ARC Review of Checking It Twice by Jodi Redford

Publisher: Samhain
Format Read: eARC
Release Date: November 27, 2012
Buying Links:  Amazon   Barnes & Noble   Samhain

Book Blurb (from goodreads):

Tis the season for double seduction.

The only item on Jana Colton's Christmas list this year is Kevin Monahan. Preferably naked in her bed. The delicious, hunky chef has been resisting her forever, but she's pulling out all the sexy stops this holiday. Especially since his acceptance of an out-of-state job threatens to nix her quest to rock his boxers off.

Jana has always been Kevin's personal Kryptonite, but giving in to her isn't an option. Relationships are a four-letter word in his book. He cares far too much for Jana to let his emotional baggage ultimately break her heart.

With the arrival of his best friend, Nick Pappas, the balance of temptation shifts. From their past history of sharing women, Nick knows every dirty trick it takes to lead Kevin astray, and he's not afraid to use them. Particularly since Nick's convinced that Jana is exactly what Kevin needs to be happy and whole.

Their game of seduction quickly snowballs into something that feels an awful lot like love--in triplicate. But with Kevin dead set on leaving Michigan, there's a real possibility it could be a blue Christmas for them all.

Warning: This book contains an extremely tormented voyeur, a very naughty and not so saintly Nick, a liberal application of candy cane-flavored body paint, a buzzing butterfly, and enough raunchy fun on a sex swing to melt a snowman...or two.

Quote:

Intimacy didn't come easy for him. Until Jana entered his life, he rarely let down his guard enough to share that side of himself. The only other person who'd broken through his barriers had been Nick.

And look where that got you.

Reviewed By: Bea

Bea's Thoughts:

"Checking It Twice" is a follow up to "The Naughty List", featuring Jana Colton, sister to one of the main characters in  that book. As always with Redford's books, there's hot, steamy sex; humor; and a character who is reluctant to love.

Jana is in love with Kevin and though they are friends, she's never had any luck in getting him to let her in. Kevin is attracted to Jana, may even love her but due to several different past experiences feels that he has nothing to offer her and that he is in fact a sexual freak. Then his former best friend Nick arrives in town and turns everything upside down. As relationships change and boundaries are pushed, Kevin slowly starts to confront his past and his hangups, Jana discovers a side to herself that she'd been unaware of and Nick makes another life change. Everyone changes during the story, a process that can be frightening and Redford doesn't back away from showing us the difficulties.

There's a revelation near the end of the book that I wish she'd spent more time on and I hope that if there's another book, it will be addressed. She presents what happened in a character's past as an affair but since only one partner was of legal age and the other one was only fifteen years old it strikes me more as abuse or statuatory rape. That bothered me but not enough to detract from the story. If you enjoy your romances extra steamy and aren't bothered by threesomes or voyeurism, then you need to read this story.



I received an eARC from the author for review.