Big Girls Don’t Cry by Cathie Linz
After plus size model Leena Riley’s career takes a nosedive, she returns home with her tail in desperate need of a job. So she takes the only job she can find, receptionist at Cole Flannigan’s veterinarian’s office, even though Cole spent his youth taunting her. Now that Cole is grown up, taunting her is the last thing on his mind.
This is a hot spicy book that delivers. I love the humor and the fact that the heroine is not Twiggy thin, which is something I suffer from myself. If you liked her earlier books, Good Girls Do and Bad Girls Don’t, I think you’ll enjoy this one too.
Details: Berkley Sensation, November 2007
Excellence Rating: Very Good
When Broadway star Meg Addams’ teenaged daughter starts having trouble in school, she decides to move back to the small town where she grew up. To her surprise, the small town has become a trendy suburban community filled with sushi shops and Hummers driven by soccer moms. Unfortunately, home prices have gone though the roof and the only house she can afford is rumored to be haunted. To make matters worse, living next door is her high school crush, Sam Rooney, who is also a single parent. Sparks fly from the moment they first meet, but will the two parents choose their children over their happiness? 
Darcy McDaniel returned from her Mexican vacation to find her husband has sold their house and cleared out their bank accounts leaving her with only her car and the clothes on her back. When repo man John Stark shows up to collect Darcy’s Mercedes, he sees her as an older trophy wife whose husband can’t pay her bills. With her life crashing around her, Darcy manages to convince John to give her a job as a receptionist to earn some money to buy the things she needs to attract a new husband. Working with Darcy was a real challenge for John, especially when she decides to repo cars for some extra money, but soon he finds herself falling for her. Now can John convince Darcy he’s the right man for her or will she find a new job as someone else’s trophy wife. 
Sweet Strangers – Renee Jardin’s job is to protect the secrets of her employer not steal them. One day she learns that someone planted an experimental medicine worth a billion dollars on her and her employer is willing to do anything to get it back. But when she turns around and kisses one of the men after her prize, she realizes she’s in a lot more trouble than she thought. 
Evie Parish’s ex-husband dumped her in favor of a younger woman, but when the producers dumped her for a younger woman at her latest audition, she went crazy and flashed the audience. Knowing that finding work after that stunt would be challenging, Evie jumped at the change for a gig on a cruise ship. Only the gig wasn’t a show. She was supposed to be arm candy for an older man, but the man proved to be the master of disguise and underneath the makeup and costumes he was an absolute hunk. Unfortunately, the hunk had plans – dangerous plans and plans that might leave her on the wrong side of the law. Now will Evie's attraction to the mysterious man guide her actions straight into jail? 
Trouble, Pennsylvania is the perfect place for Jennifer Feeney’s aunts considering the headaches they’ve caused lately. But Jen never figured they’d steal her car and leave her stranded without shoes in the middle of nowhere. Police detective Mike Taylor was on his way to visit his grandfather when he spotted the tall, sexy brunette walking along the side of the road. However despite their attraction to each other, neither one was willing to give up control to the other, which left both extremely unsatisfied. Meanwhile Jen’s problems spiraled out of control and so did Mike’s, and so when someone tried to kill them they had no idea which one was the target. Now can they solve the case before the murder strikes again, or will the murderer get them both. 
After escaping a particularly nasty divorce, Naomi Delacroix is working hard to establish her new party planning business when she gets a call from the multi-millionaire Royce Powell. Royce hopes his scheme to hire Naomi to plan a surprise party for his mother will give him the opportunity to learn more about the woman he fell in love with at first sight. While Naomi hasn’t met Royce before, she’s flattered by his attention. But she can’t fathom why Royce’s mother is running ads for a bride for her son and doesn’t want to compete with the hundreds of women who are filling out applications by the hundreds. To make matters worse, Royce is a controlling person just like her ex which leaves Naomi uncertain about any long term relationships with the man. Now can Naomi overcome her fears or will Royce have to settle for one of the hundreds of other women vying for his attention? 
