| Title | : | Body Heat |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0758274807 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780758274809 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 351 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2012 |
Body Heat Reviews
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Body Heat by Susan Fox was thisclose to being a Did Not Finish for me. From chapter one, I couldn't stand Maura. She was stuck-up and had a holier-than-thou attitude. Every person she met, she formed an opinion of before even speaking to them. Jesse was a little more tolerable, but I didn't think there was much spark between the two characters. Yes, there were sexy times, but the real connection between the two never clicked in my mind.
I also didn't like how the author constantly had describe each person in so much detail that it was taken to the point of Maura comparing everyone to a celebrity name. First there was the secretary who could be a Lucille Ball clone. Then there was the lawyer who was a Richie Cunningham look-alike. Then Jesse is described as a mix of Marlon Brando, James Dean and Russell Crowe. It got to the point where I would skim the descriptions and just find the celebrity name just to get to the next paragraph.
With too much dialogue, not much spark, and characters that graded on my nerves, I finally made it to the last page. While I am not going to write this author completely off my list for future reads, I can say that this one won't be one I would read again. -
I finished this, but it was so corny I threw it out of my cozy corner and won't let it back in. Try it if you want but it's like a bunch of weird erotic fantasies turned deja vu. I spent most of the book trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with these two supposedly grown people.
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While the book captured my attention instantly, I couldn't help but take note that for a bunch of 'adults' ; our characters- Maura and Jesse (30year old and soon to be 28 year old man respectively) acted like a pair of young adults in heat. I could've gone without the constant fantasies (from both characters) and forced sexual tension. Nonetheless an okay read..
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WAY too many daydreams & fantasies. Maura was way to snobby/judgmental & immature. What 30 yrs old lies about not liking tv & movies because her parents didn't let her watch when she was a child??? She seems to play with Jesse's feelings she's so indecisive and she takes SO long to change.
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Too many fantasies.
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Maura Mahoney is an accountant at a retirement home, a job she loves, even though her domineering parents feel she's wasting her education on it. Maura lives a nice, quiet life, which suddenly changes with the arrival of motorcycle-riding, leather jacket-wearing bad boy Jesse Blue.
Jesse's been ordered to do community service (don't worry, it was for a completely commendable crime, of course), and the retirement home's HR manager agreed he could do his hours there. Right before he arrives, though, the woman has to take some urgent time off, and Maura gets saddled with the duty of supervising Jesse. She takes it very seriously -at least, that's the excuse she gives herself as to why she spends so much of her time watching him through her window while he does sweaty gardening work!
I will admit, my expectations were sky-high when I started this. Susan Fox wrote two of my favourite books last year, the amazingly wonderful Love, Unexpectedly and His, Unexpectedly. They had grown-up characters who actually talked to each other, and this let me see exactly how well they fit together and completely buy that they were falling in love. Body Heat was nothing like those books, nothing at all.
Now, Jesse is a very nice hero, and I liked how he is completely gone over Maura from the start. To him, she's not boring, she's scorching hot, and he's convinced she's out of his league. A beautiful, clever, elegant woman like that, interested in a blue-collar guy like him, who can't even read properly? I did like seeing him begin to recognise his worth, and stop putting himself down.
But Maura, oh, dear. It wasn't that I didn't like the character, it was that she was completely unbelievable. Seriously, we're talking about a woman who's mortally embarrased about liking TV and movies. Not just trashy TV and crap movies -I could definitely understand someone watching and loving reality TV and feeling embarrassed about it (that was me last year, when I got ever-so-slightly addicted to X-Factor), or pretending they only like art-house cinema, but Maura just makes blanket statements about TV and any movies in general. Seriously, woman, who are you? And this is from someone who much prefers books to either of those media and would 99 times out of 100 read a book than watch TV or a film!
