TEST
One of the pleasures of reviewing books for All About Romance is the opportunity to interact with readers. Recently, one of them recommended Melt for You by J.T. Geissinger. I’m familiar with the author – I’ve read two of her earlier books, including the Slow Burn novel that precedes it. I liked, but didn’t love, either of them. I downloaded this one anyway and it languished in my TBR pile… until I recently picked it up on a whim and OMG, I couldn’t put it down. It’s wonderful on so many levels, and if you haven’t read it, you’re absolutely missing out. Charming, meaningful, laugh out loud funny, sweet, sexy and smart, Melt for You is the best contemporary romance so far this year.
In a top ten list, Joellen Bixby details her Top Ten Reasons Why the Holidays Suck. The list is alternately hilarious and depressing (have you ever listened to the lyrics to Do They Know It’s Christmas?), and concludes with a reminder that her love for Michael Maddox, CEO of Maddox Publishing, is still unrequited. The list very randomly opens this terrific book – and if nothing else, it establishes that Joellen has loved her married boss for a decade, she has self-esteem issues and her inner dialogue is alternately scathing and resigned. From this painful glimpse of our heroine and narrator, we segue into ‘A Day in the Worklife of Copywriter Joellen Bixby’: mostly ignored by co-workers, never takes a day off, frequently given extra work because she’s incapable of saying no, and socially awkward. Her list-making is interrupted by her least favorite person in the office, Editorial Director Portia, who insists she take on a massive project at 4:00 pm Friday afternoon with a Monday morning due date. Arriving home late that evening, Joellen is hungry, tired and cranky.
Unfortunately, her plan for a quiet late night are ruined by loud rap music and raucous laughter coming from the apartment across the hall. After silently fuming in her apartment, she bangs on the door, expecting to confront her usually quiet neighbor Kellen. Instead,
A man I’ve never seen before stands in the doorway. He’s tall, broad, solid as a mountain and about as large. He has shaggy brown hair, hazel eyes, lots of tattoos, and a devastating smile, which my brain notes at the same time it’s trying to process that the man is wearing unlaced combat boots, a kilt, and nothing else.
She’s mid-ogle on his chiseled abs when The Mountain interrupts and asks, “Can I help you, lass?” The huge, half-naked Scotsman continues to render her speechless, so he yells at his similarly half-dressed guests to turn down the music, belches, salutes her, and then slams the door in her face.
What follows over the next few days is a succession of hilarious confrontations wherein Joellen insists her new neighbor turn down his offensive rap music, he delights in tormenting her with his constantly naked torso and tight pants (she nicknames him Prancer) and gentle teasing, and they finally agree he’ll turn off the rap music if she’ll cook for him. He also insists on eating and staying a minimum of forty-five minutes in her apartment. And somehow, during these supremely funny confrontations, she confesses she’s in love with her boss.
Cameron McGregor is the Scottish rugby captain and according to him, the most famous athlete in the world. On a forced sabbatical after a fake news story splashed his name across the tabloids yet again, he’s swapped apartments with Kellen. He’s handsome and well-built, with an over inflated ego to match. He’s also ridiculously charmed by his new neighbor and her deaf cat Mr. Bingley. Despite her sharp (awesome) insults, which he bats away with a big grin, he thinks she’s funny and sexy – and he wants to spend time with her. So Cameron offers to teach Joellen everything he knows about inspiring desire – with a generous side helping of learning to love your body and yourself. OH, HE’S THE BEST. Friends, he’s adorable and I loved everything about him and I want to marry him. That he clearly loves Joellen is simply icing on the cake.
