Review: Negligee Behavior by Shelli Stevens

Title: Negligee Behavior

Series: n/a

Genres/Themes: contemporary romance, ugly duckling tale

Excerpt: here

Author: Shelli Stevens

Quick Take:

A purely fun book, with a great deal of heart and spice. I’d call it chick-lit with a kick. ^_^

Book Description (via Goodreads): 

     When lingerie heiress Brandy Summer gets cold feet and runs out on her Vegas wedding, she has nowhere to turn—so she hijacks a hunky biker waiting for a red light and begs him for help. What she doesn’ t know is that her instincts are right: the groom has a hidden agenda. He needs her money to pay off his gambling debts and she’ s his ticket to the good life.
     Marco Vargas isn’ t sure what he’ s getting himself into when he rescues Brandy, but figures he’ ll do the chivalrous thing. He offers her a job in his bar and the chance to sort out her feelings. But it seems that keeping Brandy hidden is easier than keeping his hands off her—and what will happen when Brandy discovers that Marco has secrets of his own?

Review:

This book just felt so damn good to read. It’s got a vaguely fairy tale vibe to it, insofar as the story involves a chronically frumpy lady who, through a series of unexpected events, blossoms into herself and finds love. Protagonist Brandy Summers is sweet, charming and magnetic, even as she doubts herself and her own attractiveness. I actually bought into the progressive change in her behavior and appearance.

The romance in this tale is at once precious, pure, and steamin’! There was a good balance therein, with both the lighter and saucier elements being alluring. I’m not sure whether it was more fun to watch Brandy and Marco antagonize each other, or flirt. Their scenes together, in any capacity, were certainly a treat.

The plot moves along nicely. The major dilemmas are not over- or underdone, though I did find some of the segments involving the antagonist to be a little bit unnecessary. Every few chapters a scene would pop up, showing how steamin’ mad and delusional he is regarding the heroine. It didn’t do much to instill a sense of immediate concern for Brandy; the element was probably included to keep the reader from forgetting about him…and maybe to display his quick decent into crazy-town. Either way, I found it to be the weakest element of the story, perhaps even a bit unnecessary.

I quite enjoyed the tone of the book, which was funny but not slapstick or gimmicky. I found myself chuckling out loud many times. One scene involving a depilatory topical in special no-no places was particularly amusing. ^_^ The setting of Las Vegas, Nevada fits quite well with the notion of the characters reinventing themselves and having a little fun.

I can definitely see myself reading this book again and getting almost as much enjoyment as the first go-round. I definitely recommend it to fans of charmingly humorous contemporary romance; particularly to those readers who don’t mind a sprinkling of frothy chick-lit fun.

Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

"I REALLY liked it!"