Watch Me by Shelley Bradley

TITLE: Watch Me
AUTHOR: Shelley Bradley
PUBLISHER: Samhain Publishing
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 35k)
GENRE: Contemporary erotic romance
COST: $3.50

Ballroom dancer Shanna York wants one thing – to be a champion. That means she’ll go through as many partners, be as big a bitch as necessary in order to see the prize. When she receives a blackmail DVD, she goes straight to the source in order to ferret out the threat – a sex club that specializes in the voyeur and exhibitionistic.

Alejandro Diaz has had his eyes on Shanna for months, so when she shows up at his club needing help, he jumps at the chance to finally get her into bed. He’s convinced her ice queen exterior hides a passionate woman, and he’s determined to break through that to savor her for himself.

There’s a lot about this story that sets my teeth on edge. The Latin Lover-type with dialogue that’s too lothario to be believable. The Ice Queen-type who apparently needs to be taught a lesson. The paper-thin plot that pulls them together. And for some inexplicable, crazy reason, I couldn’t stop reading the damn thing.

Maybe it’s that time of the month.

It was hot. Scene after scene of hot. Even when I’m reading Alejandro’s dialogue and groaning at how over the top of it, I kept reading because, well, it was hot. Even when Alejandro and his whole I’m-going-to-thaw-her-out machismo grated on me, I kept reading. The author tries to soften him a bit with this whole ice cream date where he tries to be Shanna’s friend, but by then it was too late for the character for me. I probably should have seen it coming, though. The man took his mother to a charity function at the top of the story. Isn’t that supposed to scream Mr. Sensitivity?

I admit to being curious about reading the companion novella to this. It’s set in the same club, with Alejandro’s partner Del as the hero. I liked Del in this story, and now I’m curious about what he would get, romance-wise. Maybe I’ll wait for that next time of the month…

Readability	8/10 – In spite of cringing in places throughout the story, I couldn’t put it down
Heroine	5/10 – The Ice Queen waiting to be thawed? Nothing original here.
Hero	6/10 – The Latin Lover routine comes off as smarmy
Entertainment value	7/10 – Hot, hot, hot sex, in spite of characters I didn’t want to like
World building	7/10 – My instinct says to want more of the dance world and less of the voyeur, but then I remember not being able to stop reading during the sex scenes and I’m not sure my instinct is right, lol.
TOTAL:	33/50