Rate this book

The Guy Most Likely To...: Underneath It All\Can't Get You Out Of My Head\A Moment Like This (2012)

by Leslie Kelly(Favorite Author)

3.78 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0373796986 (ISBN13: 9780373796984)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Harlequin Books

review 1: As many of you know, I love grabbing a Harlequin Blaze book at the grocery store and reading them while at football practices. This one I picked up on Net Galley and read through one short at a time. But yesterday, I slipped into our local Chapters (Starbuck's is my excuse for the pop-in) and the cover in the flesh is so cute...so Tom Cruise in Risky Business...and a throw back for me to high school! High school reunions are something of an oddity for me. I didn't go back to my 20th...well because we didn't have one! It would have been fun, but since our high school closed down the year before, many of the locals went to the closing ceremony instead of the reunion. This set of three stories focuses on reunions, but at a resort-style theme event centre. The first sto... morery of love lost and found is very sweet and touching. I enjoyed how Seth sought Lauren out and only had eyes for her.Speaking of single minded and focused, Will returns to his reunion rich, successful and sexy as all get out. Ali crushed on him years ago, but succumbed to peer pressure and didn't pursue her true feelings for Will. Fast forward to their high school reunion and Ali can't keep her mind off what could have been...I love having these two fall in love all over again.And as for falling...falling hard for a bad boy may have been frowned upon in high school, but as an adult, Erica knows that she missed her chance years ago and that she wants to take that ride with Rip. I know that I was cheering for second chances throughout the whole book! Sweet, fun and sexy! Enjoy!
review 2: I picked this one up because I've read and enjoyed stories and/or novels by all three authors, so I was eager to see what they would do with the high school reunion theme. Ultimately, each story was pretty good, with sympathetic characters, good chemistry, and a varying amount of sweetness. However, I have to say that, while I enjoyed all three stories, none of them was particularly special - everything seemed formulaic, with mostly stock/cliche characters. So, while there isn't anything exactly innovative about the stories, I have to say that I liked them (as I liked the fact that all three titles were actually song titles from 2002 [that did briefly make me feel kinda old, though]). A brief breakdown of each story follows:Leslie Kelly's "Underneath it All" - This one was my favorite of the three, mostly because Ms. Kelly really amped up the angst and emotions, which isn't all that easy to do over the course of such a short story. Both characters were likable in a standard way: Lauren had developed a hard, snarky edge due to Seth's actions on prom night, but the snark was understandable and not overdone. Seth was a good guy: earnest, but not overly so, with good intentions and a lot of feelings for Lauren. The reason for the requisite "big misunderstanding" ten years prior to the events of the story was fairly creative and led to a good amount of anger, hurt, and bitterness for both of them. They had a lot of chemistry and their feelings for one another were believable. The last scene was a nice full-circle kind of moment. The part of my mind that can never fully suspend disbelief made itself known at that point, though, because everything happened so very quickly. Ultimately, I told that little voice to shut up and enjoy the sweetness, and it did. This was a solid story that I liked a lot.Janelle Denison's "Can't Get You Out of My Head" - This story touched on the bullying theme that is very much a part of the public discourse nowadays, and I liked that Ms. Denison showed how it can affect not only the "geeky," outcast kids (Will), but also the popular kids who seem to have it all (Ali). Will and Ali had a connection in high school, in spite of their differing social standings, but the aforementioned bullying led to them parting ways amidst a lot of hurt feelings and confusion. By the time the reunion rolled around, Will was (of course) handsome, rich, and successful, and only attended the reunion to see Ali. Once their past issues were addressed, they capitalized on their chemistry (which was pretty intense), and things ended on a sweet (and hot) note. This one was good, though I personally didn't feel like the emotions and chemistry were as palpable as they were in Leslie Kelly's story.Julie Leto's "A Moment Like This" - For characters, we had a couple of archetypes: Erica, the good girl who always longed to be bad/wild; and Rip, the bad boy player who, underneath all of the rebelling and womanizing (and a lot of womanizing there was), was actually a good guy. This wasn't a bad story, but I find that I don't have all that much to say about it, because it seemed to me that the entire story was all about the physical. Don't get me wrong, the physical/chemistry-related aspects of this story were hot and intense (and plentiful), but though there were a few instances in which emotions entered the fray, they didn't feel all that deep or developed to me. In short, the story - while enjoyable - was mostly about hot sex and not all that much else, in my view.So, all things considered, this one had three pretty good stories, and I think that anyone who has previously read offerings from any or all of these authors won't be disappointed. less

Download links for: The Guy Most Likely To...: Underneath It All\Can't Get You Out of My Head\A Moment Like This

Advertising