Trish Henderson is home for a whole straight of time for the first time in almost fifteen years. Spurred on by her best friend to have a night out – she ends up at the local dive looking at the last person she expects to see after all these years – Joe Ramsey.Joe is the boy now a hunk a man that broke her heart. moving away and getting on with her life as allowed her to brush the hurt of her teenage years under the carpet. Now seeing Joe again brings it all back and it slams into her with a vengeance. Luck was on her side however as Joe is a gentleman and knows he did wrong and has been waiting on his chance to apologies. Joe is the local boy made good and all at the cost of losing the girl and gossip dodging his tail at every turn. He only has one regret and after more than a decade he finally gets his chance to say sorry to Trish – all is not as easy as it sounds, as emotions long buried immediately rises to to the surface and burn them both before they have a chance to get a handle on the business of apologies.Trish is not about to lay down and give it all up to Joe however, she is out for her pound of flesh and she is not opposed to using everything in her arsenal to show Joe that she is not the same little girl who ran away from it all – years ago.With small town – things have a way of moving faster than you can imagine and news travels at the speed of light – worried family, nosey friends and even Trish inner biker chick makes Trish stay in small town Eden definately news worthy. Something has to give however and Joe and Trish are not playing from the same hymn sheet.I had this book earmarked to read a few days ago as a way of getting a touch of Ms. Blake’s writing style. When I spotting it as a Hussy Approve Reading Material on my friend Vampfangirl blog , I know I had to start reading it right away. Firstly the thing that attracted me to this book was the blurb – it highlighted a few of my favourite things in a book, small town plot and old love revisited. I was eager to delve in. Ms. Blake's voice is strong in this book – it’s a mixture of walking the path of least resistance and that funny side that just want to cut loose at the drop of a hat. I warmed to the cast easily enough, but as much as I liked them, I had equal amount of issue with them. Trish was a small town girl that made it in the big city , yet she still retains that yearning to go back to a quieter way of life. I liked bits of her character, and was totally annoyed by other bits of her – While I accept some things as small town way of life, gossiping with your friend and babbling about personal detail was a bit much for me – and I only tolerated her after a while.As I mentioned before, Joe was a gentleman through and through. Not without his fault and his moments of brashness, but I respected the fact that he manned up to a whole lot of changes and tried to make good on past wrong as soon as he got the chance. He was a straight arrow and I like how he tackled everything tossed at him in a timely and respectful manner.The support cast was a mixed bag as well - loyal friend, overprotective parents, exes’ and want to be love interest. I have to admit I was more interested in the carrying on’s with the support cast than Joe and Trish – confusing getting together. There were a few hilarious moment that was well time and suited the situation as well , I thought Ms. Blake dealt with some home truths in this book that are sometimes skirted over in books about small town living.Bottom Line.As my first introduction to Ms. Blake’s style TEMPT ME TONIGHT was an easy read. While the main protags had their up and down moment with me, the support cast did carry the book in my opinion. The array of story- lines lends a realness to the book , as well as giving depth to the relationship that Joe and Trish was trying to salvage.While I didn’t particularly care for this book, I am eager to read more from this author – as there were some moment of brilliance in TEMPT ME TONIGHT and I am hoping to see what she does with the characters she presents in her other books. ( )

**Courtesy of CK2S Kwips & Kritiques**

It’s been fourteen years. The only reason Trish has returned home is to help her parents sell the family business. Once they’ve settled into retirement, she’ll return to her life in Chicago and her job as a high-profile lawyer. The very last thing she wants to do while in Eden is to run into her old boyfriend, Joe Ramsey. Yeah, that Joe Ramsey – the one who broke her heart all those years ago.

But run into him she does, and way too soon for comfort. Seeing the sexy man Joe has grown into just once brings out the inner biker chick she never even knew she had. Trish can’t ignore the feelings she still has for Joe, but she can never trust him again, so she decides on the only sane course of action – love him and leave him. Take what she wants and have her revenge while indulging that inner biker chick. If only it were that simple… Neither Joe nor her heart will let her off that easily!

When the synopsis for Tempt Me Tonight landed in my email box, I knew it sounded interesting, but having read the book now, I do not believe any mere blurb could do this story justice. The depth of emotion and heartbreak Blake conveys with the simplest strokes of her keyboard go far beyond mere words and strike into your very soul. I’ve never read Toni Blake before, but with one single title, she has made it onto my list of favorite authors on my website. Indeed, I am very excited that I have another of this author’s titles already waiting on my book shelf for review next month.

The heroine, Trish, resonated with me on so many levels. If a Word document could be tear stained, I guarantee you this review would be. I cried many times - in all the right places, and from several different emotions. Trish’s heartbreak and inability to easily trust love – especially with the very man who devastated her so many years ago was something I could identify with. To be perfectly frank, I wasn’t sure Blake could find a way to resolve Trish’s feelings regarding Joe in a way that would satisfy the cynic in me. Not only did Toni Blake manage to resolve those feelings, she did it in such a way that I found myself reevaluating my own romantic tenets and wondering about past boyfriends who I was unwilling to give second chances to after major break-ups. Trish is so full of fear, which is in direct conflict with her need to be loved and to love Joe with everything she has. In truth, she never stopped loving him, and the pent-up emotion finds its way to the surface in a torrent of passion that is unstoppable. Of course, who would really want to stop it when it makes for such a fantastic read? LOL

Joe is something unexpected – a hero who totally screwed up the first time around, but is willing to face his mistakes and will do anything to make restitution and win Trish’s heart and trust all over again. Sound like a pushover? Not Joe – no sirree. Joe is every bit the strong alpha-male type with the ability to sweep both Trish and the reader of their feet with just a crook of his little finger.

What I look for in a great book is characters I can believe and empathize with as well as a story that rings true. Tempt Me Tonight is not only all of those things, but is also a book that leaves me searching my own soul and heart wondering how to remove at least a few bricks in my own walls. When a book not only evokes deep emotions in me but prompts a willingness to change, it is a book I know I will treasure for years to come.

( )