Driven to Distraction

Driven to Distraction- Lori Foster
HQN Books
Release Date: November 20, 2018

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Mary Daniels doesn’t let anything get in the way of her job acquiring rare artifacts for her wealthy boss. But this particular obstacle—huge, hard-muscled, unashamedly masculine—is impossible to ignore. Stuck in a cramped car with Brodie Crews for hours en route to their new assignment, Mary feels her carefully crafted persona—and her trademark self-control—is slipping, and she won’t allow it.

Brodie can’t imagine what secret in Mary’s past has left her so buttoned-up, though he’d dearly love to find out. Maybe then she’d trust him enough to explore their explosive chemistry. But he needs this job, so he’ll play by her rules and bide his time…until an enemy determined to outwit them strikes and he needs to get close—in every way—to protect her. Otherwise they could lose much more than a precious collectible. They could lose it all.

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Cool, controlled, and ultra-professional Mary Daniels is horrified by the man her boss wants to hire as a driver.  Brodie Crews is unprofessional, crude, and ultra-aggravating.  Worse, Mary finds that she's physically attracted to him.  The more they get to know each other the more the attraction becomes mutual- and more than just physical.  But when they are threatened because of what they are transporting, the distractions become about more than attraction.  They become about staying alive.

A new series by Lori Foster (Fast Burn) introduces readers to the Crews brothers, Jack and Brodie.  They are growing a small courier business and taking on a client like Mary's boss Therman is a great way to build up business.  Brodie can be all business or all play, loves working on cars, pushing Mary's buttons, and catering unashamedly to his adopted dog Howler.  He is as sweet, hot, and alpha as long time readers expect a Lori Foster hero to be. Mary is what we expect from a Lori Foster heroine: smart, stubborn, and driven.  Her past has made her want to blend into the background and remain separated from everyone by a professional exterior, but eventually Brodie works on getting some of her walls down and showing her it is possible to be both a professional and a woman who is loved.  He introduces her to the concept of a loving family and pushes her to accept the people reaching out to her.  It was sweet to watch Mary struggle to adjust to this new way of looking at the people in her life, and heartbreaking to think of why it was such a struggle for her.  

Distraction's secondary characters were fun and quirky, and I look forward to getting to see more of them in the next book.  I have to admit that I found the threat and the idea behind it a little thin, and kept waiting for something more to happen- but since the point of the book was really more about Brodie and Mary's developing relationship it still worked.  

While not Foster's strongest book, Driven to Distraction is full of fun characters, a sweet dog, humor, and emotion.  A good read for long time Lori Foster fans and those just discovering her.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review