This contemporary romance is about Molly Jennings is erotica romance writer Holly Summers. Tumble Creek, Colorado is just the place for her to get away from her creepy ex-boyfriend Cameron Kasten. It was also just the place for her to indulge in a longtime fantasy Ben Lawson the local police chief and her brother's best friend. Getting arrested never looked so good. Yummy.
Victoria Dahl is great at ramping up tension - sexual, physical, emotional... I had a niggling feeling about the stalker in Molly's backyard. Sergeant Kasten, one of Denver's top negotiators is the easiest choice of bad guy. So is he?
I loved how the verbal tools of a negotiator were used in the novel and how one of them became the title. Very cool. I learn something new with every novel I pick up!
As I am not a huge fan of suspense/thriller romances that are super scary I greatly appreciated Dahl's restraint on the creepy factor. It's creepy, but not the "I have to leave a nightlight on and keep my cell phone close" type of creepy. It's also fun and humorous and quirky. I wouldn't mind reading The Wicked West by Holly Summers for instance!
To sum up: I liked Dahl's ability to combine humor, lust, and suspense. I picked up Talk Me Down and read it in a day (keep away from scary romance reader she bites when disturbed) that's how hooked I was. I wish a few things went down differently, but overall it's quite excellent!
Sarah from Smart Bitches and Jane from Dear Author are co-hosting another contest. The prizes are pretty sweet and well worth the time to get involved.
First things first, what contemporary romance started this contest?
The answer to that is Victoria Dahl’s debut novel Talk Me Down. The heroine in this novel, Molly Jenkins, is an erotica romance author. She publishes under a pen name, not because she's ashamed of writing erotica, but because she knows how awkward it would be for family and friends. Molly Jenkins leaves city life to return to her small home town after some unpleasant activity with her law enforcer ex-honey/stalker. A small inheritance makes moving back home easy, but Molly is stuck. She's not inspired to write again until running into an old high school hunk, Ben Lawson, now chief of police.
Sarah says this about the sexual interactions within this book: "This, folks, is realistic sex. Gritty sex. Passionate pent-up sex. And most of all? FUN sex." While the Romantic Times reviewer labeled the heroine "as a dog in heat." In response to the RT comment Jane says, "I’m not going to even try to rebut it because that’s one of the things I liked best about this story." Based on these different reviews, the conclusion to be drawn from this is that the sex is frank, up front, and enjoyable if you like your sex in romance novels to be frank and up front.
