The 12 Dares of Christmas by Leigh W. Stuart
Released: November 22, 2016
Contemporary Romance
City Owl Press
Reviewed by Mandi
Lauren is passionate about raising money to build a new, no-kill shelter in her home town of Sycamore Cove. To thank the ladies of the local knitting group for their generous donation, she has planned a dinner, and a surprise male dancer to jump out of a cake for dessert. Apparently these ladies really wanted something spicy for their “thank you” from Lauren. But when the male dancer doesn’t show, Lauren calls her brother, Cooper, and begs him to come in as a replacement. To Lauren’s surprise (and happiness that she doesn’t have to see her brother in his underwear) a dancer shows up at the last minute. Except he isn’t a dancer.
Gabe is Cooper’s best friend from college. Lauren had seen pictures of him on Facebook, but never met him in person – so when he shows up, she doesn’t recognize him. Her brother sent Gabe to help out, not telling him what he was really going to do – so when Lauren drags him in a closet and starts rubbing eggnog body oil on him – he thinks this is his lucky day! When he learns that he has to get in a cake and dance around for a room full of ladies – his excitement isn’t as great. But he sees what this means to Lauren and is a good sport.
Have I mentioned that Gabe is a ginger? I don’t think we get enough Ging heroes! Cheers for the gingers!
A mouthwatering ginger with a trim beard and captivating, green eyes stepped toward her. Broad shoulders filled his wool coat, jeans hugged his narrow waist, and melting snow twinkled in his hair, lashes, and beard.
Back to the story – Gabe happens to be staying at Cooper’s house – and as Lauren doesn’t want to be alone for the holidays, she ends up at Cooper’s house – and they both accidentally end up in the same guest room, in the same bed – and this is how their relationship starts. They have hot chemistry. The only problem is that Cooper is extremely overprotective of his baby sister and would never let Gabe get close to her , so they have to be secretive. Gabe continues to help Lauren raise money for the shelter and Lauren continues to have doubts and worries about her attraction to Gabe.
This book starts out super cute with Gabe filling in for the dancer. It made me giggle. Overall, the chemistry is great between these two. Referring to the title, their friendship/relationship starts with a dare, getting Gabe to dance – and they continue with the dares throughout the book. There are some very sexy dares that turned quite steamy. I give a thumbs up
I liked their relationship but there are times that Lauren’s defensiveness wore me out. There is also another girl in town that has the hots for Gabe and it was hard for Lauren to trust that Gabe wasn’t into her. It dragged on for a while and I got tired of it. I didn’t think I would like Cooper’s extreme protectiveness but it actually worked for me. He is more of a big doofus so his caveman attitude fit.
It’s a fun sexy read – I’ll try this author again.
Grade: B-
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