LuAnn McLane – Hot Summer Night

Copyright: 2004

Pages: 302 (trade-size paperback edition)

Setting/Type: Contemporary/Straight Erotic Romance

Publisher: Signet

Author Website: www.LuAnnMcLane.com (ermm, the book pages leave a lot to be desired, a link to Amazon simply isn’t enough)

Grade: C

Stories of America’s other favorite pastime… (wink wink, nudge nudge, COUGH) <- this comment was added by yours truly, simply couldn’t resist.

It’s “Sex and the Small Town” in three fun and flirty stories… You’ll find both down-home dreams and big-time passion in Sander’s City. The town’s love affair with baseball sparks some scorching affairs off the field. And the men are fair game…

It’s “Sex and the Small Town” in three fun and flirty stories… You’ll find both down-home dreams and big-time passion in Sander’s City. The town’s love affair with baseball sparks some scorching affairs off the field. And the men are fair game…

In “Hot August Night,” Erin O’Shea is a high school principal with sports on her mind. The school’s lack of a baseball coach coincides with her lack of a man. Luckily, bad-boy former pro Michael Manning is ready and willing to fill both positions.

“Heat Wave” finds Josey Cooper, a recently divorced drama teacher, rounding the bases with Chase Mitchell, the sexy manager of the Sander’s City Flyers who is playing for keeps…

Skin-tight pants are hard to resist – especially when they’re on a starting pitcher. In “Hotshot,” sensible schoolteacher Halley Forrester finds herself loosening up with Reese Taylor, who’s an all-star in more ways than one…

I have finished a book, wouldn’t you believe it – YEAH – and it was for pleasure, not for money. Albeit, the money is fantastic, so I won’t bemoan it *g*. In the end, the pleasure part wasn’t that great, even though the book contained three stories about “America’s other favorite pasttime”. It took me two weeks to arrive at the last page, because – surprise, surprise – the stories were rather underwhelming, and after a chapter I felt my brain cells shrinking back into the farthest part of my thinking organ.

To be fair, I am a picky erotic romance reader, and these days, after years of reading in the genre, it takes more than an average good story. And good, the story is, in a way. We have three heroines that don’t suffer from TSTL (a big plus, IMO), three sexy men, a lot of America’s other favorite pasttime, and ….. plots so thin it made me nearly weep.

I think, I either need a very good plot combined with great characters and/or hot sex scenes (the big ideal), or, if one of those points isn’t perfect, at least one part that is outstanding and extraordinarily convincing. Like i.e. a hot story, with no plot and not overly developed characters, but mind-blowing sex scenes. I have come upon such books once in a while, but they are rare. In case of Hot Night pretty much everything is average, so when the h/h finally jump into bed with each other, it’s just another anticlimax instead of a conclusion to lots of sexual tension.

I would love for erotic romance writers to take more time developing their characters. To see them grow on each other and for me as a reader to consequently feel the buildup of passion and tension between the h/h.

Well, I’ll keep on wishing … that’s surely no sin. I have another book of this author on my TBR pile, perhaps this one will be more convincing.