Maura also seems remarkably clueless about way too many things. One of my "favourite" scenes was when she was worried at her sudden constant horniness since she met Jesse the day before. She's never masturbated in her life (she calls it "the M word", in fact), and has never felt particularly aroused, even with her two previous lovers, so it's a big change. She decides to do some research to check whether it might have something to do with having just turned 30 the day before. Yep, because maybe it's like throwing some sort of switch, you know. And wait, there's more. She googles "female sexuality" and panics because she gets 5000 results! Ohhh, she has no idea where to start! (For the record, you get over 28 million results, 1.3 million if you use quote marks).
Unrealistic or not, she did kind of grow on me, and the last part of the book actually worked ok for me, because she gets to act a bit more believable. Those sections were fun, and quite hot. The first sections, though, induced quite a bit of eye-rolling. Additionally, those first sections were not sexy at all, which is clearly not what the author intended. It was sex fantasy scene after sex fantasy scene. I expect Fox must have thought it was a way to make the book "hot" without having her characters fall into bed straight away, but it just didn't work for me in any way. I guess, at first sight, a sex scene is a sex scene is a sex scene. All the sex scenes in a book are imaginary, made up by the author, so having one imaginary character imagining one should be just as hot as a having the imaginary characters actually doing it. It isn't. It just isn't. If it wasn't actually happening, I wasn't interested and tempted to skim. Also, these constant fantasies made Maura and Jesse look like idiots, mainly because they tended to happen in the most inappropriate places. Jesse has two of them (two, count them!) while driving his motorbike!
MY GRADE: A C+. -
Overall a decent read. The story is interesting and while the opposites attract plot is well-loved and well-used, this one doesn't have the generic feel that some others can. There's enough heat that some might tip it into erotica, but that line is getting harder and harder to find as more mainstream romance novels have increased what is considered an acceptable amount and description of sex. The characters are believable and well-rounded. As with a lot of romance novels, love comes pretty quick, but that's rather par for the course.
There were two small things that got a bit under my skin. They don't make the book unreadable or diminish the story at all, but they were enough for me to take notice. The first is pretty much confined to the early part of the book. When reading the descriptions of the male protagonist, you will come across a lot of references to his skin being brown (from being outside in the sun on his construction job and from his part Native American heritage). There's nothing wrong with the description itself; it's just that it gets used a lot. It does taper off after a while, so it didn't quite hit the point of spoiling the book. The second is that I can't figure out where the book is supposed to be set. I don't care if the town is real or not, but I like to have a general idea of where the action is taking place. It helps me better understand the characters knowing where they are. In this case, I was willing to just imagine a nondescript American town since the place was not specified. That worked until I ran across phrasings that didn't make sense, for instance, the police officers sent to investigate a robbery are called constables. It made for jarring moments that took me out of the story. I could have avoided that if I'd known that the story was in a nondescript Canadian town (or some other country that has constables). -
I got this book via goodreads first reads.
If I could describe this book in one or two words it would be...
Jesse Blue
His character made this book. No, his character made this book addictive. I love it from the first time that he was introduced into the story. Maura Mahoney is a director at an retirement community and when Jesse Blue steps into her life, her world is filled with wonderful fantasies she had never experienced before.
This book had everything an adult could want. Lust, love and delicious fantasies. A bad boy on a motorcycle with a heart that finds you cheering for him until the very end. I love this book and I loved Susan Fox writing. I though the fantasies that Maura and Jesse underwent about each other was as amusing as it was sexy.
I didn't want to finish the book as quickly as I did but every story has an ending. I thought the plot was interesting and a little different from what I read. Maura was a little annoying at times, but it was all due to her very screwy past. Having grown up with people who weren't really her parents, she strived most of her life to be perfect for them. To feel their love or any sort of acknowledgment that she did good, that she impressed them. There where times that she was downright stuck up and irritating, but at the same time, you couldn't blame her. Unlike Jesse, she didn't fly off the handle and didn't jump into things. With Maura, her entire life was following rules, because breaking them didn't fit into her world on how she was raised.
Jesse, to avoid jail time after beating his best friends stalker ex-boyfriend half to death ends up being my favored character. His delicious and really is a fantasy. Unlike Maura, he doesn't live by the rules and often finds her actions confusing.
