TEST
Bond, Stephanie Bond, is a name you should remember when you’re in the mood for a light, funny romance. Her latest, About Last Night…, is no exception. Part of the Temptation subseries The Wrong Bed, About Last Night… features two people trapped in a quarantined hotel room: a bride and the best man!
Janine Murphy decides to seduce her fiance the night before their wedding. She’s a virgin, he’s been holding out, and she wants to make sure they’re going to be compatible. When she slips into his darkened hotel room and his bed, she instead finds grumpy, tired and sick Derek Stillman, the best man. When a mysterious illness breaks out, the hotel is quarantined, and Derek is not happy at the thought of being confined with kooky, klutzy, sexy Janine.
Boy, I felt sorry for Janine at first. She tries to seduce her fiance, and the situation turns into a nightmare, one with a sexy silver lining, though. Bond puts Janine into some funny situations – getting her toe stuck in the bathtub faucet while, um, pleasuring herself, tripping over things and generally needing to be rescued by Derek. Despite momentary lapses of klutziness and favoring homeopathic remedies, Janine does not come off as a ditz or a kook. She’s actually pretty strong and confident in her decisions.
Poor Derek just wants to get away from Janine and get some sleep. When he finally starts to talk to Janine, he starts to like her in addition to lusting after her. Big and strong are two words used consistently to describe Derek. Sounded good to me!
Bond does a good job of creating the chemistry between Derek and Janine. They both try to fight it, but it’s definitely there. Janine makes a decision about Steve before she finally gives in to her attraction to Derek, so we avoid the I’m-so-confused-now-that-I’ve-slept-with-the-best-man-what-do-I-do? situation.
Janine’s sister and the hotel manager made excellent secondary characters. Manny, the manager, reminded me a bit of the Mr. Barnard Thompson, the hotel manager in Pretty Woman. I kept imagining Hector Elizondo whenever Manny made an appearance. Steve the fiance, your typical jerk, makes enough appearances to make the reader glad Janine had an alternative.
I’m not normally a fan of convenient situations like this with conveniently jerky fiances because I just don’t believe in them. I still don’t, but in this case I just sat back and enjoyed the ride. It’s a fun romp that carried me along to the end. Definitely a good way to spend a few hours inside the house on a hot afternoon.
Grade: B
Book Type: Series Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 24/09/99
Publication Date: 1999/09
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.