Lynne Connolly‘s review of Getting Red-Hot With the Rogue by Ally Blake
Contemporary romance released by Harlequin Presents 1 Nov 09

Another goodie. Title – ignore it, it’s stupid and it doesn’t have anything to do with the story.

This book is awash with humor, but it never gets in the way of romance. Wynnie won’t be stepped on or doormatted, and several times through this book I found myself cheering for her. Dylan doesn’t hurt her, denigrate her or belittle her, but he still manages to be alpha to the max.

The technology is appropriate, something I really appreciated, since in many of the Presents books, the executive hero seems to be mired in the past, fighting his way through reams of paper and only using his laptop when he wants to impress the heroine. Dylan isn’t pompous, either, and he does give Wynnie the benefit of listening to her and taking her thoughts and ideas seriously. My kind of hero.

Wynnie can be a bit hotheaded, but she doesn’t do it to the point of stupidity and she is good at her job. You can see why her employers chose her and have trust in her. She’s capable, and she shares Dylan’s sense of humor. You could actually see why these two got on so well.

The story starts when Wynnie handcuffs herself to the “zig-zag” sign outside Dylan’s building, in the cause of eco-friendly policies. She’s not an eco-warrior, she’s a lobbyist, and while she agrees with it, it never becomes the focus of the story and Blake never preaches the cause. Instead, she gets her point over with reason and discussion – after she snags his attention with the handcuff trick.

A pity she’s allergic to nickel and a pity she bought cheap nickel handcuffs. When Dylan sees the marks left by the cuffs, he doesn’t think “how stupid,” he admires her courage and the way she just copes. And it makes him want to take care of her.

Brisbane makes a great backdrop to the story, and is obviously a place the author knows well. I enjoyed this one and I’m going back for more.

Grade: A-

Summary:

Lobbyist Wynnie Devereaux is a woman on a mission – to save the planet one man at a time.

She has her reasons for wanting to spend her days flirting, prodding, pushing, winging, dining and encouraging those in power to try a little harder to protect the planet – some reasons are born of altruism and hope, others are a tad more murky.

Her mission leads her to set her sights on Dylan Kelly – the spare heir, and head of Media Relations for the the formidable Kelly Investment Group banking family of Brisbane – as the one man who can help her change the world.  The fact that she has never met a man who has affected her as ardently, as instantly, or as alarmingly intensely, a man whose own life’s mission to take down anyone with the notion to target his family for their own ends, means that most of all it is her heart which needs protecting!

Read an excerpt here.