Amorous Liaisons

I won't repeat the synopsis because it has been so well outlined already, what I will do is say what I most liked about this book. Max and Maddy's story was really touching and surprisingly deep for a category harlequin romance. I loved the characters of both Maddy and Max, they were really well developed, and I really enjoyed the devolpment of the relationship between them. The chemestry between them was sizzling, but done very tastefully. The book left me with a really nice warm, fuzzy, optimistic feeling ( just what you want from a romance right?) I've read Anything For You also by Sarah Mayberry and this book is just as good. I really like the two books I have read of this author and I would love to try another one of her books.

[Audiobook: "Amorous Liaisons" (HQ Blaze#425) by Sara Mayberry; Gabra Zachman/Reader Talent = 4*] To my pleasant surprise, I ended up enjoying this HQ Blaze more than (most?!). I remember passing it by quite a few times when picking up the next in the audio series [*Hmm?!: french hero - "eh"; former male dancer turned artsy hero - "eh"; maybe too beta?! - "double-eh";)*]. Of course, because it's "Murphy's Law," it's the one I should have listened to a long time ago. This story reads like a 1950 romantic film in "feel," if you left out the obvious difference of the sexually explicit content. Maddy Green has just been given the final axe to her dancing career when she is not unexpectedly let go from her dance company after sustaining a permanent injury. Dance is all she's ever known and without her dance identity she's feeling vulnerable and suddenly directionless in her life. After a mental review of "What's out there now?!" Maddy immediately can't resist seeking out her long time friend, Max Laurent, the man whose always been there for her throughout her ups and downs. Max, a former dancer himself who'd had his career cut short due to injury, is shocked to find Maddy suddenly resituated in his life once again. He's not certain how to take her reappearance, as, although he's always been her friend, he's always been in love with her and enduring her "surprise" re-emergence in his life could be more than he can take. He's just now feeling after years that he's managed to tuck his emotions for Maddy deeply away in a "box"; and energetically inspired enough to pursue his career post-dance as a bronze sculpture artist. Now *wham*, here's Maddy again, rocking his world, and of course he can't turn her away without playing "knight in shining armor." Maddy and Max have had such a close relationship in the past, she thinks nothing of crashing in his bed again as a purely platonic bedmate. It's all Max can take to tamp down his libido when he wakes with Maddy curled up to him. Maddy is fast and furiously re-tangling herself into his every day life while she works to mentally deal with where to go now with who she is and what to do minus the dance world. When Max has his "live artist" cancel on him in the middle of his creative push to produce enough of his art for an expected "showing," Maddy volunteers to stand in. Well, needless to say, after Maddy prevails in her insistence despite Max's stringent objections, hours of focus on the woman he's secretly loved's nude form . . . causes him to retreat at day's end for a cold shower. When even that fails to alleviate the obvious (and painful) problem, we are treated to the author's well-written (one of the best I've read!) scene of Max's imaginative "handling" of the situation. All I can say here is *yum*! :) When unbeknownst to Max, Maddy also accidentally gets an eye-popping view of Max's "cure" for his not to be ignored problem, she can't get the sexy image of her longtime "friend" out of her head, which