Billionaire CEO Fox Grantham needs a PA immediately. Also, is his turn to go to Calcott Manor to check up on his grandmother Avangeline, try to convince her to write her will ASAP and look closely at Alyson Garwood, Fox’s deceased brother’s liver recipient. Free spirited Ru Osman needs a job so she could go back to traveling around the world. Ru being Fox’s assistant will benefit both of them. The catch? The PA job has to be temporary…and, although they agreed to those terms, their intense attraction could change the rules of the game.
In Just a Little Jilted, book 1 of the Dynasties: Calcott Manor series, we saw Fox as this strict and some rude character. And in this book, he is. But we can see the whole picture and some of his attitudes towards people lays in one important part of his personality: he has a lot of trust issues. In addition, he expects people to be transparent and, when he founds out they’re not, he feels disappointed. Add to the mix the fact that he knows some secrets he shouldn’t have to know about his parents and he doesn’t know how to let people in either, and you’ll find a complex hero so alluring it hurts. Ru, on her part and as I say before, she’s a free spirited woman who has to do things her way. No, it’s not “my way or the highway” thing; Ru sometimes feels her family is trying to control her. The truth is, having experienced a tragic event when Ru was three, her parents became so overprotective towards her that she, as an adult, still feels as if she were caged to a certain extent. She’s open and lovely, and definitely enough brave to be determined to not let her past define her. Although it actually defines her in some way.
As for their romantic dynamics, they’re opposites attract and they sometimes felt so hard to believe why they’re together and, curiously, that’s their biggest strength, why they work brilliantly. Fox needs someone in his life to get him off the ground, while Ru needs someone to keep her grounded when she gets too high. They complement each other and have a lot of things in common. And their chemistry is a pure, scorching knockout.
“Dancing is just sex standing up. And with our clothes on.”
“We haven’t had sex,” Ru pointed out.
“But we’re going to,” he told her after he dropped her into a low dip. “And I know it’s going to be earth-shattering.”
The only thing I didn’t liked of them as a couple? Their first moment of intimacy was kinda out of place, in my opinion. Maybe I felt it like that because it comes after some shocking revelations Fox made about his parents and their “apparently perfect” marriage. Revelations I didn’t fully believed, by the way. Hey, I know those things happen but that was, as Fox and Ru’s first time making love, a bit forced.
As its predecesor, the second installment of the series has multiple points of view, apart from the main characters. And with that, comes new pieces of the big puzzle. It turns out that Avangeline has been blackmailed. And Jacinda knows about it because Paz, the man she’s attracted to, deciphered the mysteriously coded postcards Avangeline is receiving. Unfortunately, we don’t see a lot of Jacinda’s romance as we saw in book 1, but it’s obvious Jace and Paz’s attraction didn’t faded. We didn’t see much of Alyson either, something I was looking for because her questions about Fox’s parents, uncle and aunt’s fatal accident piqued my curiosity.
Ru and Fox’s story was a good one, but for me, I liked more book 1. That said, the author’s smart writing is the big winner in this book. Ms. Wood leaves no details to chance and the development of the plot—the romance, secrets and their new details—was excellent. And how she resolves Fox and Ru’s issues related to their love story was credible. Also, the story keeps you intrigued and that’s great for books to come. It’s so sad we have to wait until August for the last two books of the series. I’m dying to know how Dynasties: Calcott Manor ends.
ARC given by Ms. Wood via Booksprout. Thanks for your trust.
About the Book
Release Date: April 25, 2023
ASIN: B0B3DXZQ8C
Published By: Harlequin Desire
Series: Dynasties: Calcott Manor #2
Genre: Contemporary Romance
eBook, 192 pages
He’s the most difficult boss she’s ever had—but also the most tempting… Opposites attract in Joss Wood’s latest sizzler!
She’s ready to call her own shots
If only her boss wasn’t so seductive…
Personal assistant Ru Osman is tired of people trying to control her—from her parents to her notoriously difficult alpha boss. All she needs is enough money to leave New York. Sexy CEO Fox Grantham knows the determined beauty is the answer to his professional headaches, but the desire she evokes leads to all-new problems. Will Fox drop his guard long enough to let new love in?
From Harlequin Desire: Passionate and provocative stories featuring rich, powerful heroes and scandalous family sagas.
You’ll be swept away by this bold, sizzling romance, part of the Dynasties: Calcott Manor series:
Book 1: Just a Little Jilted
Book 2: Their Temporary Arrangement
Book 3: The Trouble with Little Secrets
Book 4: Keep Your Enemies Close…
About the Author
“Sizzles with drama, intensity and sensuality… “
“Chemistry and connection…”
“Knows how to keep her reader’s attention and on the edge of their seats”
I’ve been a reader all my life and I wrote my first book at the age of eight, and haven’t stopped since. Writing and reading have been my solace and my joy, stories are where I lose, and find, myself.
I also love traveling, a backpack and an airplane ticket are two of my favorite things. What else? I have the domestic skills of a pot plant, drink far too much coffee and have an on-off, mostly off, relationship with exercise.
I’ve written over fifty books and I write for both the Harlequin Presents and Desire lines. I’ve also published romantic action novels with Tule Publishing and Penguin/Random House’s Intermix imprint.
I spent many boring years in sales, pro-business lobbying and local economic development, but now I’m lucky enough to write full time. I live with my husband in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa and am the mom of two amazing young adults. (Everyone says that but mine are spectacular. Everyone says that too…)
I am a slave to two spoiled cats and the worst behaved dog in the world, who also happens to be the size of a small cow. I love meeting readers, so come hang out with me on my social media channels.
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