We’re both playing the game. But who’s going to win?
Logan
I should get this promotion to the executive team. I have experience. Loyalty. Smarts.
But the one thing I don’t have is the one thing I’ve never been able to achieve: a family.
My personal life shouldn’t matter, but the executive team is filled with family men and women.
Me? I’ve had a revolving door of dates. It’s just the way I like things—casual, no-strings.
But it’s time to toss out the little black book and get serious.
I need a woman who’s feisty, someone who can handle me.
Someone strong and funny and intelligent.
Someone like that hot little brunette I see in the elevator who sets my libido on fire.
It’s lust at first sight.
Too bad she can’t stand me.
Olivia
Men—the bane of my existence!
Between my nuisance ex and people who think a woman doesn’t belong on a construction site…well, they can all kiss my curvy ass.
As a home renovation expert, I know my way around power tools.
I’m taking things to the next level, renovating and flipping a condo in a high-end building.
I’m out of my element here. I can tell by the way the unit owners look down their noses at my paint-stained clothing and work boots.
Especially the snob in the suit I meet in the elevator.
He thinks he’s better than me. I certainly don’t need a snooty jerk like him…
Until he makes me an offer I can’t refuse.
Review:
Robin Stone takes her usual formula–blue collar hero and the white collar heroine (and sometimes hero) who loves him–and flips it in this latest entry in the Cocky Hero Club series. Brazen Player is a fake relationship, friends-to-lovers (after a rocky start, anyway ;)) romance between a heroine who owns her own construction company and the executive-and-looking-for-a-promotion hero who lives in the upscale building she’s been rehabbing a condo in.
The building is “not her style.” Neither is the guy. Or is he…?
What begins as a fake relationship to help Logan secure his promotion soon turns into a relationship with benefits, and before he knows it Logan’s complaining to his best friend that Olivia has put him firmly in the friend zone when he–for once!–actually wants more. But can he convince Olivia to give him a chance?
I enjoyed reading Brazen Player–I especially loved Olivia’s business and all that she managed to achieve with it, both for her employees and for charity–and it was easy to want to see Logan and Olivia become a real couple. Their romance is plenty steamy, even though the book on the whole is driven more by the romance than by their antics in the bedroom–also a bit of a change from Ms Stone’s usual, though you won’t find a single complaint about that here. Their HEA was both satisfying and sweet, and I closed my ereader afterward with a smile.
Rating: 4 stars / B+
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.