Oh yea, I loved this book and will be looking forward to more of Susan Fox writing. -
Body Heat by Susan Fox
Maura decides to catch up on work as she's doing not only her job but others. The community service man is shown in, as he gets off his motorcycle and is in black leather-the bad boy. To stay out of jail he has to give so many hours to the retirement center, where she does not only HR work but the accounting.
As he doesn't want to read to the residents she comes up with sprucing up the garden and he jumps at the idea. Can't wait to hear about what he does to rejuvenate it. I love gardening and as they butt heads over details I'm sure this is going to be a steamy read. Hope it will give me more ideas for the center as
we do travel to visit with my husband's mother every Sunday to spend time with her. Gardens there are such a peaceful part of her time there.
While he works at gardening she can watch him from her office window and often fantasizes about him. He is having a hard time focusing on his work because her looks have turned him on.
He looks after Con and her son and gets to spend family time with them although they are not related. We find out the dark secret Jessie is hiding behind. He finds ways to keep it hidden as he's done in the past.
When he pays her a compliment they kiss and then she wakes up to the reality of what they've done. He's a worker for her and they crossed the line. He understands they can't be a couple yet because of her potential promotion and also because of his community service. They just have to wait it out...
Love hearing of all the plans and ideas for the senior home garden area, and learning about the tools of the trade.
This book needs a 'blazing hot' sticker on the front cover, whew...
When the jewels go missing Maura and Jesse both are the main suspects...
The book also has an except for Susan's latest: Yours, Unexpectedly -
Prepare to be entertained because Body Heat is a whole lot funnier than the hot cover would lead us to suspect! Hilarious characters, a motorcycle riding hottie doing community service, a reserved yet longing to be a little wild administrative assistant, leaky pipes and so much round out this very naughty, very fun book by Susan Fox.
Maura works in a nursing home, has for quite some time really. She’s content with her life, she’s used to it and really doesn't want anything to change. One day Jesse Blue walks in to do community service and her life is never the same. While she worries about liabilities, he’s driving around senior citizens on the back of his motorcycle. She’s working on the Nursing Home board and Jesse is helping the seniors find girlfriends.
The differences between the two are very apparent but they have this unmistakable chemistry. Jesse helps Maura become a little less rigid and Maura grounds Jesse. Susan does a wonderful job writing both characters, but I found myself identifying with Maura. I am a fairly outgoing girl but working in a library, you find yourself surrounded by older people. Not a great place to find a boyfriend but give us quiet girls a hottie on a motorcycle? Hello!
Body Heat is a supremely cute, hot romance dealing with two very different people finding one another. Jesse finds Maura at a tough time in his life and Maura encounters Jesse at the perfect moment. The waters are rough but they definitely find their perfect other half. This was the first book by Susan I have read but will not be the last. Here’s hoping from a librarian in Missouri that there is a sequel! -
This is a Five Star modern 'Romance.' It's sexy and erotic. And more important, Ms. Fox knows how to build a character-driven plot. She brings her characters to life - and we care about them.
Fox is a good writer: clean and smooth, the prose flows and the book moves nicely. A few quotes will tell about the main characters and Fox's ability:
(Maura) had never been the typical girl and now she wasn't the typical woman... she choose to celebrate her birthday (30th) by coming in early on a Saturday to finish up year end tax filings... got her thrills from accurate disciplined figures, neat and controlled... (spent_ the evening with TV, her guilty pleasure... "
Maura has taken on Jessie Blue to keep him out of jail, for a minor (it seems) charge.
(Jessie was) rugged gypsy with bronzed skin winged eyebrows... full, sensual lips... long wavy hair would have looked feminine on another man, but not on Jessie Blue... Jessie watched his new boos (Maura) move away, her back ramrod straight. Her hips swayed just a little, sexy but not trashy. Jesus, when she first put those glasses on, it had been his lingerie fantasy come to life. Now if she'd only unbutton a couple of buttons at her neck. Not to many. He didn't want his fantasy woman to be like gals he hung out with, with their big tits hanging out of their low-cut necklines."
