After Hours

by Cara McKenna

• ISBN10: 1101621982
• ISBN13: 9781101621981
• Publish Date: 1 January 2013
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Portfolio
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 292
• Language: English

Reviews

[Cocktails and Books]

Erin Coffey accepts a nursing position at Larkhaven Psychiatrc Hospital to be near her sister and nephew, not realizing that decision will change her life. She meets Kelly Roback, who works as an orderly at the hospital. He is a big, bossy, alpha male who likes control. When Kelly asks Erin out for a drink after work, she declines, he insists and the power struggle between them begins.

Erin is small in stature and independent. She has always been the levelheaded one in her family and doesn't want to get involved with Kelly because he reminds her of the type of guy her sister or mother would date. She likes to be in control and isn't comfortable giving Kelly the control he wants both in and out of the bedroom.

Cara McKenna writes a realistic story about two down-to-earth people who try to come to grips with their growing attraction to each other, while also trying to deal with all of their emotional baggage. Kelly and Erin are both strong individuals with a lot of chemistry between them. They are easy to like and relate to and they have some hot, steamy sex scenes together. Kelly and Erin have a connection, but it is hard for them to move forward because of the walls they have erected around their hearts. The secondary characters are nicely interwoven into the story and they include Erin's sister, who seems to thrive on chaos in her life, her sister's son and her lowlife boyfriend. Added to the mix, are some quirky patients at the hospital. This is a wonderfully crafted story and Cara McKenna does an excellent job of capturing real life characters. I loved this book!

Reviewed by Karen for Cocktails and Books

[leelu92]

This was a REALLY great book. It wasn't a gushy, mushy, swoony book. The characters were well developed... lots of depth to Erin and Kelly. And there was a lot to deal with these two. I'd have to say that the ending was somewhere between HFN and HEA. Only because both Erin and Kelly both had some work to do as far as moving forward in there relationship with each other.

[EBookObsessed]

Erin Coffee is nervous about her new job. She has a shiny new nursing degree and the best job within a reasonable distance of her sister and nephew is at Larkhaven Psychiatric Hospital. Of course, the position wasn’t on a regular floor. Erin always finds a way to jump right into the deep end. She’ll be working on the locked floor with those patients with violent tendencies.

The first person she sees on her tour of the facility is a wall of a man, but thankfully he’s not a patient. Kelly Robak is there to keep the patients calm, but all he does to Erin is get her worked up thinking about what he could do with those great big hands of his. If only Kelly didn’t look like the type of man her floosy mother would have dragged home, Erin might be very tempted to check out if he was large everywhere else.

She can’t deny the obvious attraction between them and as she gets to know Kelly better, she finds he is not the cold, womanizer she keeps trying to make him out as. After a lifetime of trying to be the level headed one in the family, can she risk her heart and her trust to a man like Kelly?

THOUGHTS:

This is storytelling at its best. I truly enjoyed watching this story unfold. There was no chase scene, no explosions, no serial killer, and even though I can’t point to anything specific that makes this story exception, I would say that this was simply an enjoyable story. It was a simple story of two people meeting at work, getting to know each other both inside and outside of work and due to both of their bad childhoods, how they struggled with letting someone else into their lives and admitting they wanted more.

Although I was frustrated that neither Kelly nor Erin would do something as simple as ask the other if they wanted more, they stayed true to their written characters. Erin was used to being the dependable, rock for her sister and had a hard time allowing herself to lean on or trust Kelly to be there. He reminded her too much of the endless line up of men that her mother and her sister gravitated toward for Erin to believe he would want more than just the sexual conquest.

This was a first person narrative, which is unusual for a romance book, so we are as much in the dark as Erin as to Kelly’s underlying feelings, and although he understands her standoffishness, you can see he was enjoying his time with her and was confused by her cold shoulder toward him.

I have been turned off by the contemporary romance selections for so long, gravitating to the more interesting paranormals and some historicals to break that up, but I am definitely enjoying this new selection even it if is geared towards a younger crowd. The storylines have so far proven to be much more interesting than the bondage-loving millionaire and the accidental baby plotlines.

Received an ARC from netgalley.com, courtesy of the publisher.