Review: Man Candy

Man Candy by Jessica Lemmon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Dax and Becca's story. Dax Vaughn is a successful businessman with two bars (at one of which Grace, from Arm Candy, tends bar) and a third in the pipeline. After his father's death and his mother's, well mothering, and his best friend living on Dax's couch AGAIN because he's broken up with his girlfriend, Dax decides to take a vacation away from everything - just camping and fishing in the woods of Tennessee (well okay he's booked a cabin, but its in the woods).

After his long drive Dax stops off at the bar attached to the camp site for a beer after his drive from Ohio, he witnesses a waitress arrive late for work and get fired by the grumpy bartender, something that she seems to totally ignore! Becca, the waitress, is also the sister of the grumpy bartender, whoo also owns the cabin that Dax is staying in.

Becca hasn't truly found her calling, she's had a few tries, dancing in New York (until she realised everyone else in the class was a million times better) was one, and she is currently working for her overbearing older brother and sharing a room with his youngest daughter until she can find her next thing. The lack of career, the helicopter supervising by her brother (he forwards calls to his phone when she is manning the office because he doesn't trust her to answer the phone), and the constant criticism have left Becca with low self-esteem and as a consequence she tends to avoid commitment - you can't get left if you don't commit, right?

There's an instant attraction between Dax and Becca, she 'offers to show him the way to his cabin' and they spend a passionate night, only to find that the torrential storms in the night have left Becca 'stranded' until the main road is cleared.

Dax and Becca have a very definite no-strings attached hot and steamy romance, every time Dax tries to make it something a bit more Becca pulls away. But can Dax's positive affirmation give Becca reason to take a chance?

Have you ever read a book where you wanted it to move on somewhere else? The vast majority of this book takes place in Tennessee during Dax's holiday, which is actually fine but the book I wanted to read was after the holiday, sign of good characters huh, when you are making up the story in your head? Anyway, I liked the story in Tennessee, the camping, the fishing etc but I kinda felt it was overlong. I guess I just loved the other two books so much that I wanted this one to be centred on the bar too.

Probably for that reason, and that reason only, I give this three and a half stars instead of four stars.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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