Okay, the sexy but-doesn't know it woman and the handsome, lost, bad-boy. A trope, yes. But Fox makes it work wonderfully in this sensual book that is about romance and, in a sense, redemption.
Highly recommended.
Sean -
My review can also be found on my blog
Collections.
Body Heat featured Maura Mahoney, a woman who has never had much excitement in her thirty years of life, and Jesse Blue, a handsome man who may just be a criminal. Maura and Jesse couldn't be more opposite, but for some reason, they are very attracted to one other. The entire book is about them denying their attraction and having sexy fantasies about each other.
Maura was a pretty frustrating character. She tended to make assumptions about Jesse without asking for the truth. Jesse did too to an extent, but I didn't feel he was nearly as judgmental as Maura. Although this book had its serious moments here and there, it was definitely more of a funny and romantic read. Maura and Jesse were constantly fantasizing about each other. They weren't sweet and cute fantasies either. They were pretty damn hot! I actually didn't mind all these fantasies at first; however, after a while, I think they were overdone. I understood these characters really wanted each other, so I just wanted some actual interaction between them. I wanted those fantasies to become a reality. It eventually happened, of course, but the wait was a bit too long.
Body Heat was filled with drama, sexual tension, and humorous moments. The concept wasn't groundbreaking, but if you're looking for a light and easy read, this book might just be for you. -
I funny hot read, but still an editor really should have read it, stilted at some points and jumpy. Seriously some of the characters thought processes were ridiculous enough to be far fetched and annoyng. Their romance was rushed and their emotionally bonding just happened in a snap. Sex took up alot of the space. Plus her parents meeting with Jesse was somthing that should have happened (silent promise) that had no follow through. There was posiive components I liked but this is mostly the cons I found. I connected to Maura, te sex fantasies were steamy, their backgrounds were intresting and their different POVs
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Ehum more like 2,5 stars....the female character was a bit hard to like..very judgemental and uptight..I wanted to shake her hard a few times...
I got a bit bored in the middle of the book and I think it's at least 50 pages to long...it took to long for her to start changing...and one can only read as much about gardening and running an retirement community before one gets utterly bored... and when it finally ended it was more like a HFN then a HEA -
this book is tell from the POV of Maura Mahoney and Jesse Blue. Due to some trouble with the law Mr. Blue has do to some community service at Cherry lane, a senior citizen retirement house in which Maura works, as most romance, the attration was almost at first sight. i was enjoying it until the daydreaming started..
One too many daydreams in this book, not only on her part but his as well. also that fack that Maura kept changing her mind was really annying. -
I didn't like Maura's character at all. She was so judgmental and always assumed the worse about Jesse. Jesse was an ok character. I honestly don't know how he put up with Maura. The whole fantasy business was done too much over the course of the novel. And I thought Maura was an idiot when she had sex with Jesse the first time and freaked out because it was real and not a fantasy....how do you not know you're really having sex?!? Honestly, this book was very anticlimactic. Not impressed.
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A really good romance et hot steamy scenes. The negative comment would be that both main characters are constantly having day dreams ... however well written, it takes away some of the thrill from the read.
I would still recommend this book. -
Too many things in first 30 pages just annoyed the hell out of me from the use of the word "gypsy" as an adjective and the language used to described the heroine's adoptive parents. I might be a little sensitive when it comes to adoptions, so YMMV with this book.
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I had such high expectations of this novel that perhaps I set myself up for disappointment. I had trouble connecting with the heroine. I think I'll go back and re-read the "..., Unexpectedly" novels to enjoy Ms. Fox at her best.
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It was a good story but the description of their day dreaming was to much. For the first half of the story I ended up skimming through them it was really annoying. After that the story got better and had a great ending
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Very enjoyable story, interesting characters.
I won a copy of this book in the Goodreads First Reads giveaway. -
DNF. Didn't feel the chemistry. Didn't like the heroine at all. Too judgmental.
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Such a struggle to finish this and not flounce it.
I found nothing enjoyable about this story or its characters.
Maura is an idiot and Jesse is no better. -
DNF
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This book was absolutely amazing! Best contemporary romance book I've read so far.
