Book Review: An Act Of Persuasion

Author: Stephanie Doyle
Title: An Act Of Persausion
Publisher: Harlequin Superromance
Publish Date: March 1, 2013
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Review Copy Provided By: Net Galley
Book Blurb: For all the wrong reasons.

Anna Summers has always been more than Ben Tyler’s assistant. She’s even been more than his best friend. Too bad Ben didn’t realize it until after she quit. Now that he’s more like his old self after facing off against a life-threatening illness, he’s ready to win Anna back.

Of course, it’s not simple. One night Ben broke his own rule about getting involved with an employee. And now Anna is pregnant. She refuses to let him use the baby as a reason for them to reconcile. It will take an act of persuasion to convince her they belong together…and not only because of the baby.

Review: This is a rather odd scenario for a romance novel. Anna is in love with her boss, who has cancer. The first round of chemo hasn't worked and he's at a crossroads in his treatment. For some reason, the site of his assistant/caregiver in yoga pants turns him on and boom! Hot and heavy sex.

Flash forward a day or two and things fall apart for them.

Flash forward again and Anna tells him she's pregnant.

Oye.

I'm not usually a fan of romance novels where the heroine is pregnant, and this one reaffirmed that for me, though it wasn't the pregnancy that turned me off of this one, it was Anna.

I loved Ben Tyler. I loved that he cared about her and the baby. I even liked his former comrade, Mark, but Anna had way too many issues with trust and relationships.

I get that she was part of the foster system, but her experiences weren't that bad. She just made them that way. She had the problems. I found myself screaming at her to get therapy, because she needed it, because as the story played out, she had two good sets of foster parents. She shouldn't be that screwed up.

I don't understand how she could love Ben and keep him at a distance so much, when it really became apparent he cared for her. This guy was bending over backward for her and she was giving him a tough time at every turn.

I loved the side story between Mark and Ben, though I wish they would have resolved the reason he was so competitive with him.

Not a bad romance, but too much conflict and not enough spice in this story for me.

Rating: 3 flowers