Can't Get Enough

Another winner Sarah Mayberry romance. An irresistible premise of what happens when you get stuck in an elevator for a few hours with the office playboy and have sex with him, against all your better judgement. Come on, everyone has fantasized about this kind of scenario with someone at some point in their lives. *blushing* George Clooney anyone? Although the heroine is prickly and uptight in the beginning, her personality shines through later in the book. I loved Jack, of course. Not the best Mayberry I've read, and not as emotional as her others, but it was a fun, quick read.

This isn’t Australian writer Sarah Mayberry’s most loved book, but I thought it was great. The two main characters were really appealing, and I thought this was her funniest writing. I know I’ll end up rereading this one sometime soon.

The hero and heroine are complete opposites when we meet them. There’s uptight Claire who keeps her private life private and who feels the need to work herself into the ground to be the best at everything. Jack is so relaxed about everything that when he needs to wear a tie to a meeting he admits he doesn’t own one. In a fairly contrived scene to get the story going, the two of them end up trapped in a lift right after a meeting with their boss – he’s handed Claire’s project over to Jack show more because their clients don’t want a woman in charge. So, Claire’s furious, they’re trapped in a hot and stuffy lift…and of course things happen.

“Excuse me, your attention please.”
He waited until the whole floor had stopped what it was doing and turned to face him. For a split second his impulse control kicked in, but by then his mouth was fully engaged.
“For the record, Claire Marsden and I are not having sex.”

But never fear, Sarah Mayberry’s capable of taking a contrived situation and making it into something good. I didn’t like either character much at the beginning, and really liked them both by the end. I loved when Jack realised he was in love with Claire. He sat there in the middle of a meeting, planning how he would deal with her messy housekeeping when they lived together, and imagining how she would get on with his family, and then he makes his big announcement and doesn’t get the reaction he was supposed to get.

He couldn’t just come right out with it, could he? No, that would scare her off. He had to be subtle, build up to it. Explain himself.
“I love you.”
Of course, straight to the point was also an effective strategy.

“You don’t mean it,” she said in a small, distant voice.
He blinked. She didn’t sound overjoyed. She didn’t sound even slightly joyed.

Something I like about Sarah Mayberry’s books is that no matter what category line they’re published under we get realistic endings to stories. No annoying happy endings with fourteen babies in highchairs around the kitchen table, and no waltzing off into the sunset, instant-billionaires who have learned what love is. Nope, Mayberry makes it seem like these are real people who have found a happy ending, but aren’t going to live some fairytale perfect life once the books end.

What made this story a little less than perfect for me was that there was just a tad too much misunderstanding going around. Everyone misinterpreted everything a few too many times. But it created opportunities for some great scenes.

"Just leave me alone, I want to be alone,” she said when Jack tried to open the car door. She hit the lock, and wound the window up. Since the roof was down, it was a fairly pointless exercise, but she was so upset she was beyond caring.

Nothing especially profound happens in this story, but it did everything it was supposed to do, and was much more interesting than most Blaze books you’ll encounter. show less

When Jack Brook and Claire Marsden get stuck in a sweltering lift one afternoon they find themselves attracted. Before this they despised each other but this changes thing. Can the relationship survive both of their issues?

It's a Mills & Boon and you know the end, but the path is fun, the two of them really spark off each other and his reaction to her not having underwear is quite fun.

The UK cover bears no relationship to the two characters inside. She's the suit wearer and he's described as a jeans and loose shirt with slip on sandals kind of guy!

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