Book Review #64 of 2022--
Too Tempting by Bethany Lopez. Rating: 3.25 stars.
God, why does this have to be the cover?? Ugh. This is one of the last few novels/novellas in the Ten First Dates anthology I picked up forever ago. And, despite that cover, this is actually one of the best stories so far. Too Tempting is about an retired NFL star who now runs a summer camp for football players who meets one of the female chaperones and hits it off with them. He knows he should stay away and keep it professional, but he just finds her too tempting. There was also a bit of a twist about two thirds of the way through the novel that came out of left field for me and it gave the novel the depth I felt it was lacking before then.
I think the author does a good job with both the camp setting and the rural town setting once the summer is over. It feels like a great book to read during the summer months. And there was a lot to love where the characters were concerned. I think they weren’t nearly as well rounded as I would like, but they definitely added a layer to the story. I loved the teasing nature of the relationship between Gabriel and Zoey. The banter was sweet but so was their brutal honesty with each other. The sex scenes were just okay for the most part, but there were definitely a couple of spicier moments for readers who enjoy that sort of thing. For me, the main issue I have is that it felt like the book didn’t know what it wanted to be. At moments it could be all in on the smutty side of things and the next it could be all in on the deeper moments of the story. So, it felt disjointed. I think this could have been fixed by (let’s all say it together) being longer. Is anyone even surprised at this point that my chief complaint with novellas is the length? No? DIdn’t think so.
This IS the first novella/novel out of the anthology that has me thinking about reading other books by the author. So, points to her for that. I think once I fully wrap up the anthology I’ll make a post about the stories that were worth the read, ones I could hardly finish, and authors I might dive into the backlist of later on. Overall, one of the best in the anthology. And who can ask for more than that?