Manhandling

Manhandling by Karen Anders Harlequin Blaze # 154 - October 2004 While waiting to see her father, Laurel whiles her time filling out a magazine quiz on "Who's your Hottie?". Ready to start living life on the wilder side, she answers the questions more provocatively than she normally would. Laurel's made a promise to herself never to date anyone from Wall Street or anyone who works for her father much to Theodore Macallister Tolliver III's dismay. "Mac" has never met Laurel, but from just those few moments he seen her walking toward the elevator, was enough to make him want to know her very well. He picks up the discarded quiz, and finds her answers challenging. Seems Laurel has a bad-boy-biker fantasy. With quiz in hand as his blueprint, all Mac has to do is be that bad-boy. Ms. Anders always writes such great characters. I really liked both Laurel and Mac. Mac's not really the bad boy and is almost found out, esp. when his henna tattoos start to wash off while they're in the shower! There's more to this story than heat and great chemistry. The growing emotional bond is done very nicely. There were moments though, where I though Mac's coverup of his true identity was carried a bit too far. All in all though, another very enjoyable read by Ms. Anders.

In this book, Laurel Malone is getting together a memorial for her mother, but her father is acting distant and careless. So to take her mind off this a bit, she takes a sexy quiz out of a magazine that her brother's wife runs. Their relationship is good and I wish they were mentioned more. The quiz helps women determine who their ultimate hottie is. Her points added up to the Bad Boy, which is just what she needs, when you consider how repressed she is, how she always must answer to her father, how restricting and professional her job is, how she may be lonely, how she has the creativity to build seemless furniture frames and hypnotic designs, but must keep that and other stress-relieving things all to herself if she wants any peace of mind. She's had baseless, boring experiences dating the men her father approves, dating men hired by him, dating stockbrokers who care about nothing but money, appropriateness and a lack of livliness. Her father hires this new guy who looks upon Laurel and really wants to get to know her. Bad. The secretary there is very sweet to him and is Laurel's close friend. She tells him how Laurel wouldn't date him because he works under her father and therefore must be just like him - harsh and self-absorbed. He notices a sheet of paper tumble down from her purse and picks it up. It's the hottie quiz. The questions and her answers and the total points not only show him that a Bad Boy is just what the lady needs, but a little bit on how to be a Bad Boy. His half-brother is amazing, a real Bad Boy, a biker, but is sweet, and he helps the hero out alot. So, the couple meet, the heat is beyond powerful, and the things that come up show how many fine places there are in New York we have got to see. The hero dresses like a bad boy, joyfully volunteers at his brother's motorbike shop, fixing things with his hands, though he is also a city guy. This wasn't difficult for me to believe because I myself am filled with variety. The man really knows how to live. He's not single-track in life. The couple changes eachother, teaching and learning, strengthening here and there. The sex scenes were real nice, a little too forward perhaps for me in one area, and downright sweet and easy to imagine in the shower area. The tensions throughout weren't way too strong, which is good if you get stressed easily. Bikermen-lovers, beware, this book does not fully touch upon a Bad Boy because it's not about an original full-blown Bad Boy. But it is still so good... the hero falls achingly hard for his lady, and it pained me at first to read of his chest constricting and all from emotion, then it got annoying because I swear I've never seen a man give a damn so deep, even after being moved and charmed into pouring his heart out to his woman. It was interesting the times he'd stumble and nearly give away his true identity. As I read this, I prayed no one would make a controversial issue out of the false pretense he'd lead on, because this false pretense

Financial analyst Laurel Malone has a strict rile that she will never date anyone from her father's Wall St. brokerage. Laurel fills out a magazine's questionnaire on the type of male she desires, but upon completing the test she leaves the magazine behind. Stockbroker Ted Tolliver III, who desires Laurel, picks it up to learn the type of male that she wants. Tired of being the good daughter, Laurel wants a fling with a bad dude, but with her doing the manhandling. Mac changes his attire from suit to biker because he plans to make it with Laurel. He also acts like he owns the world with no cares. However, as they fall in love, he wonders how to tell her that he is really a stockbroker working for her father. Kind of reminiscent of Steve Gutenberg's role in The Boyfriend School (without his health problems), this is a fun lighthearted hot blooded masquerade tale. The lead duet is an interesting match-up because Mac wonders if Laurel fell in love with someone who is not real or did she see deep past the biker shell to his soul. Though the disguising of Mac seems to take too long to unravel, contemporary fans will want to read Laurel's heated MANHANDLING of her beloved biker and her broker. Harriet Klausner