In hopes of rehabilitating her wild child reputation, Cara Chatsfield promises her family that she'll play hostess for a big gambling event at their Las Vegas casino. There, a man literally runs in to her so hard that he breaks her heels, says it was her own fault, and then when she tries to protest, offers her $50 and calls her a hooker. Her love interest, ladies and gentlemen! In the time honored tradition of terrible romance novels, he continues to find the most absurdly unlikely explanations for her behavior in order to think the worst of her in every situation. Every time she smiles, she's a conniving whore. Every time she protests, she's a ball-breaker. Every time she cries, she's trying to manipulate him. It's deeply annoying retrograde idiocy. Anyway, stupid contrivances get them to a vacation in Fiji together and they fall in love over the course of about two days. The end!

So dumb. Just, so dumb. Aiden's POV is a deeply troubling one, as he's such a misogynist that he sounds like he's about three seconds away from murdering women a la Jack the Ripper any minute, and Cara is implausibly naive and unable to care for herself. Either of them would be terrible in any relationship, let alone a relationship with each other. ( )

Model/Socialite Cara Chatsfield gets sent to Vegas to host an important poker tournament at one of her father’s hotels. On the way there she accidentally bumps into handsome hero Aiden Kelly in the airport—seems like he’s on the way to the poker tournament too for private reasons of his own.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the settings, first the Vegas hotel, and later beautiful Fiji! And I liked how the sexual tension built up throughout the book as they got to know each other before they slept together. The heroine was cute and vulnerable and the love scenes were sexy.

This was my first Michelle Conder book and I look forward to reading many more of her books! ( )