Review: Just One Night, Part 1: The Stranger by Kyra Davis

Title: Just One Night, Part 1:  The Stranger*
Author: Kyra Davis
Series: Just One Night #1
Genre: contemporary erotic romance serial
Publisher: Pocket Star
Format: ebook
Date/Year: January 21, 2013
Reviewed by: Michele

*This book was provided to the reviewer by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Summary from the publisher:

Kasie knows who she’s supposed to be. But one passionate night with a mysterious stranger will teach her who she wants to be.

You should sleep with a stranger, her best friend whispers in her ear as they take to Vegas for one last pre-wedding fling. Despite her best intentions, when Kasie Fitzgerald enters the casino and sees him, a man whose tailored clothes belied a powerful, even dangerous, presence, she loses herself to the moment. Maybe it’s the dress, much shorter than she’d ever normally wear, or the Scotch, but something makes her give herself over to him more completely than she's ever done with a man before.

It was supposed to be just one night. But right as she’s thinking she wants more, he shows up in her office with an agenda. As the billionaire CEO of a company that’s engaged her PR firm, his demands just became her reality...and he desires so much more than just some attention in the boardroom.

My Musings:

Another erotic romance serial, another dominant billionaire, another good girl looking for one last fling. It’s a setup we’ve all read so many times before, and not always particularly enjoyed. Yet this one was so much more for me in a way I hadn’t expected. When I started reading , I thought I knew where it would go, at least at the very start, but by the time I got to the finish, I was thrown for a loop and frustrated that I didn’t have the next chapter in the series right there to read immediately.

Kasie Fitzgerald is the good girl, the one who busted her ass to get good grades in Harvard, the one who picked Dave, the safe boring boyfriend who treats her like a flawless but fragile china doll. He’s got the million dollar trust fund and the connections to provide her with a great job and the stability to reassure her parents that they’d raised at least one daughter who wouldn’t let them down. Kasie knows the next inevitable step is marrying Dave. But before she completely surrenders to the perfect but dull life she’s chosen for herself, she wants that one last chance to be the person she’s kept buried inside all these years, if only for just one night.

Robert Dade is the devastatingly attractive and dominant billionaire CEO of Maned Wolf Security Systems, who finds himself in the same Las Vegas hotel bar as Kasie on the one night she drops her facade and lets her wild and adventurous self out to play. They meet, they kiss, they play. Kasie expects that when the night is over, she’ll be able to resume the good girl life that everyone expects from her. But what are the odds that she would have accidentally dropped her business card before leaving Robert’s suite? And now that what happened in Vegas hasn’t stayed in Vegas, how long will it be before their undeniable attraction for one another blows up Kasie’s safe world beyond repair?

Wow. Just wow. That’s what I thought after reaching the end of The Stranger, and then reading the advance excerpt from the next chapter in the series. The Stranger isn’t just the story of irresistible sexual desire between two people who seem to be complete opposites, and it isn’t just about a woman who feels like she has to worry about everyone else’s needs before her own. All the time Kasie thought she was playing it safe, but in each of her decisions up until meeting Robert, she’s led herself down a dangerous path that can only end in misery because she’s pretending to be someone she knows full well she is not. Robert knows the true Kasie inside because he’s the only one she’s ever allowed to see her without the good girl facade. But those who rely on the existence of the false Kasie will not let her step out of her box of perfection without a fight, and they have no intention of fighting fair.

So even though I keep telling myself I’m done with reading serials, and dominant billionaires, and good girls longing to go bad for just that one last time, I get pulled into yet a story that makes me glad I haven’t given up. With The Stranger, Kyra Davis has written one of those stories, and her next chapter in the Just One Night series can’t arrive fast enough for me.

Ratings:

Overall: 4.5
Sensuality level: 4 (super steamy, but not especially kinky)
For a complete understanding and definition of the ratings at Seductive Musings, click here

Other Reviews:

• 2 Geek Girls Review Books (4 stars)
• Scandalicious Book Reviews (3 stars)
• Goodreads (avg rating as of 4/5/2013 = 3.65 stars)

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