Flirting With Disaster by Ruthie Knox (Camelot #3)
June 10, 2013
Contemporary Romance
Loveswept

Reviewed by Mandi

Favorite Quote: He picked her up. Picked her up and carried her, as if she were Scarlett O’Hara and he were Rhett Butler, if Rhett had been the kind of guy to go down on Scarlett in a doorway. Which, let’s be honest, he probably was.

When I heard the hero in this book had a stutter, I got excited. What is it about a stuttering hero that makes me so giddy? I’m not sure but Ruthie Knox gives us an adorable hero in this book. He is a super smart guy who owns his own start-up internet security firm but comes back to his hometown of Camelot, Ohio after his mother dies. Sean grew up with a mother who he hated. She didn’t abuse Sean but he didn’t have it easy. He had an extremely bad stutter growing up, and didn’t get the therapy he needed for it. It wasn’t until a young adult that he found his way to a speech therapist who totally changed his life. Instead of always being silent, he found his voice and his confidence. After moving to California to start his company, the stutter became a thing of the past. While in California he forgot all about Camelot, including his mother. But then she dies, and he comes home for her funeral and to her house that was basically a shrine to him. Memories come crashing back, along with guilt and his stutter. While sorting out his affairs and on leave from California, he takes a job with his friend Caleb at his local security firm, which is how he meets Caleb’s sister Katie – the girl he was once in love with.

Katie and Sean went to high school together. Sean had a huge crush on her, but due to his stutter, could never approach her. Now as an adult, every time he is around her, his stutter comes raging back. It frustrates him to no end – so instead of talking to her, he broodingly stares at her, and now Katie thinks he hates her. Katie wants more responsibility in the company, so her brother sends Katie and Sean out of town to meet with a rock star who has been receiving threatening letters hoping the two of them can get to the bottom of the mystery. This also means, Sean is going to have to talk to Katie, something he is not sure he can do.

Oh the adorableness of this book. Sean is so damn sexy. He is a big, sexy, smart guy, who has such a vulnerable side. I think Katie describes him as the the “World’s Manliest Geek.”  Is there anything better? His frustration at not being about to speak around Katie is portrayed so well. And her frustration at him just staring at her confuses the hell out of her. She truly thinks he hates her. This slow sexual tension starts to build between them, even before Sean can mutter a word.

“What?” she asked him. “What did I do?”

She didn’t mean regarding the case. She wasn’t entirely sure what she meant, except maybe that she couldn’t have ignited that look in his eyes with one hand on his knee. It was impossible. As though she’d wandered into opposite land.

He loomed over her. He was a looming sort of man, taller than her, bigger in every dimension. She could smell him, warm skin and dark beer, and when she breathed in that smell it went places in her body she’d never invited it.

Secret, smoky, yearning places.

Sean leaned closer, until his mouth was close to her ear and his own palm was braced on the bed right beside her hip, so his forearm pressed against her side almost all the way to her waist.

So much contact, when before today there’d been a black hole between them.

“Nothing,” he whispered.

The way he said the word – as if it were in a foreign language, or he were reading it off a card. Delivering it to her. She shuddered.

I also really adored the fact that Katie falls for Sean and comes right out with it. And while he denies her at first, and she is humiliated, she acts mature about it. Of course, they can’t stay away from each other for long, and I love their relationship. It’s sweet and endearing…and just a little dirty.

Also playing a big part in this book is Jonah, the rock star (or once a rock start hoping for a comeback) who has a lot of issues of his own. Sometimes during his scenes I was antsy to get back to Sean and Katie. We learn a lot about Judah and I didn’t dislike him, but I didn’t need all the stuff about him. His part in this story was just okay for me and sometimes felt drawn out. Thankfully, Sean and Katie steal the show.

Rating: B

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