~4/5[Also available on my blog.]This book is made up of three intertwining short stories, and I kind of loved them. I even kind of wish Davidson’s other stories were a bit more like this. And, oddly enough, I kind of think that Davidson shines a bit more in short stories than in full length novels, which is odd.The first story, Sweet Strangers, was very much like her normal routine, with a hard edged heroine that doesn’t want to say ‘I love you’ and the sweet guy who is open to admitting it. Still a very good story, the romance was great, the story line was pretty good, the sex was nice.The second story, Lovely Lies, was, I think, my favorite of the three. It stars a big, tough, bad boy who is actually quite good, even if he has had troubles with the law. And he comes upon a woman on the run from ‘family’ trying to steal her inheritance. This time, he has a tiny bit of a hard time admitting he loves her, and she comes upon it slowly, but isn’t afraid when it happens. These two worked well together, and I really liked the romance between them (also, the sex).The last one, Delightful Deception, starred two geniuses, and was probably my second favorite. I love smart characters, especially ones that went to college early, and even more so ones that are happy-go-lucky types. And in this story, the boy was all of that, and adorable and sweet, and I really liked him. The woman is a little bit cold, but not too bad, and I liked her enough.My favorite part of this was the fact that they were all quite different from the others. Not only were they in different situations, but they were actually different characters, not just the same character in a couple different layers. I’ve talked about this before, how Davidson tends to write the same things over and over, and while I do love it, it can get a bit tiring, so this was simply a delight to read, and I devoured it in a little over a day.This is definitely one of my favorite of Davidson’s books so far, and I look forward to reading her others, as always.
