Hard to Get-Alyssa Brooks

Hard to Get
Alyssa Brooks
Berkley, Jul 2008, $14.00
ISBN: 9780425221754

In Aspen, Colorado at her successful club wealthy Lizzie hosts a bachelorette party for her stepsister Elisa engaged to Maxim. She detests Maxim, as she believes all men except for her adopted father are rats who leave. She prefers dildos. When the cowboy stripper she hired talks; she recognizes the voice as that of Ty Black, who broke her heart as a teen. Ty dances to pay for college, but still dreams of meeting his Elizabeth again. On stage he notices the pink haired Lizzie and realizes she is his Elizabeth. Lizzie leaves as Ty took her virginity before deserting her on the mean LA streets.

Ty follows and kisses Elizabeth who tells him to go back to work and leave her alone. Ty refuses. She reminds him after rescuing her from a drunken stepfather in Tennessee he left her sick and hungry when he vanished. Ty swears he did not desert her; he was arrested for stealing an engagement ring. She says he was stupid; Ty agrees. Lizzie says it is too late as she prefers dildos to give her orgasms. He picks her up and dumps her in the same car he took her in a decade ago when they fled Tennessee. He vows to make her climax while Lizzie feels excited and humiliated. He pulls off the road and tells her he will screw her here or they talk; she fears his return will lead to heartbreak again.

The lead couple is a likable pairing in this fun second chance at love romance. Elizabeth is the more fascinating character especially since her inability to orgasm adds interesting depth to her and the story line. Although sudden revelations seem unlikely and a minor quibble that Lizzie abruptly needs to rush home to confront her family so she drives from Colorado to Tennessee though she can afford to fly, this is an engaging contemporary romance in which the past haunts the present and future.

Harriet Klausner