Underneath It All (Temptation)

Rating:
Summary: Fun, sexy, and an entertaining read!
Review: Nancy Warren has done it again. She just keeps getting better and better and her latest Harlequin Temptation Underneath it All showcases her talent.

When Darren Kaiser becomes Manhattan's most sought after bachelor, he needs to escape. He can't stand the women chasing him, leaving him flowers and candy and proposing to him. He wants out of it all, so he quits Kaiser Image Makers, his father's company, and moves incognito to Seattle where he starts working on his computer programming business, designing a program to help children learn to read.

Below his apartment lives Kate Monahan, a beauty consultant and high school drop out. She is busy saving all the money she can in order to finish high school and then move on to college. She isn't thrilled with her new neighbor Dean (aka Darren). He seems to be a bit of a jerk, ignoring her polite greetings and acting like... well like a dork. He wears bright Hawaiin print shirts and has thick glasses and she can't get over the impression that she has seen him somewhere.

Soon though, Kate sees that underneath it all, Dean is a great guy. They build up a strong friendship, but both can't help the strong attraction they have to each other. On the night of her birthday party, things reach a boiling point between them and they make love. They can't get enough of each other, and Darren finds that he wants to relinquish his bachelor status if only Kate will agree to stay in his life. But he knows time is running short. What if she finds out the truth, that dorky Dean is really hunky and rich playboy Darren Kaiser? Will she still love him?

What I really loved about this book was how natural the relationship between Darren and Kate was. They started off as friends but saw that they desired something more with each other. This was not a rushed relationship, Nancy Warren did a great job of showing their evolving relationship. I also just plain loved the characters. Kate was so determined to make herself better, to try to improver her life, even after some bad breaks. Darren wanted to be there to help her. He might have started off as a playboy, but by the end of the book it was obvious what a caring and loving man he was. He had just never let that side of him show.

This was a great read, very fast, but very enjoyable. Nancy Warren has joined my list of must-buy romance writers.

Rating:
Summary: fun contemporary romance
Review: Wealthy executive Darren Kaiser loves the perks of single life living in the exclusive part of New York until he is named Manhattan Match of the Year by Matchmaker Magazine with a national audience of millions. Not long afterward every female from eight to eighty wants apiece of this hunk so Darren, sick of the stalking, decides to go into hiding.

Darren goes from the island's most eligible bachelor to computer geek Dean Edgar living in a lower middle class tenement. However, he finds one positive besides avoiding the female horde when he clumsily meets his neighbor hair dresser Kate Monahan and her younger brother Huey. As Dean and Kate fall in love, her worries how she will react to the truth especially when she believes that Kaiser is a wastrel playboy.

UNDERNEATH IT ALL is a fun contemporary romance starring two delightful protagonists. Darren as a beleaguered Dean makes the tale hum as he escapes the female army only to fall in love as his alter ego and confused by feeling he wants the working class Kate to love the nerd as much as the hunk. Fans will think of Maid to Order when they have a good time with Nancy Warren's fine tale.

Harriet Klausner