Holiday Affair (Entangled Indulgence)

by Annie Seaton

[Angie]

Holiday Affair started off as a fun Summer Romance, but then it quickly fell apart. Lissy is taking a tropical vacation before she heads back to work as a History professor. There she meets Nick, who is quite the charmer, but she learns that he always makes a bet with his mates about which woman he'll bed from each boat trip and she's the lucky one. Lissy can play that game too, but eventually their attraction takes over, and she figures it's okay because she'll never see him again. Wrong! He's her new neighbor and the newest History professor at her university, and she's just been assigned to be his research assistant. On top of that, his brother just asked her to marry him! What a mess!

There were a lot of elements I really liked at the beginning of Holiday Affair. There's misunderstandings, mistaken identities, coincidences, and tension! Unfortunately, none of it really worked together. I liked how Nick's brother, Thomas, is very practical and asked Lissy to marry him based on their friendship and compatibility, rather than love. Nick thought they were actually dating, and says he can't trust Lissy since she's like the other women who had messed with him and his brother previously. However, when Thomas realizes the attraction between Nick and Lissy, his reaction is basically "Oh, well be careful" and doesn't give Lissy a second thought. A big deal was made about how some woman came between them before, so I was expecting something more since history is repeating itself!

About halfway through Holiday Affair is when it completely lost my interest. Lissy and Nick are infuriating! They keep falling into each others beds, and then the next morning one of them is giving the other the cold shoulder. They fight about how they can't trust each other, avoid each other for several days and then do it all again! I love enemies-to-lovers romances, but this was just enemies who have sex and continue to hate each other. I swear they were about to start throwing punches at any moment! I know this was meant to rack up the tension between them, but I didn't sense any lust or love. Just pure distaste.

Then Lissy and Nick decide to be civil while they head off to interview some island natives, Holiday Affair just became boring. I could not wait to be finished! Plus Lissy has a moment where logic seems to have left her completely. Of course something big has to happen to make them realize they can't live without each other, and I was just not feeling it. There was a lot of opportunity for interesting drama and sexual tension, but I felt none of it.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.