Midnight Oil by Karen Kendall
Peggy Underwood was finally getting her life back on track. After dumping her grade-B hockey player boyfriend and moving to Florida, Peggy, along with her two business partners, opened After Hours - a spa that serves customers until late in the night. As part of this life-changing event, Peggy vowed to spend the next year learning to live without men. Unfortunately, Troy Barrington entered her life.
Troy Barrington, ex-football star, recently inherited the mall where After Hours is located and wants to find a way to break the lease so he can use that space to build his sporting goods store. After being advised that the lease is ironclad, his only option is to find a building code violation that would allow him to break their lease. However, Peggy fascinates him - the way she looks and the way she kisses and the way she acts in bed. Can Troy follow through with his plan or will Peggy decide to punt him out of her life?
The first book in the After Hours series is more of a traditional Blaze, filled with hot sex and interesting characters. There is also some humor in the book that helps to balance things out. But somehow the story didn’t work for me as much as some of the more recent Blazes I’ve read. Still, I did enjoy reading it and I’ll definitely be reading the next two books in the After Hours series.
Details: Blaze #246, April 2006
Bottom line: A pretty good book
Josie Villefranche owns and manages the Hotel Josephine, in the heart of New Orleans. It’s been in her family for generations. But because of the murder that happened in the hotel two weeks ago, no one wants to stay there, and Josie can’t afford to keep the hotel open much longer. In fact, the only person to check in recently is the extremely hot, Drew Morrison. Unfortunately, Drew is after more than Josie’s body. Will he just settle for nothing less than Josie’s signature on the hotel’s deed, or will he steal her heart as well. 
Ryan Masterson was the dream of every girl in New York City, including Christine Bayer. Sexy and successful, he would make the perfect husband for Christine. So Christine moved into the apartment across the hall from Ryan and began working her way into his life. After six months, of being subtle, Ryan finally asked her out on a real date. But Christine’s plans were shattered when Jenny Hartmann sent Ryan a drink while they where enjoying their dinner. 
Joshua Benedict fixed problems for a living. Things like retrieving the White Star from the New York Police evidence locker his mysterious boss. That’s why MI6 assigned their best agent, Lindy Gardner, to the case. But Lindy didn’t expect to feel such an attraction to Joshua. She knew it was wrong, since theirs was a relationship that could never be. Yet, when Joshua left a trail for Lindy, Lindy couldn’t resist. It was game of hide and seek, where the stakes were love and death. 
Marilee Abernathy woke up one day to find that her husband had left her for a floozy. To make matters worse, her son helped him move. But she never expected that her husband would resign his duties as a church minister. Rather than live with the shame, she tried to commit suicide, only to fail miserably. Then in her darkest moment, Sam Brewer walked into her life. Her friends rallied around her too, and soon Marilee had adopted a whole new attitude about life. 
What do you do if love is missing from your life? You go to Maxine’s Warfield’s Bootcamp to learn how to get control over your love life. You’ll learn everything from flirting how to feel comfortable around your date. 
Tess Bartlett hasn’t had a man in her life for quite a while. So when Marine Captain, Travis McCormick returns to his parent’s home for an extended leave, she works up her courage and asks him to teach her to attract men. Travis is reluctant at first, but Tess manages to convince him quickly and soon Tess is progressing rapidly through her lessons. But Travis senses an old enemy nearly, and he uses all his skills to keep Tess safe, while at the same time helping Tess with her homework ;) . 
Awaking from a coma, Lexie Foster decided her life was too boring and complacent, so she started writing a list of things she wanted to do: gourmet cooking class; trip to Spain; sex in a public place; kinky sex; and sex with six men before she turned 30. Realizing that her current job wouldn’t give her the opportunities she craved, Lexie quit her job and started working for a one-man private detective agency. And a single glance convinced Lexie that her new boss, Nick Delaney, was also going to be the first of her six men on her list. Now it’s up to Nick to decide whether it’s worth mixing business with pleasure. 
When Jenny Moore finally convinced herself to attend a conference, which might help her overcome her fear of open spaces, it was due in part to the talks she had had with Dave Brady over the Internet for the last several months. How could she pass up the opportunity to meet someone who was kind and gentle? However, when Jenny met Dave in person for the first time, a sexy waitress captured Dave’s attention leaving Jenny alone and feeling worse than ever. Afterward, Jenny worked up the nerve to invite Dave to visit her room in the middle of that night for some hot sex – only to find that Dave had given her Devon Barnes' email address in place of his own. 
Nan Cloutier is 28 years old and still living life as if she was just out of school. Rather than hold down a regular job, Nan drifts from one temporary job to another, barely making enough money to pay for her apartment, which also doubles as a storeroom for old bakery equipment from the bakery downstairs. Life is wonderful or at least it’s better than being an accountant, stuck in some stuffy old office day after day. But when Nan’s brothers move in because their lives hit rock bottom, Nan dreams of the day she can escape the insanity. 
With very little time to retrieve the stolen painting, Pepper Rossi followed the thief to an exotic island where she hoped to convince the thief to return it. Since the thief was her aunt, Pepper figured the odds were in her favor. Unfortunately, Cole Buchanan, who just happened to work for the same detective agency, followed her to the island. Pepper knows her skills as a detective pale in comparson to Cole who acquired his during his time at the CIA. Cole reluctantly agrees to let Pepper retrieve the painting, but only if Pepper will allow him to explore their mutual attraction for the next 24 hours. 
After her husband’s death, Ellen Tanner escaped Washington D.C. and accepted a job in San Diego working for the Department of Defense. Her first assignment was working with Navy JAG Lieutenant Jim Cochran. Jim wanted neither a partner – especially a great looker – nor his latest assignment, a dead Top Gun instructor. To make it worse, the instructor was perhaps the most promising female officer in the Navy. As Jim and Ellen investigated her death, the had to determine if the death was suicide or if someone murdered her and made it look like suicide. But as they soon found out, the death was part of a larger conspiracy, which could shake the Navy to its very core. 
Skye Ellison’s day goes into the dumper when her ex-boyfriend’s landlord visits her at work and gets her fired - exactly what she needs shortly after her ex-boyfriend disappeared with her entire savings account. Then Skye learned that her ex also ripped off his landlord, the famous racecar driver, Nico Valetti. Together they decide to try track down her ex and before long they’re headed to Vegas. While Skye found Nico fun both in and out of bed, she knew they were never meant to be together – or were they? 
Julia Covington has been dating Alex Spencer for over six months when she realized that the only thing they have in common is sex. Great sex to be sure, but they never did things as a couple. They never really got to know each other. That's when Julia decided it was time to move on with her life. It was also when she saw the White Star for the first time.