In Bed With Mr. Wrong

In Bed With Mr. Wrong
by Katee Robert
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

On Sale January 13, 2014
From the Back Cover:

The blind date from hell is about to get hotter…Brianne Nave is never doing her friends a favor again. When they begged her to go on a blind date, she didn’t expect someone so perfectly gorgeous. She’s a mousy librarian—totally not in this man’s league. And judging by his odd reaction when she opens the door, he knows it, too.
Air Force Pararescuer Ryan Flannery avoids his hometown at all costs. He’s not thrilledabout the date until he’s shocked silent by the prickly little librarian’s sweet curves and kissable lips…and her smart mouth. But then an argument leads to a kiss that spirals out of control. How can two people have so little chemistry outside the bedroom when they fit together so perfectly in it?
When their friends strand them in a cabin to “work things out,” Bri’s not sure whether to kill him or put the industrial-sized box of condoms they find to use. Bottom line—Ryan’s career military and hates the tiny town she loves. He’ll leave, just like everyone else in her life. And if she’s foolish enough to give him her heart, he’ll take it with him.

My Review:
This is my third Katee Robert contemporary. I need to be in the right mood to really enjoy these, but it's scratches exactly the right spot. Mostly they're best when you can give them the 2-3 hours they deserve. I've tried in my head to compare this book to some specific type and I think the closest I'm getting is some of the angry 80's Diana Palmer books (maybe like Heart Of Ice), but with a healthy dose of female agency thrown in. You know the ones, “I can't stand you, I'm going to yell and scream at you, but now we're kissing, how did that happen?!”

Brianne and Ryan are at each other's throats almost from the first moment of the book, but they're also totally in Lust. Think: wild, angry sex is the only way we can keep from yelling at each other. They snipe at each other constantly unless they're having sex. It could have turned into just a caricature of a romance but it didn't. See, these two aren't angry to hide their lust or because they're just too innocent to understand their attraction. They're actually so wounded that they can't let anyone close. They know just where to prick at the other's vulnerability so it takes a long time for them to calm down and see the wounded animal in the other. They eventually start opening up and healing and it was beautiful to see. They took baby steps and had lots of fits and starts, but they did it. They gave each other compassion and understanding, forgiveness and space to heal.

It was a rather narrowly focused book. We didn't get many details about either character's work or daily habits. They had a couple friends/family members that were instrumental in the romance but weren't very clearly defined secondary characters. I loved the interplay between Ryan and Brianne, but most things outside their immediate, romantic sphere were blurry and indistinct – a pretty normal occurrence with this length of book.

I ended this book knowing that Brianne and Ryan really belonged together. They fought hard, with each other and with themselves, but they came out of it better, more vulnerable people. I knew that they'd do whatever was necessary to work out their issues together. When you need an angry, passionate romance with lots of satisfying sex; and two breathtakingly wounded, vulnerable characters, look no further than In Bed With Mr. Wrong.

I received a complementary ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.