Book Review: Notorious

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Notorious     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Vicki Lewis Thompson
Class/Genre:   Romance
Series: Harlequin Blaze # 1
Harlequin, Aug 2001, $4.50, 251 pp.

Though he has been to Las Vegas before on the rodeo circuit, Saguaro Junction, Arizona rancher Noah Garfield only returns for the wedding of an old rodeo friend. Being in town makes Noah sadly contemplate on the state of his relationships as all his friends have one woman in their lives. He reflects back a decade to Keely Branscom posing as the centerfold for Macho magazine when he sees her entering a strip joint. Noah immediately assumes that Keely is about to peel the flesh again.

In actuality, Keely is a reporter for Attitudes Magazine and does stories on sexual fantasies. Never forgiving Noah for his rejection of her, she decides to let him think the worst of her, not that stripping is a bad occupation in Keely's mind. When he goes as far as offering to save her from herself, she cannot resist playing along with a man she has always loved, but feels was born old, prim and proper.

NOTORIOUS is an amusing romantic romp filled with innuendo and plenty of heated scenes yet somehow the theme never is buried under an avalanche of page after page of sex. The jocular and blazing story line centers on relationships that need to embrace differences rather than scorn them so that everyone can win. Keely makes the tale happen in a Holly Golightly kind of way that shows why this new imprint chose Vicki Lewis Thompson to be the opening act.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner