Notorious by Vicki Lewis Thompson

Grade: B

When she was nineteen years old, our heroine Keely (is that better than Kelly?) Branscomb posed nude for a men’s magazine to spite a cowboy who once rebuffed her advances when she came on to him when she was sixteen. Branded scandalous and a “wild child” by her hometown of Buttfuck Egypt, Arizona (okay, that’s not the name of the town) and thrown out by her father, Keely flees to the bright lights of Los Angeles with the money she made from showing off her titties, gets herself an education, and becomes a reporter for a popular magazine. Ten years later, while in Vegas to interview college girls who became strippers to pay tuition, she bumps into that very same cowboy standing in front of the very same strip joint where her interview subjects… dance. As it turns out, he is in town for a wedding of a rodeo buddy and when he asks Keely why she’s hanging out in front of a nudie bar, she answers that she’s there for an interview. Because she was a “wild child” in her youth, he naturally assumes the worst. You can see where this is going, can’t you? If you can’t, there’s something wrong with you.

Our hero, Noah Garfield, owns a ranch in Arizona and hasn’t taken a vacation in years. Since his younger brother is the trouble-maker, he feels that it is only his duty to be the responsible, more mature one, and has spent the last several years becoming just that. An opportunity to get away from the ranch comes in the form of a friend’s wedding, so he jumps at it, and flies to Las Vegas. While taking a stroll along the Strip, he stops in front of a nudie bar, and thinks for a moment about going in, but decides against it. After all, he’s not the kind of man to pay to watch a naked lady shake her ta-tas at him. He thinks it’s sleazy. Looking at the pictures of the performers inside, however, makes him remember the bad girl who was once practically ran out of town after she posed for a nudie magazine, and how hot she was. Suddenly, he sees a woman who looks exactly like the girl about to enter the bar, and gets the shock of his life when he realizes that IS her. Much to his chagrin, he still has a hard-on for her after all these years, but is absolutely horrified when she tells him that she’s about to go in for an interview. Thinking it is his duty to save the girl from herself (he is, after all, a gentleman cowboy), he offers to share his hotel room with her (he assumes that she is staying in a fleabag motel), and tells her that they can spend the weekend looking over her resume and brainstorm a career for her that didn’t involve taking off her clothes for strangers.

When I read the back of the book, then the first chapter, I was afraid that this was going to be one of those dumb ass faux bad girl stories where the heroine leaves her hometown in humiliation (like she throws herself at the hero and the hero brutally rejects her), discovers the anthem I Am Woman, gives herself a makeover, then tries her hand again at seducing the hero (this time for revenge) years later, only to fall in love with him, and decides that she will only make love to him so that she will have that ONE SPECIAL MEMORY… BUT IT’S NOT LIKE THAT AT ALL. For one thing, Keely is not one of those lobotomized almost-virgin freaks, waiting for this ONE DAY to get back at the hero, thinking of nothing but the hero everyday for the past ten years. Keely has actually gotten on with her life and though she has not completely forgotten about the guy, she has been busy living HER OWN LIFE. She has friends, a cool job (she writes a Sex In the City-like column for a popular magazine), and is not one of those freakshows who hasn’t had a date in years because she has been subconsciously comparing every man she meets to the hero. In fact, Keely, while not a raging slut, has not been celibate and has certainly not preserved her virginity for the hero. This is what I like about this heroine. She is beautiful, sexy, and most importantly, she’s not neurotic about it. She dates, she fucks, she got on with her life. That’s cool, man. I mean, there’s nothing I hate more than a heroine who becomes a weirdo neurotic asshole just because she has loved the hero all her life and can’t imagine spending the rest of her life with anyone else (loyalty is fine, man, but if the guy doesn’t return it, you’re just a dumb ass martyr. And you know what happens to martyrs? They either get nailed to a cross or burned at the stake).

