Review – Twice Tempted (Holland Springs #1) by Marquita Valentine

Description:
Born into wealth and power, Christian Romanov is Hollywood’s favorite bad boy with a golden touch…until the day his agent receives pictures of the movie star celebrating his birthday in a not-so-legal way. Now he’s been ordered to find a small-town girl to be seen with in order to improve his partying image. He agrees, but for an entirely different reason-to protect the reputation of an organization that helps get teens off the street and back into the school. Not only is he the anonymous donor that’s been solely supporting the organization since its inception, he’s slated to be their newest spokesman.

Zoe Ambrose is a hopeless romantic masquerading as a realist. But she’s also a successful novelist, trying to fit herself into a staid life when what she craves is the adventure she found one night in the arms of a playboy who never knew her name. When her successful crime series is optioned by a major studio, she travels to Las Vegas to find that the prince of her fantasies and single night of pleasure is the main contender for the male lead. But for four years Zoe has been publicly eviscerating the man who left her stranded that night—he’s the villain in her series! Now the movie star doesn’t recognize her, and Zoe is determined to protect her heart this time.

When Christian braves the small town of Holland Springs and Zoe’s overprotective family to win the girl of his dreams, he finds that his Hollywood skills might not cut it—and learns a shocking truth he never imagined. Can he can tempt her again and finally give her the epic love story she has refused to write for herself?

Twice Tempted is the first book in the Holland Springs Series and after this one I can’t wait to read the rest!

It tells the story of Hollywood bad boy Ian Romanov (call me Christian if you’re a friend) and Romance Writer Zoe Ambrose. For the record, she does call him Christian.

Christian has been a very bad boy – doing things that lots of 20-something actors do. The only problem is he’s about to become the spokesperson for an organization that tells young people to stay away from the pitfalls that Christian has fallen into himself in the past. To help his reputation, he needs to find himself a small-town good girl.

Enter Zoe Ambrose. In Las Vegas for a book signing – she literally runs into Christian (she’s a klutz) and he knows upon sight that she is the small-town girl for the job. The only issue? They’ve met before and he broke her heart…only he doesn’t remember.

Thrown together by their agent – because she likes for her clients to seem like family – and because Zoe has cast Christian as the Villian of her book, which is about to become a movie. They spend time together. She finds out there’s a lot more to Christian than she ever thought possible. He does a million good deads in his life with the only stipulation being that the public never finds out about it. He also has a family that is less than ideal. His father has told him that he’s the unloved brother, he and his twin don’t get along, and things with his cousin Alexander (Sasha) go from good to bad with the blink of an eye. He needs her goodness in his life.

He finds out there there is a secret between the two of them. They’ve met before, only he doesn’t remember it. Immediately he’s sorry for his booze soaked past and continually asks her where they met and what happened. When that secret finally comes out, it’s the worst possible scenario and breaks them apart.

Add into the mix, her crazy Southern family, his European one, and a gazillion pop references and you’ve got one heck of a story!

This is a second chance romance of the best kind. The chemistry between the two of them is smokin’ and I love the fact that she’s made him the Villian in her novel – because she fights her feelings for him so hard.

Favorite line…

“That’s your advice: get laid? This conversation is quickly going the way of cliched romance novel opening.”

Read this book! You won’t regret it!