After hitting Kate Moss with a cake, Madison Worth’s modeling career landed in the cow pasture. Literally. The only job she could get was modeling for Cheese Please, Jack Pleeseman’s family dairy business. While Jack needed someone to represent his cheese as part of an upcoming ad campaign in order to save his farm, he never expected someone who graced the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. Life on a dairy farm is hard for a city girl like Madison, but soon she finds herself falling for the handsome dairyman. But Jack wonders when she’ll run off to the big city to return to her glamorous life as a model. Now it’s up to Madison to convince Jack that she’s really changed before Jack loses the farm. 
Evie Parker has barely managed to survive since her husband died several years ago. While she’s raising her eleven year-old son with the help of her mother-in-law, her son really needs a man in his life. When Skylar Remington moved next door to Evie, he listened to beautiful music each night and managed to forget about the heart condition that could kill him if he didn’t learn to relax. Just when Evie thought that Skylar might be the man that her son needs, she learns that he wants to return to his old life as CEO of a major medical company. Now will Evie turn her back on her temporary next-door neighbor or will she choose to risk everything on a man with a broken heart? 
Catherine Luck worked hard to distance herself from the family scandal and catering the Montgomery’s party is the break her new business needed. Despite his father’s best efforts to push Logan Montgomery into the political arena, working in the D.A.’s office is the most rewarding job he can imagine. Knowing that only a major scandal would stop Logan’s father, Emma, Logan’s grandmother, decides to create one by locking Logan and Cat in a closet. Sparks fly and soon Cat and Logan are busy making their own scandal. But when the reporters show up, can Cat find it within her to stick around or will she try to put as much distance between her and the man she loves?
Making a living by teaching yoga and belly dancing is nothing new to Skye Wright, who refused to take a normal job like her normal sister. In fact nothing about Skye’s life was normal, including her mother and four year old daughter. When Sheriff Nathan Thornton pulled Skye over for speeding, she was dressed in a harem costume and on her way to the local high school to teach a yoga class to the football team. Convinced she was going to teach the high schoolers more than just yoga, he takes her back to the station in handcuffs. While Skye finds Studly-Do-Right yummy and definitely worth a roll in the hay, he’s too uptight for anything long term. But when someone starts making threats against Skye, Nathan’s willing to do anything to protect Skye, even if it means he has to spend the night as her bodyguard. Now Nathan must decide whether to act on his feelings for Skye or lose the best bad-girl he ever met?
Julia Wright lives in a quiet small town, where she’s finally happy with her life. But when bad boy Luke Maguire rides into town on his Harley, librarian Julia Wright can’t help but notice. Though the last thing Julia wants in her life is an irresponsible guy. The only reason Luke returned to his childhood town was because someone needed to run his father’s bar after his death, but the hot looking librarian offered him a challenge he just couldn’t resist. Julia’s life then goes bad to worse when her mother and bad-girl sister arrive in town along with all of their problems, leaving Julia no place to turn for comfort other than Luke. Now can Julia finally get past her fear of bad-boys or will she find herself running away yet again?
Merry Olson understood what it was like to grow up without a mother, so when her friend Charlie Ross died leaving his eleven year old daughter alone, Merry immediately left Minnesota and headed for Virginia. What Merry didn’t expect was that Charlene is having serious trouble adapting to life after her dad’s death. Fortunately Merry was able to turn to her next door neighbor, Jack Mackinnon a divorced hunk with two sons for parenting advice. While Jack finds Merry’s form pleasing to the eye, he finds the way she does most things to be a bit strange. Still, he can’t help but feel sorry for both girls, so with his son’s encouragement, he finds himself becoming more involved in their lives, despite his desire to remain single after his bitter divorce. Now can Merry find a way to balance her need for Jack with her new role as single parent or will she lose them both forever?
A trip to the mall on Christmas Eve brings happiness to six people that otherwise would have spent Christmas Day alone.
Fresh from her divorce, Nina Askew is looking forward to living her own life for a change. Instead of living the life that her husband’s job demanded, she has her own job, her own apartment, and she even has her own dog named Fred. Now she finds herself one flight up from Alex Moore, an ER doctor who’s being pressured to conform to his family’s expectations, who’s ten years younger. But can the ER doc bridge the gap between them or will Fred be forced to come to the rescue