L.A., New York, Miami -- and nothing says "smoking-hot passion" like an intercontinental affair.

Why this book? Because I have read and enjoyed a couple of O'Reilly's earlier Blazes.

What did I think of this book? Only the fact that I was reading it while on a plane kept it from being a wallbanger. Seriously, if the entertainment choices offered by the airline had been better, I would've abandoned this book. But I was a captive audience. The problem wasn't the writing, it was the characters and the set up. I thought the heroine was a spineless enabler, and long before I knew what her sister's problem was I despised them both. The hero...I liked him only marginally better.

Also, in what world do khakis and a white shirt equal copier repair guy? I've spent my entire adult life working in offices and I have NEVER seen a copier repair guy in khakis and a white shirt. Ever.

SPOILER:

And for the love all of all things fraternal, would contemporary authors PLEASE stop having characters hook up with the siblings of their partners!?! Dumping your fiancee for her sister? Not on. Being friends with benefits with your dead husband's brother? Also not on. Sleeping with your husband's brother and then divorcing him to marry the brother? That's family wrecking, and it belongs in lit fiction, not category genre romance, please.

Three times in the span of a month just pushes all of my squick buttons.

The only thing I really appreciated about the book was the easter egg of seeing Jamie and Andrew Brooks from an earlier book.