Melt for You’s friends-to-lovers premise is a favorite trope, but it’s the sublime characterization of its principal characters (she dislikes nearly everything about herself but is kind, smart, and loyal; he’s an über famous professional athlete with skeletons and scandals littering his past) and their wonderful chemistry that elevate this ugly duckling story. Joellen delivers some of the best set-downs in contemporary romance as a check against Cameron’s super inflated ego – but her inability to control her physical response around him or resist his charming entreaties/demands to spend time with her – make it clear her comments aren’t meant to hurt. He loves to wind her up, but it’s obvious Cameron has fallen for his sharp-tongued neighbor, and that Joellen, conditioned by her family to believe she’s overweight, unattractive and weird, is blindly oblivious to her own charms. Cameron is kind, adoring and Joellen’s biggest cheerleader, even as he’s (reluctantly) pushing her into another man’s arms. Every interaction between the pair is alternately laugh out loud funny, tender and affectionate, or awkward, and when the relationship finally crosses the line from friends to lovers, it’s impossible not to cheer for this pair.
Ms. Geissinger enhances her principal pair with a cast of memorable secondary characters: retired British stage actress Ms. Dinwiddle – Joellen’s slightly deranged, oft-drunk neighbor and regular Saturday night date; Mr. Bingley, her not-so-deaf traitorous cat who falls as hard for Cameron as every other human who spends time in his orbit; fellow office workers and Michael… well, I don’t want to give all the secrets of this story away, but let’s just say he’s memorable too.
Although it’s chock full of witty dialogue and memorable primary and secondary characters, Melt for You is also a lovely ode to body positivity, loving ourselves and quieting our inner critics. Cameron is constantly reminding Joellen of her value and beauty – he loves her unconditionally, and as the novel progresses, it’s a delight to see her finally learn to love herself.
I’ve spent so much of my adult life trying to not be unruly, to be smaller, more contained, more acceptable, but underneath it all I’m still myself. All the passions and desires and tempestuous needs, all the wants and hurts and sorrows, all the ugly and wonderful things. I am just unruly, peculiar me, and I’m so tired of pretending otherwise.
Cameron’s character has a similar arc – he’s struggling against his own demons – but the slowly evolving friendship between these two does much to heal their individual wounds. Ms. Geissinger incorporates these heavy themes with a lovely, light touch, and they elevate this already terrific novel.
I don’t know how to convey to you just how much I loved this delightful book, so let’s just say it’s my favorite of the year. I’m convinced every romance reader on earth should read it and tell their friends to read it and love it as much as I do, because Melt for You will make you melt for it. I promise.
Buy it at: Amazon
Grade: A
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 13/06/18
Publication Date: 05/2018
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.
I love romance novels - all kinds.
I love music - some kinds.
I have strong opinions about both and I like to share them.
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Took a chance on this based on the review and comments here, and I’m glad I did. Very good read!
I’d give it a B in terms of story (partly because I really don’t care for brawny dudes the size of mountains, and especially insanely brawny contemporary Scots dudes who are always saying “lassie,” I mean is that really a thing a young Scotsman would say today when in the U.S.? Because it got on my last nerve.) The author’s writing style, however, was an A+ for me. I kept thinking, she’s like Penny Reid, but not. No definitely not! But they both have a streak of snarkiness that hooked me. I loved Geissinger’s fun and good-natured snark and sarcasm. The humor had me, like many of you, laughing out loud.
I would have liked a clearer description of Joellen, I had a very hard time visualizing her, and since she’s the main character, that’s problematic for me. (BTW, I did question how she reached half of her weight loss goal–the latter being 40 lb, so I guess she lost about 20 lb–in just a few weeks with Cam.)
TBH, when I started the book, I found Cam really overbearing and obnoxious, and Joellen too accepting of his behavior, and I would have DNF’d but instead decided to skim the book before doing that. Bazinga! I landed on a funny chapter about half-way through, got absorbed in the story, read from there to the end, and then went back to the beginning. Hey, it’s a thing.
This has also been my best contemporary this year. I loved each minute of it. It’s wonderful.
