Nice steamy beginning to story with a good plot but it started getting heavy with mental debate and insecurities so I skimmed some. I waffled a bit on believability and my rating is 3.5* Attorney Trish returns to hometown and encounters old boyfriend Joe the mechanic.
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Tempt Me Tonight was my first foray into the erotica genre and it was fantastic. Blake sucked me in emotionally right from the start with the chemistry between Joe and Trish as teenagers. She broke my heart and spent the rest of the book putting it back together, one yummy sex scene at a time.

I will say that the dialogue during the sex scenes could have been stricken all together (there's only so much "Oh God! Oh Joe! and "Baby, you're so hot" we need to read, you know?) but other than that, the word choices and variety of the love scenes were impressive. I particularly liked the one out in the rain against the truck. :)

Kudos to Blake for weaving a steamy tale with characters I rooted for! ( )

**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.

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