Blind Date Disasters / Eat Your Heart Out by Jill Shalvis
Review by Cynthia F. (frazerc)
The setup for this charming and frequently giggle-worthy book is simple. Identical twins – who until recently have always lived together and now live in separate condos six steps apart – cause confusion to the men in their lives.
Blind Date Disasters
Cami is a newly graduated interior designer who has decided to start with redesigning and redecorating her own condo to be a showplace of her skills. She expects the contractor she hires to be experienced but grumpy and grizzled – she gets buff and hunky Tanner McCall who looks VERY experienced.
Tanner McCall has been anticipating this job since it marks his return to work that he loves [not that he resents nursing his father through a health crisis the previous year] and he can certainly use the money. He figures the client will tell him what she wants done and then disappear and let him work. He does not expect a bed-rumpled, blanket-wrapped cutie to answer the door at 11 am while mumbling about people showing up at the crack of dawn.
After surveying the work she wants done he suggests she leave because of the mess and noise associated with the renovation. She refuses and proceeds to conduct her personal and professional phone life in front of him. Which is why he knows about the blind date her mother who guilt tripped her into agreeing to – and why he is in her kitchen the next morning when she calls [having already tried her sister’s condo and her Mom’s house] trying to find someone to come rescue her after her date abandoned her on a back road in the High Sierras.
She appreciates Tanner coming to rescue her, she really does, but did it have to be him? And she really doesn’t appreciate the advice he gives her at all…
Then her first professional client bribes and blackmails her into another blind date – this time with the client’s son. Tanner is still there when the date shows up and he immediately knows what the snake wants with Cami. So he follows and rescues her again, this time from a date that thought a quickie before dinner was a great idea…
The blind date disasters are amusing and the relationship between Tanner and Cami develops believably. The behavior question he points out is one valid for many people; why doesn’t she just say no? Why are her wants and desires less important than others? She does finally start listening to her own wishes and learns to say ‘no’ to others while [of course!] she learns to say ‘yes’ to Tanner.
Eat Your Heart Out
TV food chef, Dimi Anderson, is the star of a cooking show – one that isn’t cooking up good ratings when bucking a sleaze-TV show on another channel. So the parent company sends her a new producer, hotshot ‘fixer’ Mitch Knight, who arrives riding a Harley and wearing leather. He informs her and her team that the show is going to turn up the heat or get turned off entirely. He insists a radical makeover of the star is the first step. The second step? Mitch as Dimi’s personal ‘sexyiness’ trainer and onscreen assistant – adding both heat and humor to the show.
The new ‘sex kitten’ chef – and the new menus Mitch is allowing her to prepare – are working. The ratings and the phone calls are both way, way up! And she’s learning how to walk in the high heels [although she still misses her apron]; now if she could just learn how to deal with Mitch she’d be good. Except Mitch makes her want to be bad, real bad, in a really good way and he’s only temporary. He’ll only be there until the LA bosses need him to take off somewhere else and save another show…
These are both warm, fuzzy reads. The sexual tension is hot but the sex is not explicit. The humor is enjoyable and the supporting characters are delightfully quirky. The mistaken identity twin joke is not overused so adds humor without boring the reader. A good, happy read!
This sounds like a fun book to read.