Requested Review: Diane Escalera - Still Hot For You

Diane Escalera - Still Hot For You

Ebook: 77 pages
Contemporary Hot Romance
ISBN: 9781616503628
Lyrical Press, Inc
March 2012

Main Characters: Shay & Dylan La Costa

Blurb:

Desperate times call for desperate measures. And Shay LaCosta is pretty desperate. She's wrecked her blissful marriage of five years by demanding she and her husband Dylan have a baby. What the hell was she thinking? She knows she was wrong and she’s ready to set things right, if only Dylan will let her. Bet he can’t shun her Booty Camp offer: delicious, white-hot sex in exchange for what’s going on inside his brain.

Dylan may be macho and stubborn, but he really does miss his wife. A little of Shay's pushing gets him past their estrangement and into her web of seduction. She seems to have an erotic week mapped out to perfection, and who is he to complain? Their marriage is meant to be, so they'll fight with each other, and they'll fight for each other.

First line of the story:  “His kiss was slow. Deep. Erotic. Just like she had imagined repeatedly in her head, only this time it was real, and undoubtedly the hottest make-out  session of her life.”

There is something about the characters in Diane Escalera’s stories that I can’t resist. Dangerous Desire was the first story I read of her, Cruz and Sienna held my attention captive all the way to the end and though Still Hot For You is a much shorter story, only 77 pages long, it was the same with Shay and Dylan. I love these stories because the romance and the emotions of both heroine and hero come to live so vividly.

Shay and Dylan have a good life together; both are focused on their career. Shay has wrecked her happy marriage by demanding they have a baby as soon as possible, she should have known that Dylan does not respond well to demands. Her biological clock began to tick louder and louder when she turned 29 and she could not help herself. Now she knows better, she and Dylan have plenty of time to get pregnant, but their relationship has gone awry. It is time to fix their relationship so she and Dylan get their physical and emotional connection they once shared so easily back.

Dylan La Costa has his career and life mapped out, he works hard to achieve his goal and thought Shay felt the same way. So a baby does not fit in his carefully mapped out life for some years and now he finds himself estranged from his wife. How did that happen so fast? They are civil towards each other but that’s it, he truly misses Shay but has no clue how to turn the tide. When Shay starts her seduction he let himself be seduced, he wants his wife back.

Both Dylan and Shay are easy characters to like, it was love at first sight for them, but they come from very different backgrounds. Shay’s parents are rich; she never lacked for anything material wise but did not get a lot of attention or love from her parents. She is beautiful, strong and independent and worked hard for her career, her parents do not approve of Dylan because his parents are poor. Dylan’s family is not wealthy but they are close and affectionate. Dylan is the carpenter with faded jeans and a motorcycle (drool!), his masculinity radiates from the page; he is smart, ambitious, has his own construction company and is very much in love with his wife. He wants a better life for himself and Shay, but feels he is financially not secure enough to start a family yet. Sigh, falling in love with him was so easy!

Though the story is short it isn’t rushed or lacking depth, for me it felt like I was reading a chapter out of Shay and Dylan’s life. Their problems are easy to relate to, imo Shay and Dylan have been so focused on the future, grown so serious that they have forgotten how to have fun and live in the here and now. Shay wants to fix their relationship and commits herself to a booty camp, that may sound shallow but it gets them talking again about all kinds of stuff, the past, the present and the future. It is hilarious to see how every-day-life sometimes gets in the way of the romantic moments but it also made things believable and slowly they break free from their all-work-no-play-routine and find their way back to each other.

Though the storyline is simple, a couple trying to save their marriage, Shay and Dylan are not. Their attraction is obvious, that never was the problem, and therefore their sex is steamy and hot. Shay and Dylan are well-rounded characters with many layers and they have many Mars-Venus moments in Still Hot For You. I love it how Diane Escalera shows us how different Shay and Dylan think about certain things and have no clue how the other feels about it, their conversations are emotional and touching.

Diane Escalera’s writing is smooth and addictive, her characters amiable, hot and sensual. I found it refreshing to read about two characters who were already in a romantic relationship. Shay and Dylan’s journey to find their way back to one another is gripping, sensual and hot. Still Hot For You is an emotional, witty and sensual read; I loved it from start to finish!

4 stars