Hot Stuff (Hot Zone series #1) by Carly Phillips

Book: Hot Stuff (Hot Zone series #1)

Author: Carly Phillips

Bookshelves: 2011, fiction, football, New York, romance, sports

Begun: August 9, 2011

Finished: August 11, 2011

Media Type: paperback (library copy)

Setting: New York City and upstate New York

Characters: Brandon Vaughn, Annabelle Jordan, Yank Morgan, Lola, Sophia Jordan, Micky Jordan

Review: When Annabelle, Sophia and Michelle Jordan were just little girls (12, 10, and 8 years old respectively), their parents were killed in an accident. Their care was given over to their bachelor uncle, Yank Morgan, who kept them together as a family and raised them as a bachelor would.

Years later, all three girls have gone to college and come back to Uncle Yank determined to help him with his business, a sports agency known as The Hot Zone. Annabelle Jordan, the oldest of the Jordan girls, is especially good at her job, as a publicist at the Hot Zone. When one of Yank’s former clients returns for help, everyone is a little skeptical.

Brandon Vaughn had it all: Fame, fortune, and the love of a good woman. Until a sports injury sidelined his football career and he learned that while in the hospital, his wife had screwed him over. She had begun talks with Spencer Atkins to lure Vaughn away from the Hot Zone and the only father figure who had ever helped him out, Yank.

Long divorced from his wife, Vaughn is back at the Hot Zone because he needs Yank’s help. He is building a lodge type resort for winter “campers” and, during the summer, it will be used for building up the confidences of children with learning disabilities. But problems have been cropping up, orders are being canceled or delayed, electric wires cut the day before the inspectors are due in, and everything is falling apart. Vaughn really needs Yank’s help.

Yank’s solution? Annabelle. The PR genius will work her magic at Vaughn’s lodge. But what Annabelle never thought she’d do again … she does. Slowly, Annabelle relaxes around the ex-sports star and lets her guards down. Vaughn no longer sees her as just a vapid blonde bombshell who dates her uncle’s players. No far from it. As Annabelle opens up to Vaughn, he learns of her loses and past while she learns just how much the lodge means to him, and how much it will help him with his own troubled past.

But when the sabotage at the lodge begins to turn quasi-deadly, will any of them be safe?

Great little read. Fun time trying to figure out who the saboteur is (not someone you would guess at first glance). I did read this series out of order and all I have left to read is the last book, Hot Property.

Awards: none

Recommended by: none

Recommend to: contemporary romance fans

Hot Item (Hot Zone series #3) by Carly Phillips

Book: Hot Item (Hot Zone series #3)

Author: Carly Phillips

Bookshelves: 2011, contemporary, Florida, fiction, football, Mississippi, New York, romance,

Begun: August 1, 2011

Finished: August 5, 2011

Media Type: paperback (personal copy - later donated to the Grafton Public Library)

Setting: present day New York City, Florida, and Mississippi

Characters: Sophia “Sophie” Jordan, Riley Nash, Yank Morgan, Spencer Atkins, Harlon Nash, Anne Nash, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Nash, Annabelle Jordan, Michelle “Micki” Jordan

Review: Sophie Jordan, middle sister of the Jordan three. She’s always been the tight laced, upright, go-to sister. You wouldn’t want anyone else at your back in a fire fight. She’s got the brains, the talent and the heart to run the PR divisions of the newly merged Hot Zone and Athletes Inc.

Until, the unthinkable happens. Someone spills the secrets of one of the new co-owners. Spencer Atkins, a long time bachelor and close friend of Yank Morgan’s is out-ed. Afraid that, in an ultra masculine world of sports agencies, his clients will leave him for a straight sports agent, Spencer goes into hiding … just as the first draft of the football season begins.

It’s up to Sophie to find her uncle’s best friend and co-owner before it is too late and the damage behind the out-ing can’t be undone. Sophie’s only lead is two outrageous and nutty sisters who live in Florida. Just as she’s making plans to leave New York City, the very yummy Riley Nash saunters into her office demanding to speak to Spencer. To insure her silence, Riley hires Sophie as his publicist and then spills that Harlan Nash (a Mississippi senator) is not his biological father … Spencer Atkins is.

Sophie doesn’t know if she can handle Riley. He lusts for the little blonde in her power suits and bun-ed hair but he is a man on a mission: to protect his family. He’s got a 13 year old daughter to think about and a father with his sights on the election in November. In a Bible-belt state like Mississippi, it might mean disaster for Harlan Nash’s career if it was discovered that his son isn’t really his and that son’s biological father was gay.

For once, it was nice to read a novel where the male lead isn’t the one in total denial of his feeling. It’s Sophie. Riley knows what he wants after the weekend spent in Florida but Sophie is still afraid of losing everything that matters to her … her heart. Carly Phillips did another good job with this novel (the 3^rd in the Hot Zone series). But honestly, at the very beginning, I had trouble getting into it. It just wasn’t a “seat of the pants” novel. It didn’t grab me. I had to push through it in the beginning but I’m glad I stayed with it!

Although, I DO plan on reading the next book (Hot Property) in this series which apparently is about Sophie's metrosexual friend (and Damian Fuller's teammate), John Roper. OH and I have to go back and read Annabelle's novel too!

Awards: none

Recommended by: no one (found the book on the shelf at the library when looking for new stuff to read!)

Recommend to: chick lit fans, sports fans, romance fans