LynneC’s review of Girls’ Guide to Flirting With Danger by Kimberly Lang
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents Extra 1 Mar 11

This was a complete surprise and a really good read. If this is the level of the new Mills and Boon Riva line, I want more.

This book is a Riva book in the UK and Modern Heat in the US. It’s a Presents/Modern line with a shot of contemporary and it’s a great page-turning read.

This is a second-chance story, something I don’t always enjoy because I find myself wondering why they didn’t make it first time around and what makes it so different this time. Often the reasons fail to convince. Not in this story. Megan meets Devin, her ex-husband again, after Devin has found fame as a radio divorce advisor and lawyer. He’s made a bunch of money and brought out a book, which mentions his ex-wife. The press come calling and Megan’s life as a marriage counselor is put in jeopardy. She’s a few months off getting her licence, and this puts her chances of staying in work long enough to get it difficult, to say the least.

Counseling centers don’t like paparazzi and they don’t like too much attention. Lang takes the state of the world into consideration and the difficulty getting any job these days. I appreciate that. And then the inevitable happens and Megan and Devin get back together in bed. They have a great time, and Devin wants to carry on seeing her. Megan agrees. They broke up because he started to take her for granted, assume his job and his needs were more important than hers. Well, he’s an alpha, right?

Right. So it happens again. And this time they choose not to walk away. But Megan did decide to carry on with her career, and that causes more friction between them. She still loves Devin, but she doesn’t know if she can go through the old crap all over again and fall back into old habits. She’s older and wiser now, isn’t she?

Well yes, she is, and that’s a great part of the book. They are older, both of them, and more mature, though they never acted older than they were. Just mature. More things happen, and Lang shows the events to illustrate her characters, to make them face what had broken them up the first time and to learn truths about themselves.

The style is snappy and funny without being superficial. It can deal with more profound problems without becoming bipolar. Lang has been writing for Mills and Boon/Presents for some time, so to read a fresh new take on the Presents line is a real treat and a surprise. In a nice way.

Devin and Megan really earn their happy ending and I am definitely going back for more from the Riva line.

Grade: A

Summary:

Life is good for marriage counsellor Megan Lowe—until the media discover that she’s the ex-wife of Devin Kenney, America’s most famous divorce attorney! Now the paparazzi are digging for a scoop just in time for the launch of Devin’s new book. His gorgeous smile smirks at Megan from magazines and billboards, making him infuriatingly impossible to forget.

It’s time for Megan to throw her very bossy rule book out the window and face her dangerously sexy ex. And their sizzlingly hot reunion—well, that’s most definitely headline news.

Read an excerpt. (scroll down)