First off, Pure Chance is self-consciously "steamy". For example, the heroine has an "erotic garden" that exists for no other reason than to have her pose on various parts of a marble fountain while they have sex. It was quite obviously supposed to be really daring. But cold, wet, marble? Not sexy. And also dangerous. Bah. Besides which, it has nothing to do with the story, nor does it fit with the character.

I'd overlook that--way too many romances are self-conscious about the sex scenes--if the rest of the book were better.

The heroine, the hero, and the man who's pressuring her to marry him used to be best buddies in school, then after a drunken and rejected pass at graduation, the hero and heroine, both believing the other hated them, separated.

Now, years later, the hero's back in town, "retired" from his military "regiment" (and would it hurt authors to do a teeny tiny bit of research??) and opening a bodyguard business, and the other friend has started pressuring her to marry him.

So the heroine gets the bright idea to hire him for a bogus threat that becomes real.

Complicating matters, she's vowed never to marry, and he thinks he wants to marry a woman who'll keep him grounded (both the hero and heroine are risk-takers).

It's a great premise, but then it doesn't follow through.

First, the heroine for no good reason says she needs to hire him for "a friend." (Yes, I know this is standard when asking advice, but she wasn't asking advice, she was hiring a bodyguard.)

Then their reactions flip-flop. Rather than stick to the original premise of "I want you, but you're not what I need and I'm not what you need," they're all over the place. Sometimes, it appears that they think she's the one who wants the white picket fence and 2.7 kids, and he's the one eschewing marriage.

Again, this could work if it were explored or explained. But instead, it just looks like a mess. And the motivation for the friend's proposal doesn't make much sense, either.

Honestly, this could have been an excellent book with a bit more editing, which is why I wrote so much about it--it's more frustrating to read a book that could have been great but wasn't than one that's just ordinary. ( )