As for the hero, Noah, I was absolutely prepared to loathe him because he assumes the worst in our heroine (whom I really dug). First he thinks she’s an aspiring stripper, then later on, when he discovers that she has a cell phone, he assumes that she is a hooker (what?). As I kept reading, however, I found Noah more and more adorable. He’s a prude and a self-righteous prig, but he’s just so darned cute about it. There’s this scene where he and Keely duck behind some bushes (he didn’t want his friends to see him with Keely and assume the worst) and Keely, who has decided that she will do everything in her power to corrupt Saint Noah in the space of a weekend, flashes her bare tits at him, and he blushes. HE BLUSHES! I just love his reactions to Keely’s increasingly bold attempts to seduce him. He trips, he stutters, he forgets how to speak… so cute.

What I like about this book is the chemistry between the two leads. Having read truckloads of Harlequin romances over the years, I’ve read this story several times before, but the characterization of Keely and Noah keeps it fun and fresh. Keely is a fun, daring heroine who is not afraid to show Noah her desire for him, and there is definitely none of that does-he-want-me-am-I- beautiful-enough-for-him bullshit with her. She is CONFIDENT that Noah wants her and I was absolutely tickled when she decides to play him like a sucker for his awful assumptions of her. This is one OUTRAGEOUS broad. I mean, she goes all out to turn this guy on, and there’s one hot scene where she takes him to a dark hallway during the wedding reception, and shows him exactly how much she wants him. I mean, this broad pretty much plays cat and mouse with him (with the heroine as the cat, for once). Hot stuff. Noah acts like somebody’s cranky maiden aunt, all prudish and shit in his noble intentions, for about 70% of the book, but when he finally breaks under Keely’s relentless teasing and flirting… whoo, son, it’s pretty wow-inducing. Light bondage, man, I dig it.

What kept me from giving this book an A were the side characters. Noah’s friends from the wedding party are the annoying matchmaking types who won’t leave single people alone. It’s like they want other people to be as miserable in marriage as they are or something. I don’t understand why they can’t mind their own beeswax. Shut up and go away, assholes. Another thing that pissed me off was near the end of the book, the awesome, fabulous Keely is reduced to a whining, insecure child-woman singing the does-he-love-me-or-is-this-just-sex blues over a situation that could have been resolved if she and Noah only sat down and discussed the issue like two mature adults. Sure, they agreed that it was just a weekend thing, but when they realized that it was more than that, and they really wanted to be together, they should have talked that shit out. There’s also a scene near the end of the book where Keely panics when a guest at the wedding recognizes her as Miss November and she runs away. COMPLETELY OUT OF CHARACTER. Throughout the book, Keely is presented as a woman who doesn’t give a shit what people think or say about her, and she’s always saying how proud she is of her body, but when some guy calls her on it, she does the sissy thing and runs away? I call shenanigans on that contrived bullshit, man. Not cool.

By the way, there’s this really sweet reunion scene between Keely and her dad that made me tear up a little. So sweet. Oh, and Keely’s little sister, BJ, who is marrying Noah’s wild brother, tells Keely how the two of them got together, and it’s a pretty hot story. I would have liked to read it. Does anyone know if Vicki Lewis Thompson ever wrote a separate book about the two of them? If so, please let me know, so that I can get my hands on a copy.

All and all, this was a pretty hot read. I mean HOT. The chemistry between Keely and Noah is just fabulous and there are some laugh-out loud scenes that still make me chuckle a little when I think about them. Keely and Noah just felt real to me. I mean, sure, the way they got together felt a little artificial and kind of forced (it makes the first chapter a clunky, awkward read), but once these two started bantering and playing, the book flowed smoothly, and I had a good time reading it. Heck, I just might read it again in the future.

Trivia: This was the first Blaze book ever published. EVER.

Last 5 posts by bam

• Review: Their Newborn Gift by Nikki Logan - May 15th, 2012
• Review: Gimme a Kiss by Christopher Pike - May 9th, 2012
• Review: Fair Coin by E.C. Myers - May 6th, 2012
• Site Reconstruction - May 5th, 2012
• Review: Starters by Lissa Price - April 29th, 2012