Don't Tempt Me

Don't Tempt Me- Lori Foster
HQN Publisher
Release Date: July 26, 2016

Rating (out of 5):
📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis:Jason Guthrie has no time for entanglements—between helping out his widowed brother and teenage nephew and getting his hometown back on its feet, his days are spoken for. But his nights are another story… And when his lovely new neighbor, Honor Brown, reluctantly accepts his help in remodeling her house, Jason finds himself wishing his handyman skills could knock down the defenses she keeps building around herself. 

Martial arts teacher Sullivan Dean knows real danger when he sees it—even when it takes the form of the gorgeous blonde helping her friend move in across the street. After putting his wayward past behind him to focus on teaching control to troubled kids, Sullivan has learned to avoid party girls like Lexie Perkins. But Sullivan can't seem to keep his hands off the real woman behind that flirty charm—or keep his heart from landing at her feet…

I'm always excited when a new Lori Foster book comes out and Don't Tempt Me is another home run for Foster Fans to enjoy. This time we get not one but two developing romances.  The main story is Jason Guthrie and his new neighbor Honor Brown.  Honor has just bought the fixer-upper next-door and Jason is convinced that she's in over her head.  Honor is determined to stand on her own two feet and prove she can do everything herself.  

Honor's best friend Lexie isn't convinced Honor's making the right move with the house, but she can't argue with the view her friend has from the house!  Hot men anywhere you turn and none hotter than Honor's across the street neighbor, Sullivan.  He thinks he's got her pegged as a party girl with no depth, but she's determined to prove him wrong.

Like all of Foster's books, Don't Tempt Me is full of excellent characters that you hope to see get their own books in the future.  Even (currently) minor characters are full of depth and leap off the pages.  Honor is a tough character, determined to be independent and strong when she's being pulled in multiple directions by family and work.  She has a history that, once Jason (and the reader) find out about it, makes her actions much more understandable.  She's been hurt before and won't let it happen again.  Neither Jason nor Honor are really in the ideal place for starting a relationship, but Jason knows what they could have is special and he is determined to make things work.  He's a fun and strong man without ever becoming overbearing or too pushy, and it's easy to see how Honor can't help but fall for him!

I wish we could have gotten more on Sullivan and Lexie's relationship, but it never felt rushed or just thrown in for something else to happen in the story.  I loved the closeness between Lexie and Honor, and how Honor learns to redefine what family means. There are several great scenes where Lexie and Jason prove that family is always beside you, and the ones worth keeping are the ones who make the choice to stick around. Sometimes family is your blood, and sometimes it's by choice.  

A wonderful book that Foster Fans will love and will inspire those new to her work to be running to read everything else she's written! Can't wait for the next Guthrie brother to fall to Cupid's arrow!