Total-e-bound, £2.99, ISBN 978-1-906328-25-2
Contemporary Erotica, 2007
Briana Harding has everything planned. The moment she reaches St Lucia, she’ll be enjoying the sand, the sun, and, best of all, two days of hot unbridled boinking with Colin Harding. There is just one little problem: Colin Harding is not told of his ex-secretary’s naughty plans. She has however lured Colin over by pretending to be a client and now all she has to do is to wait.
Colin is the rather oblivious type who is more focused on making money than getting honey, if you know what I mean, but Briana is determined to bring on her best mojo to get her man this time around. When she was working for him for six months, he didn’t even remember her as his ex-girlfriend from his teenage years. Sure, they were both teenagers who didn’t do anything more than necking in the movies but still, how humiliating. Now that Briana has resigned from her job, he has nowhere to run anymore. Briana’s going to get her man!
What Briana doesn’t realize is that Colin recognized her the moment she walked into his office six months ago but with him being who he is, he never made the first move. And because Briana also didn’t make the first move, he assumes that she is still mad about how their parents separated them (rich boy, poor girl, parents not happy – the usual). He is lost without his efficient secretary, but the poor dear has been pretty much lost inside since he and Briana were torn apart like a pair of lovers in a Hindi movie. Briana has not left any contact number, so poor Colin is resigned to losing her for the second time in his life. He has no idea that Briana is waiting to ambush him when he reaches St Lucia.
I have to say, the whole “young lovers, separated, but never stop loving each other” concept can be corny but it works very well here. However, poor Colin can be quite an exasperating character as whenever he opens his mouth, the wrong things always come out. Fortunately for him, Briana is more than happy to wear the pants in this relationship so she’s going to knock some sense into him whenever he’s being silly. Briana’s a fine heroine as she knows what she wants and goes for it. Both characters are reasonably well-developed given the length of the story and I think they are so cute together.
Lust or Go Bust is a spicy contemporary romance, but it is also at the same time a surprisingly sweet and tender one. All in all, it’s a pretty good one where I’m concerned.