In Melt for You I struggled with Joellen’s attraction to her married boss and so I didn’t enjoy this one as much as others. I thought Joellen should have been looking for a new job. I also struggled with The Kiss Quotient because of the H being an escort but I liked the scenes with his family. I also thought it was too expensive.
I actually thought that Hoang did a nice job though of illuminating the complexities of sex work as an occupation. Sex workers offer services to people in need, and I could see a reasonable argument for legalizing sex work especially on the grounds that it aids people with disabilities, including autism. I had not given much thought previous to reading this book to just how difficult a sexual relationship might be for an autistic person. On the other hand, Michael struggles at times with feeling more like a commodity than a human, and the financial arrangement between Stella and him definitely made their romance tricky. I guess I thought the author sought to address a complex issue and did not take a simplistic side on it.
With Geissinger’s book, I too struggled with the romanticizing of a married man in Joellen’s life. Also, I struggled too with the naivety of a thirty-something woman who did not adequately understand her own romantic feelings about any of the men in her life. I thought her character should have been quite a bit younger due to how she responded to these entanglements. I still really liked the book but these were flaws that stood out for me.
This was my first book by Geissinger and I just LOVED Melt for You.
Joellen is funny, smart and overcomesee her low self-esteem.
And Cameron is MINE, MINE!! He was not your typical dense male character but he is brilliant and sweet in his own playful arrogant way. What a good guy!
I just finished reading another book by this author, Make me Sin. That was a bit darker but I read it in one night because I couldn’t put it down.
Great author.
Well, this sounds charming as heck!
I agree wholeheartedly–except for one point. The other EXCELLENT contemporary this year is “Brooklynaire.” “Melt for You” is wonderful; it is laugh-out-loud, up-all-night-reading, I love the H and the h (AND the cat!). I love how their relationship develops over time and naturally. I like the development of the plot. This is one of the top two books of 2018 (Brooklynaire).
By the way, just finished “The Kiss Quotient,” which earned an “A” here. I foound it to be an expensive book I would have given a “B” if I was in a generous mood. Just didn’t have the same level of back and forth, chemistry and develoment as this one.
I loved both Melt for You and The Kiss Quotient and haven’t decided which is my favorite. The underlying messages of self-acceptance for qualities our society denigrates draws me to both. Both feature partners who actively seek to uplift the object of their affection. The Kiss Quotient doesn’t have the love-hate tension as Melt for You, but it has so many positive statements about racial tolerance, consent, and mental health awareness, and the couple in that book always exhibit caring and loving feelings for each other. I find myself drawn now more than ever to issues of appreciation for diversity and difference and both books pull these qualities off without ever once feeling preachy.
I haven’t read Brooklynaire but was initially interested until I read a firestorm of negative reviews on GRs from women readers who felt that consent was trampled upon. I own it and have not yet picked it up.
Not that it matters but I (whispers) didn’t like Brooklynaire.
I liked the Geissinger just a touch more than TKQ – but both books are favorites for me in 2018.
This has been an excellent year for contemporary romance; IMO I’d also put It Takes Two by Jenny Holliday and A Duke By Default by Alyssa Cole are both up there too (And I know Penny Reid is going to deliver with her next Beard book).
Yes–I do think this has been a good year for Contemporary. I still have to read Penny Reid and Julie Anne Long…..Thanks for the comments everyone!
The latest Long is AMAZING, you will love it!
don’t get me wrong, I love everything about this review, but the fact that you included this line? “Mr. Bingley, her not-so-deaf traitorous cat who falls as hard for Cameron as every other human who spends time in his orbit“.. omg, Em, yessss. so so love this book and all the characters. I did also love the first Slow Burn but agree this one is the best of the two!
This looks really fun! I’ve never read this author before.
Her other books have been mostly average for me – but this one is wonderful. SO GOOD.
Great review, Em! I agree and absolutely loved it and definitely consider it one of the best I’ve read this year. Like you I also did not really like the first in the series. This one though is not to be missed and I hope lots of readers are persuaded to pick this one up.