Captivated (2014) (short story collection) (Harlequin)Featuring 'Letting Go' and 'Seize the Night'
Megan Hart & Tiffany Reisz
Grade: B- (average)
Genre: erotica / contemporary romance
Sex scenes: hot
Source: NetGalley
Romance RBC 2014: A book with a 'marriage of convenience'
In Letting Go, Colleen visits The Fallen Angel bar every Thursday
night, ordering a whiskey but leaving it untouched. Bartender Jesse is
enchanted with the beautiful but troubled Colleen and determined to make
something of their connection. Colleen is wary: her ex-husband always accused
her of being frigid and cold and she hasn’t yet got over their divorce. It
isn’t until a snow storm forces them to spend time in each other’s company that
Colleen rethinks her perspective on a new relationship and is confronted with
her newfound desire for kinkiness in the bedroom …
In Seize the Night, Remi Montgomery knows that something is shifty is
up with two of the biggest Thoroughbred racing farms in Kentucky, Arden farms
and Capital Hills. She would do something to confront the problem, but Arden farm
belongs to her parents, and Capital Hills, belonging to the Brites family, is their
greatest enemy. To top it off, she and Julien, the Brites’ only son were the
source of the original rivalry. Five years ago, a night of unbridled passion turned
the two families against each other and it’s now up to Remi and Julien to get
to the bottom of it …
I loved Seize the Night; I wasn’t so hot about Letting Go. STN did
appear second in this collection, but it’s Tiffany Reisz: of course I read it
first. I would have given Letting Go something
in the region of a C- and Seize the Night
an A, hence the average rating of B-. I’m not a huge fan of Megan Hart (of
the little interaction I’ve had with her work) but any regular reader of this
blog knows that I worship Tiffany Reisz, and this was no exception.
I’ve read excerpts of Megan Hart’s
work, but I don’t think I’ve ever read a full-length novel – at least, from
what I can remember. I wasn’t too impressed, but this was just a short story. Apart
from Tiffany Reisz, I have yet to meet a writer who can impress me just as much
with a novella or short story, as they can with the full-length novel. I think
my problem was that I just didn’t like Colleen. I wasn’t Jesse’s biggest fan
either, but there was something about Colleen that really got under my skin. Another
limb of my problem was probably comparing the two stories and expecting a
ridiculously high standard because that’s what my bar is for Reisz, and that
doesn’t get me anywhere. Retrospectively, Letting
Go was a sweet story, but not for me.
Seize the Night is the second of Ms Reisz’s short stories based on
a play by Shakespeare, with this inspiration being Romeo and Juliet. I’ve never
read Romeo and Juliet, but I did watch the 2013 adaptation starring Douglas
Booth and Hailee Steinfeld in the title roles. It had Douglas Booth in it –
there was no question that I would love it. Anyway, it fleshed out the skeleton
of the story that I had in my head and reading Seize the Night (almost) straight on the heels of the film helped
to cement the story. As with Misbehaving,
Ms Reisz has done a fantastic job in turning a Shakespearean classic on its
head, while still remaining true to the story. As always, it’s inappropriately
hilarious, full of innuendo and guaranteed to put a smile on your face. This was
definitely the star of this duet and worth saving for last, if I had the chance
to read this collection again.
Image courtesy of FF Adults Only
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