Synopsis:
Julia Boyd has dated more than her share of jerks, and she’s done even pretending to like them. Putting her dating life on hold and focusing on her event planning career is a much safer bet for the blue-eyed blonde…until she meets her newest client.
Organizing the opening for an art gallery should be a breeze for Julia, but gallery owner Alex Holt is becoming very distracting. Tall and muscular with enough charisma and sexy dimples to make Julia swoon, Alex could be the perfect man. The two of them click immediately, creating enough witty banter to ignite sparks.
But just before flames of passion can erupt with Alex, Julia begins planning an engagement party…and learns the groom is Aiden, the man who broke her heart years ago. When Aiden admits that he still has feelings for Julia, everything changes. Should she seek shelter in the familiarity of the past, or should she risk everything on a brand-new love?
Ellen’s Review:
If you are looking for an easy, very funny, no-holds-barred read, Playing It Safe is for you. Julia has a dirty mouth, speaks her mind and is just an all-around likable, relatable heroine. She suffers through bad dates (haven’t we all?) and is just very down-to-earth and REAL. Barbie Bohrman seems to be a very funny lady and her humor is contagious! And I loved Alex, he is super-hot (hello! Backwards baseball cap!) And this book is totally hot, too – the steam factor was an unexpected surprise for me and I absolutely loved these two together!
There are lots of very likable characters in this book and the Epilogue was fabulous. If you are looking for a fairly angst-free book, with some sweet romance and completely hot sex scenes, then Playing It Safe is for you.
(*ARC provided by the author in return for an honest review.)
Excerpt:
What was I thinking?
Me calling Alex for not really a date, when in fact it’s a real date? I must have had a momentary lapse of reason. That or someone slipped a Mickey in my coffee when I wasn’t looking that all of a sudden gave me a pair of really big balls.
I’m a fairly upfront, outgoing, and honest person. I tend to say whatever comes to mind. Sometimes that gets me in a little bit of trouble, but for the most part, it’s a good thing. Or at least that’s what I tell myself. Anyway, in all my years of being on the dating scene, I’ve never once asked anyone out on a date. I know it’s kind of a surprise to hear, but it’s true.
I’ve always been the one to be asked out on a date, not the other way around. I think because I’ve been programmed to believe that a woman should wait for a man to come to her. And that’s a great way of looking at it. Nothing wrong whatsoever with it. It’s laced with good intentions from both parties of the old-school romantic variety.
And maybe that’s one of my problems, along with the other issues that have been dusted up recently. I’m sitting here waiting around for some miracle of a man to step out of the shadows and sweep me off my Jimmy Choos instead of the other way around. Why can’t I be the pursuer for a change?
Oh, gee, that’s right. I almost forgot. It’s because it makes me feel like an idiot with a side of nervous wreck.
About the Author
Barbie Bohrman was born and raised in Miami, FL and ultimately moved to the Garden State where she currently resides with her husband and two children. Life, and all that comes along with it and having long since given up on her dream of pursuing anything in the writing world, a prologue contest in a book club garnered her interest enough to throw her hat in the ring to see what, if anything, would come from it. From that contest came the roots of her debut novel, Promise Me. When she is not writing you can find her trying to get through the 1000+ books on her Kindle, or watching Lost or Seinfeld.
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