HOT DATE – Amy Garvey
Kensington Brava
ISBN-13: 978-0-7582-1593-2
June 2008
Contemporary Romance

Wrightsville, Pennsylvania – Present Day

Grace Lamb is back in town! Oh no, nothing could be worse in Nick Griffin's eyes than finding that fact out. Well, truthfully, it was brought to light after the old, decrepit Volkswagen bus she was driving rammed into his police cruiser. Grace is the sister of his best friend, but keeping track of her would strain the patience of a saint, and he certainly is no saint. She is the only person he has ever met who truly acts first and thinks later...much later. Go to cooking school if you can't cook...that's Grace. Go into real estate if you dislike details and paperwork...that's Grace. She says she's returning to her home after deciding she didn't REALLY love her husband Robert, at least not enough to move to Chicago with him. Now she and her gorgeous legs are moving into his childhood friend Toby's place, an antique shop. Poor Toby; is he in for trouble with Grace here.

Well, here I am in Wrightsville, already looking at being in debt over a thousand dollars for repairing my friend Regina's VW bus. I don't know what to do with the rest of my life, but something will come to me. As I settle in to my friend Toby's antique shop, though, first thing I have to do is clean out a room of antiques that hasn't seen the light of day in years. I'll throw out the junk stuff (out the window, where else?), sort out the good stuff, paint the downstairs, and trim the trees and clean up the front yard and, well, you can see I have a lot to do. Maybe I'll start a gardening service...there are just so many possibilities ahead of me I just can't decide. And then a strange man comes to Toby's antique shop when he's gone, asking for a collection of antique sexual items that his boss, Big Sal, purchased from Toby's aunt before she died. Hmm, Toby doesn't know anything about them. I know, I'll look for them. If only Nick didn't think I'm always getting in trouble, just like I used to when I was a child. You'd think I was flaky or something!

Unfortunately, the first time Nick kisses Grace he knows he's in for trouble. All his life she's been the girl who would never think ahead, she just jumps into things without thinking of the consequences, and that attitude continues even today. But after sampling the delights and liveliness that are Grace, Nick knows he's lost his mind with the lust she generates in him. And then he worries about how to protect her when a man breaks into Toby's, and the neighbor girl, fifteen-year-old Quinn, confronts him. Then Grace finds the sexual items that the mob guy was looking for and tries to sell them to someone else. Nick is going crazy trying to keep her safe, deciding if he should accept another job in a larger city and keep his raging need for Grace under control.

Told from the first person voices of each character as they are introduced, the writing in HOT DATE is quick, crisp, and leads us from one emergency to another where Grace is involved. Ms. Garvey has created lively characters with real emotions that we can empathize with while laughing at their antics. Nick tries hard to do everything to help Grace, and she is struggling with what she can do for the rest of her life, and whether or not her impulsiveness is something she should embrace or try to control.

There are characters in the background who show their spirit and fill in the story perfectly. Nick's mother and Grace's father appear to be having a romance (at their age too!). Toby is their good friend who owns the antique shop and has problems of his own. Other characters are Nick's other brothers and sisters, and Grace's friend Casey from school who is an energetic boost of sane advice that she so desperately needs; and Quinn, the teenage girl next door who learns from Grace to try something even if it's wrong, and to believe in herself. And of course, Philly Barbosa, mobster Big Sal's go-to guy, always seems to be over his head when dealing with Grace.

HOT DATE is full of action and enough heat to keep you turning the pages to keep up with Grace's antics. You will enjoy HOT DATE this month.

Carolyn Crisher