Samhain Publishing, $4.50, ISBN 978-1-60928-232-5
Contemporary Romance, 2010
CJ Randall knows that professional race truck driver Bryce Danvers is TROUBLE. That will be Tan Rich Overconfident Unsuitable Bachelor Lacking Ethics, by the way. She is a reporter for DRIVE Magazine who is going to participate in that year’s Charity Pro/Am event, with her putting the “Am” in amateur, naturally, and she has to come back with a splendid coverage of the event or her editor will put her permanently on ice. You know the story: she needs the money, her last job didn’t pan out too well, et cetera.
Oh yes, that reminds me. Bryce drives a truck – a Dodge Ram, to be exact. Shouldn’t there be trucks on the cover instead of cars?
Back to Bryce, he assumed that CJ is a man, so when he sees CJ, he turns on the “women can be a liability” act, much to CJ’s chagrin. Bryce isn’t amused when he realizes how little CJ knows about the sport, but he can’t shake off CJ as easily as he’d have liked. After spending all that hours in close proximity with CJ, he predictably likes having her sticking close to him. I’d let you make your own jokes about oil checks here. Meanwhile, Bryce turns out to be good with kids and he is not just your average playboy type, so CJ is a goner before long.
Playboy Prankster is a pleasant story. CJ being a newcomer to the scene allows her to become a good placeholder for readers who are also unfamiliar with the race circuit. Bryce and CJ are likable characters with good chemistry. The story also is focused on the romantic developments between these two, without any dead bodies or explosions cluttering the pretty picture.
The only thing is, I also feel that I have read this story before. The characters are pleasant but familiar, and the plot is not exactly full of surprises. Still, there is a charm to reading a romance story that is all about the romance. It’s almost old school, this story, heh. It could be a bit more exciting, things could be shaken up a bit more, but still, it’s fine for what it is.
There’s not much else to say about this story other than it’s a pleasant read that is more like a comfort read than anything else. But I don’t think this is really a problem where this book is concerned as it does its job well.
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