Hot In Here

Hot In Here
by Lori Foster
Rating: 4 of 5 stars average

My Review:
For each of these stories, I really like the length of them. When you're looking for an emotionally fulfilling story with lots of happy twinges but you don't have hours and hours to get sucked into a full length novel, these are great. The sex scenes are somewhat graphic but they don't take up huge portions of the story. My one complaint with these stories is that they tended to make a lot of gender role assumptions: it's not just that “this” is what the heroine is like, it's that she acts (or looks) so feminine because of “this”. Same thing with the heroes, they do things because they're masculine not because that's just the heroes personality.

Uncovered
4.5 stars
I've read this story three-plus times now. I love the characters, the emotion and the plot. It's been on my keeper shelf for a while and I liked that I got to add it to my Kindle collection now. Whenever I need a nice, easy, shorter story, I pick this one. It's a great friends-to-lovers story and gives me lots of happy twinges when I read it. Clair is strong and smart and decides to take her destiny into her own hands. Harris likes his friendship with Clair and starts out pretty nervous to change that, but he doesn't deny his feelings as they get stronger. You can really believe in these two.

I like that, even though there are the gender stereotype issues for me, Clair is still obviously smart and capable. She goes after what she wants and doesn't let insecurities in her relationship with Harris stop her. She caved with some of the “girly” stuff, like when Harris gets protective and doesn't want her to run alone, first she starts to set him down but then mutters that she wouldn't do that anyway. It bugged me a little bit on this read, but the story is good enough to get through that and I know I'll read it again.

Tailspin
4 stars
Buck and Sadie were fun to read. It was my first time reading this story. There were some well-worn, old-school stereotypes for romance heroines in here. Sadie grew up sheltered, alone, and teased with a freshly deceased mother who was sick for a long time. Now she's a wide-eyed virginal heroine just waiting for someone like Buck to notice her. But she's so shy and reserved that she wouldn't dream that someone like Buck would be interested.

The two dogs really pull off this story though. You're able to see so much of the characters personalities through their interactions with the dogs. I enjoyed the book for the fun romp that it was. It had some nice romantic parts and was fulfilling in an old-school sort of way. It won't be my first choice in a re-read, but it'll definitely be read again sometime.

An Honorable Man
3.5 stars
This story was a bit more difficult for me. It felt more sad overall. Instead of happy twinges, I ended up holding back tears a couple times. Liv has been so love-deprived her whole life and Ham has plans to finally change that. But his plans involve making Liv confront her biggest fear: marrying a military man.

I can totally understand trying to compromise and take love where you can, but this just felt so sad to me. I left the story feeling like “you might as well take what you can get because it's better than nothing”. I mean, Liv has real reasons for not wanting to marry a military man and while Ham is trying to find ways to compromise he just ends up seeming rather controlling. He didn't come out and ask Liv about his ideas. He didn't try to brainstorm compromises with her. He just set some plans in motion and then assumes she'll be prepared to give up everything she's worked for because he decided to “compromise”. I just felt Liv was the only one truly being asked to give anything up and that was just sad. The end felt like jumping off a cliff, “whoa, it's over” and didn't really feel like the characters would enjoy long-term contentment.

Each of these stories involved the hero having a certain amount of time off work. Buck and Ham were both on vacation for the length of the story and I think Harris had some vacation time during part of the story too. I believed Harris and Clair's story a lot because they had a prior relationship. I wasn't too sure about the other two stories' long-term prospects because everything was outside normal with the whole vacation thing. Still, I enjoyed the stories for the romantic snapshot that they were, but don't read the last one unless you're ready for the tug on your heart-strings and possible tears. These stories, especially the first two, are fun rainy day stories when you just want to relax for a couple hours.