ABOUT THAT NIGHT - Julie James
A Perfect 10
FBI / US Attorney Series , Book 3
Berkley Sensation
ISBN: 978-0-425-24695-5
April 2012
Contemporary Romance

Chicago, Illinois - Present Day

On the last day of her first year in law school, Rylann Pierce goes to a local bar with friends and meets Kyle Rhodes.  They joke with each other a bit and enjoy the verbal sparring, and at the end of the night he walks her home and asks her out for the next night.  The sudden death of his mother keeps that date from ever happening.

After serving four months of an eighteen month sentence, Kyle Rhodes, the infamous Twitter Terrorist, is about to be a free man.  When his super-model girlfriend broke up with him via a public twitter post, Kyle—a bit inebriated at the time—decided to take down the post, and (with the help of some Scotch) shut down the site for forty-eight hours.  Once he sobered up, Kyle pled guilty to cyber crime charges, but the federal prosecutors decided to make an example of him, and he was given the maximum sentence.  Thanks to his sister helping the FBI with an investigation, Kyle's sentence is about to be reduced, and he's ready to move on with his life. 

Rylann Pierce has just moved back to Chicago and into a position as an Assistant US Attorney, and her first motion is the sentence reduction of Kyle Rhodes.  It's been nine years since their aborted first date, and she's never quite forgotten the funny, cute guy who walked her home.  She enjoys his surprise at seeing her in court, but figures she'll never see him again.  But then it turns out that Kyle may be a witness to something that happened before he was released from prison, and Rylann needs to convince him to help.  He's still as charming as he was nine years ago, but what can there possibly be between a federal prosecutor and an ex-con?

In the delightful follow-up to A LOT LIKE LOVE, ABOUT THAT NIGHT, readers get a chance to really get to know Kyle Rhodes.  The previous novel follows Jordan Rhodes helping the FBI in exchange for getting Kyle released from prison—and falling for the FBI agent in charge.  Now we truly meet Kyle and see what was going on with him when he decided to shut down Twitter for two days, and then follow the aftermath of his impulsive (and semi-drunk) actions.  The relationship that blew up in his face was actually the first time he'd tried to get serious about a woman, and considering how that ended, Kyle's quite ready to spend the rest of his days as a confirmed bachelor.  Of course, fate would throw Rylann back into his life right then.  His mother's sudden death and the upheaval this threw his father and his company into, meant that Kyle never saw Rylann after that night, but he's never really forgotten the woman who was so unimpressed with the handsome billionaire's son.  She's as sarcastic as ever, and he still enjoys matching wits with her, but there are obvious obstacles in their way.  Rylann herself just ended a relationship, not quite as dramatically, but she's not looking to get involved with anyone, either.  That the one man who interests her is both an ex-con and the witness in one of her cases complicates things immensely. 

Jordan and Nick make a few appearances, as do Cameron Lynde and Jack Pallas (from SOMETHING ABOUT YOU), treating fans to a glimpse of what's going on in their lives now.  Yet, ABOUT THAT NIGHT focuses on Kyle and Rylann and their relationship, so if you haven't read the first two books, you won't be lost.  Thanks to the likable characters and the captivating romance that will make you want to read the story all over again, I'm awarding ABOUT THAT NIGHT a Perfect 10.

Jennifer Bishop