Friday, April 3, 2009

Treat Her Right by Lori Foster ***

This is the 2nd in Foster's Men To The Rescue series (which is a split off from her PI series...) - I have the first one on audio, Caught In The Act. The series is about 3 friends - gorgeous, hunky guys, #1 an undercover cop Mick, #2 an EMT Zack, and #3 a firefighter, Mr. November, Josh. They meet once a week for lunch, which is where Mick first sees his heroine, Del, in the first book.

Zack is a widower with a 4-year-old daughter. His wife died in a car crash on the way to the hospital to give birth to Dani, and he's been a fiercely protective dad ever since. Between his long hours as an EMT, and his kid, he hasn't had time to date. But he's decided Dani needs a mother - a female role model, since mostly all she has been around is her elderly babysitter and his 2 buddies. He has in mind someone small and delicate and girly, sort of like her mother (whom he didn't particularly love, but married her because he got her pregnant).

His new neighbor Wynn doesn't fit this description in any way. She's almost 6 feet tall, big and loud - she's been raised around big men and her brother and his friends have always treated her as one of the guys. Of course, she's described as big but more in a model-body way, the way an athletic, 5'11" woman would be. Dani takes an immediate like to her - and Zack also finds himself attracted to her sexually. But in no way does he want her for the female role model he envisions his next wife and Dani's new stepmother to be!

OK - it's a short story - he decides to "get her out of his system" as it were, so he can go forward with his plans to marry someone else... But it's a romance, and in the end, with some hurt feelings and some lust, they get together.

It was an ok story - nothing special. I felt like he was overly mean and surly to poor Wynn, who was drawn as a loud but well-meaning character. 3 stars - Serial Reader's Challenge - A To Z Challenge.

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