Hello everyone!
After all, as I've said before, Ms Woods is one of those people whom I usually turn to when it comes to needing a healthy dose of real life romance stories that don't leave me tearing my hair out.
Of course, there can always be hit-and-misses - I had one with Kathryn Shay the other day and I usually LOVE her books, as well - but I have yet to be disappointed in Ms Woods, something I'm profoundly thankful for seeing as I truly need this kind of pick-me-up occasionally.
So, without further ado, allow me to introduce you to the first of the four books - and it's actually fairly fitting that, as we say goodbye to summer here, I'd be talking about that season with the chosen book.
Seducing Summer, after all, rings a bell somewhere.
The four books, first off, are meant to be read one after another, and although they CAN technically be read as standalones, they connect, and the friends depicted within them won't make sense unless you've read the previous books.
Also, as per usual, any other Serenity Woods reviews of mine will be linked at th bottom of the page.
To start the whole thing off, we meet the four friends - Callie, Rowan, Neve and Bridget - as they prepare for Willow's wedding to her high school sweetheart. The girls are twenty-one, roughly, and they all feel as if they have a bright future ahead of them. Dressed as the four seasons, in the gorgeous setting of Matamata (where, for all you who don't know, Lord of the Rings and Hobbit were filmed), this is a true kick-off to the story.
Flashforward five years later, and things aren't necessarily as rosy as Callie would have imagined them to be. With her surname referring to the hottest season of the year, it's natural to know she had represented the summer season as a bridesmaid, and is currently the CEO of Four Seasons, the lingerie brand she and the other three have launched in Wellington.
But in her personal life, things are kind of sluggish.
That is, until her replacement personal assistant walks through the door.
Gene is, first of all, a man, and thinking about a guy working with lingerie gives any girl the case of the giggles. On top of it all, he's gorgeous, apparently ex-military, and intelligent to boot, so why would he want to be a PA? But, as he himself says, he can write shorthand, type eighty words per minute, and knows how to tie his own shoelaces.
Brownie points for the last one.
Callie, although sceptical, accepts him on a trial basis, and only afterwards do we learn, from a conversation between Neve and Gene, that he isn't all he appears to be.
He's a bodyguard.
See, Callie's mother, a high-profile prosecutor, has been receiving threats from this one mafia-type guy who'd just gotten back out again, and her only daughter was mentioned in the threats, which means the woman hired Gene (with whom she shares a history, but nothing sordid) to look after her and keep her safe.
So now Gene has to tag along and pretend to be a good PA while wearing three-piece suits because his vest is actually bullet-proof just in case he needs to do some jumping into the fray, and all the while, sparks between him and Callie fly like you wouldn't believe.
Well, okay, it starts off fairly innocently enough as they continue to converse and realise they have a lot of things in common, but it's pretty obvious sooner rather than later that they both want each other. Gene tries to fight it - he's working, after all! - but he can't really help himself all that much, either.
Neither can Callie, who is more intrigued and attracted to the man because he's a gentleman and has morals he isn't willing to just toss aside for a pretty face.
But as they head on a trip to promote Four Seasons as a brand and try and sell them to other stores, their chemistry sizzles further in the long hours spent together in a car, alone, and it's pretty much smoking right off the pages by the time they end up kissing.
And MAN can they kiss!
You wouldn't think so, but the anticipation and the build-up is actually really well done in the book, as well as the crumbling of willpower on both ends of the spectrum, especially after they spend the night at Christchurch and live through an earthquake, a minor one compared to the 2011 disaster, but even so it brings back memories for Callie, who unfortunately had been in town when that one happened, as well.
Growing ever closer, Gene finally concedes defeat, although he's angry with himself - but not angry enough to stop, as neither he nor Callie can get enough of each other.
And then the threat comes in again.
If you've ever read any similar story of a bodyguard undercover for a client and threats that SUPPOSEDLY don't really have much to do with said client but with their parent/sibling/etc, then you know what follows next. There's bound to be fireworks, right?
Right, but first, something else.
Gene hates lying to Callie about who he really is, and fights that battle inside his head every single moment they're together because he DOES actually love her - and knows how much trust means to her. He needs to tell her the truth, especially as he gets a bit carried away with defending her when her ex (who had cheated on her) walks up to her.
I know what you're thinking. I thought the same thing.
I was waiting, on baited breath, and the main reason why I hadn't read the book sooner, for Callie to throw a fit, throw something at Gene's head, run away screaming and crying about HOW COULD YOU LIE ME I CAN'T TRUST ANYTHING YOU SAY when he would explain that, no, he's not a PA, he's here to save her life.
Only, I got the surprise of my life that kicked me right back onto my ass. Literally.
Because Callie, fun-loving, apparently scatterbrained, hyperacive Callie tells Gene that she knows he's a bodyguard.
And then I remember Neve telling Gene Callie's IQ is VERY high in digits - right before Callie admits that she knows how to read shorthand, and that she read his notes on her office threat assessment when he showed her something on the pad, thinking she had no clue.
This floors him, but also neatly side-steps the whole lying problem, because it means she's always known - but didn't want to say because she thought as soon as it was out in the open, he'd pull away and put another officer on duty.
It was SUCH a relief to read this logical, rational explanation, and not have the drawn-out I LOVE YOU-NO YOU DON'T that I nearly cried with it. And made a vow to read the rest of the books ASAP, without judging them before I started.
Of course it's not quite over yet - Gene explains what happened with Callie's mother, saying that when she was leaving Callie's father, her husband, he was drunk and hit her so she fell down the stairs, but neither said anything because they knew Callie idolised her dad.
It's also around this same moment that two assassins actually try to shoot Callie.
The story ends with Callie pushing Gene (and his bulletproof vest) out of the way to get shot herself, but after she's recovering at home, Gene arrives telling her they finally caught the criminal and both she and her mother are now safe - and also, that she has a proper date with him that evening, because personal security officers can multitask like pros.
Happily ever after! Especially as Gene admits he wants to have babies with her and asks her to marry him.
Yet again one of Ms Woods' masterpieces to lift the gloom of a rainy day, and I can honestly say if you have yet to read any of her work, please do so. She tends to write sensible, down-to-Earth female leads with gorgeous, intelligent, and incredibly normal men as their counterparts. It's not all roses, but it IS worth it - and there's no unnecessary, additional drama!
Which is basically what you want to avoid when reading a romance novel, right? Right.
Highly recommended, and don't forget to come back next week for the review of book two, Tempting Autumn!
xx
*image not mine
No comments:
Post a Comment