BOOK REVIEW: Jump Start By Lisa Renee Jones

Harlequin Blaze January 2011

224 pages By Lisa Renee Jones


BLURB ON BACK OF BOOK:

Make-up sex or breakup sex? Maybe a little of both…

A battlefield moment of clarity leads Sergeant Bobby Evans back to the Texas town he fled long ago. His new mission—winning back the woman he wants, by any naughty means necessary.

Jennifer Jones spent seven years aching with the memory of Bobby’s blistering kisses—and his sudden, silent departure. Now he’s back, looking to pick up where they left off—naked and voracious. But Jen won’t get burned again, no matter how hot Bobby turned out. Two torrid weeks, then she’ll give him his marching orders…or not!

Texas Hotzone—Where the big boys play

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I do like Harlequin Blaze. What I like about this line, it is more or less wide open, the stories can be light, funny, a little silly, or be dark, with crime and suspense thrown in the mix. But the main thrust of the books (no pun intended) is hot, wild sex. And there is certainly lots of hot wild sex in this book. As the blurb so succinctly states, this couple cannot decide if they are having make-up or break up sex.

Bobby Evans is 6'3 inches of hot, sexy U.S. Grade Army Special Forces, a man who lives for danger. In the middle of a rescue of a fellow sky diver, he sees the love the man possesses for his fiance. A woman he is scared to death he will never see again. Her name is Jennifer, which tears the scab off Bobby's memories. He also was involved with a girl named Jennifer...once. Seven years ago.

But he walked away from her and what they had and joined the army, never looking back. He is going back to his home town for a wedding of mutual friends, can he and Jennifer get past the hurt, maybe start again?

Bobby for all his bravado and virile presence, seems to have some issues, daddy issues being the paramount reason for his walking away from Jennifer Jones. He's a whole lot of 'messed up' when he shows up at the local watering hole turning Jennifer's world into a tizzy.

Jennifer was hurt bad when Bobby walked away, but she picked herself up, got a veterinary degree and opened her own Animal clinic. She had moved on with her life, or so she thought until Bobby walked into the bar. He still affects her, and after the initial shock and anger wear off, Jennifer decides that a two week fling while Bobby is in town maybe just the ticket to forever banish him from her thoughts and her battered heart. For this time, it will be she who says good-bye.

I have to say, these two were quite self-absorbed. But both also were hurting here big time. Stir in an adventurous subplot at an airfield that has Jennifer and Bobby well involved, and the trials and tribulations of their mutual friends rocky road to that wedding, and you wonder if they will ever get their HEA.

It takes Bobby confronting his past, and the friend's wedding to get these two people to give their love a chance.

This certainly wasn't a dull read, it had its fair share of adventure and angst. But something about this couple left me cold. I wasn't emotionally invested. They seemed detached through the story, but as I think about it, it fits with their characters, and the wounds they have endured.


But I certainly was emotionally invested in the ending. I got to admit, I got caught up in the romantic crescendo. It was timeless and classic. A hot, sexy read wrapped in a vintage romance.

3 out of 4 stars for the book