Robin Kaye is a new author for me and I have to say that I enjoyed her novel, Too Hot to Handle.
Dr. Mike Flynn’s single mom taught him early how to cook and clean, and there’s nothing like vacuuming or doing dishes to help a guy relax. Annabelle Ronaldi is an artist without a domestic bone in her body. Since her fiance’s death, she can’t paint, and life looks hopeless.
Until the day after her sister’s wedding, when she wakes up with Mike next to her in bed, and then she’s really beside herself – because the handsome stranger is a dead ringer for her dead fiance.
After their mind-blowing one night stand, Mike is sure this is the woman he wants to take care of forever, but she acts like she’s seen a ghost. While Mike sets to work wooing Annabelle, she sets to work sniffing out the truth of the convoluted family secret that turns everybody’s lives upside down.
The characters were actually amusing to read about and the situations Kaye throws them into ranges from the ordinary to hilarious. The one thing I wasn’t too keen on is Mike and Annabelle are a little underdeveloped. There’s a lot of past events that affect their relationship, but we’re really only given the bare bones of what happened. I would have liked to seen more of what made Annabelle react the way she does as well as Mike’s relationship to Nike (Annabelle’s new brother-in-law). There are times I got the feeling that this was the second novel in a series, and some of this may have been answered in the first book, especially if it was about Nick and Rosalie (Annabelle’s sister), but I’m not sure. Even though there wasn’t a lot of development in this area, it really didn’t effect the story too much, just our understanding of the characters.
The story itself was really quick and threw a lot of obstacles in front of Annabelle and Mike. There were times where I thought I knew what was going to happen, but Mike or Annabelle surprised me and did something else. Neither reacted the way the other expected which was kind of refreshing. I haven’t been reading too many contemporary romances lately, but this was definitely a fun read.
Overall, another great novel to add to the romance genre and one any romance fan would thoroughly enjoy.
Well, it *IS* the second in a series, right? There wasn’t much about Annabelle in the first one except that her fiance was a turd who put the make on Rosalie, and she [Annabelle] was kind of a spoiled brat.
So you’ve read the first one? What’s it called? I didn’t know this was part of a series.
Jackie~
The first in the series is called Romeo, Romeo. It came out in November of last year. Breakfast In Bed (the third in the series) will be out in November.
I hope you enjoy them.
Best,
Robin :)