Linda Francis Lee: Sinfully Sexy

MY REVIEW

Sinfully Sexy
Series: Sexy
Author: Linda Francis Lee
Original Release: September 27, 2004
List Price: $7.99

Read: December 21-21, 2009
My Rating:


Author Homepage | Amazon.com

SUMMARY (from back cover)

After a close encounter of the sexy kind, Chloe discovers her wild side

Plain-Jane Chloe Sinclair has never been bad ... until she stumbles - literally - into the arms of a gorgeous stranger. To make matters worse, her world is rocked completely off its axis the morning after when the sensual dreamboat turns out to be the man brought in to save the TV station where she works.

Sterling Prescott is hard-driven, sexy as hell, and determined to take over the struggling KTEX TV. But all bets are off when the shameless wildcat who disappeared on him last night walks back into his life - acting like a squeaky-clean librarian. Life gets truly complicated, however, when Sterling decides to win more than the station - and to show  her that being sexy isn't a sin.

MY REACTION
This is the second book that I have read by Linda Francis Lee and I'm very conflicted about what rating to give it - 3.5 stars (worth reading once, recommendable, check it out from the library) or 4 stars (will want to read it again, buy a copy of my own if I read a borrowed one). The other book was Looking for Lacey and it was really not a recommendable book, except for the side romance going on between the heroine's high school daughter and her classmate - that was literally the only thing that made the book worth reading.

"SEXY" SERIES
Sinfully Sexy is Book 2 in Lee's "Sexy" Trilogy - it's preceded by Kate's story in Suddenly Sexy and followed by Julia and Ben's story in Simply Sexy. The three heroines are all coworkers at KTEX TV and have been friends since childhood.

CONS
In Sinfully Sexy, there were a lot of things that were a mess:

• the story and the plot were not "tight"
• there were a lot of contrivances created solely for the author's character machinations
• the whole last-minute-dating-show-that-will-miraculously-save-the-station-and-oh-what-a-surprise-there-are-some-twists-that-make-certain-characters-have-to-be-contestants was ... yeah, not much appreciated by this reader
• the secondary kind-of-romance between Julia and Ben that sets us up for Book 3 in the trilogy was annoying, felt very forced, and definitely did not make me inclined to read their story
• Chloe's father was blah and the emotional scene and discussion at the end was far too corny and neatly-timed for me
• ... and I could go on.

PROS

*However*, Chloe was (for the most - if one ignores some random weird spots here and there) a good heroine and Sterling was (also for the most part - if one ignores his too sudden realization of love and quick turnaround) a good hero. There were some great scenes between them that were very amusing, very enjoyable, and *very* chemically-charged and Sterling sometimes does or says things that will have you sighing out loud. The interactions between him and his brother Ben were also nice additions.

NOTE

When I had first read the summary of this book, I thought that Chloe and Sterling basically have a one-night stand with one another and then are surprised to find out the next day that the stranger they slept with last night is someone they're going to have to work with. Although that's where things are heading, they *do not* sleep with each other at the beginning of the book and when they finally do it is absolutely perfect and at the right time in their relationship and in the book/story.

RATING DECISION

So basically it comes down to whether or not the good parts of the book outweigh the bad parts enough to warrant a 4-star rating instead of a 3.5-star one ... and after writing this review and being able to sum it all up for myself, I'm afraid to say that I'm going to have to go with 3.5 stars.

BOTTOM LINE

The pros of this book make it definitely worth checking out from the library (which is what I did), but I would hold off on buying it - I know some people have really liked this book, so it could be me, but IMO it just doesn't warrant a spot on my keeper and/or reread shelves.