Chipping away at her resistance, one touch at a time…

Fallon Frost’s late foster mother had done so much to heal the wounds of her damaged childhood. So when a lecherous developer plans to bulldoze her old home to make room for a strip mall, the practical, ordered life Fallon has built for herself is threatened.

Then he makes a twisted proposal. He’ll leave the land alone if she poses nude for a sculpture that’ll end up in his collection. Seeing no other choice, she heads for Nova Scotia—only to find something totally unexpected. A sexy, hot-blooded, infuriating sculptor.

Guarded, sexually detached Fallon is a challenge Max Emery can’t wait to tackle. Yet with each tap of his chisel, he uncovers a woman who rekindles a dream he thought lost. Home, family…love. And the closer he gets to her core, the harder it becomes to accept that he’s carving her naked body for another man’s eyes.

As progress on the sculpture almost grinds to a halt, their fragile fantasy world collapses under the weight of reality. Threatening Fallon’s one chance to save her foster mother’s land…and any chance she and Max have to find love.

Title: THE RELUCTANT NUDE
Author: Meg Maguire
Series: standalone
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Year of release: 2011, April 5
Format: eBook
Source: Bought via Samhain eBook-store

First line:
You’ve got to be frigging kidding me.

Memorable Scenes:
- When Fallon first spends the night at Max's studio > "May I spoon you?" *sigh*swoon*


Fallon Frost is an ecologist. She’s down to earth and clear-headed but she’s also cautious and a little contrary.

Max Emery is a sculptor and the epitome of the creative artist type. He’s unapologetic, sharp-minded and direct but he’s also attentive and has this charismatic aura that draws you in immediately.

Once again I'm amazed at Meg Maguire's characterization. With little captivating and subtle tidbits she creates her characters back-stories and personalities throughout the story and puts them center-stage of it all yet never losing focus on the rest of the story. With small clues she points you to stuff that makes you want to know the rest, the how and why of those tidbits of information. And in the end you realize she's delivered on them and you 'get it'.

Little by little you get to know her main characters and get inside their heads, see their hopes, dreams, fears and desires. Their dialogues and banter, they all slowly and gradually but surely bring you towards that point you know is coming and will be explosive!

At first I was waiting for that first sexual move, that first explicitly hot love scene and was wondering why it was taking so long. But reading on I realized it wouldn't have fit the romance or characters and I came to the conclusion that I really liked how the sensual/physical aspect was built up step by step. It's one of the things that made this book intense and memorable.

Meg Maguire's writing is addictive and mesmerizing. Once you start you can't stop reading. Towards the end I did have the feeling the intensity fizzled down a little and both the conflict and it's resolution felt a bit sudden. This made the first 3/4 of the story better but overall I absolutely loved it. The set-up of this story was brilliantly done. Intriguing and revealing the full story in little bits at a time, I loved putting the pieces together and getting the full story clear.

If you love richly layered, emotional and excellently written contemporary romance, all I can say is: buy THE RELUCTANT NUDE, sequester yourself, sit back and enjoy the awesomeness that is Meg Maguire's writing.

Favorite Quotes:
(Max) “Why bones? My trade is in surfaces,” he explained, fingers working. “My fascination is with the hidden. The internal.”

(Fallon) She met his eyes, unimpressed. “So you think. But there are good people and lousy people everywhere. You can’t write an entire place off because of the few assholes you encounter.”

“Damn. So have you…you know?” Rachel wiggled her eyebrows lewdly.
Fallon worked hard to suppress a smile. “What?”
“You know. Voulez-vous…couchez’d avec him?”

He shut his eyes and made a noise of the dirtiest decadence.

She breathed him in, his smell and his need and his mounting insanity. Intoxicating. She felt wicked, still safe in her underwear while this strong, willful man lay naked and bound and at her mercy.

Max shrugged. “I am willing to be normal, if it will have me. But anyway. I won’t put any pressure on you. I hope I’ll see you again. Maybe soon. But I waited thirty-three years for you the first time. I can wait another thirty-three.”

Act I—set up
Survive This! is Kate's life…as are unscripted fantasies about Ty, her boss and best friend. But when Kate is suddenly injured, Ty decides filming is too dangerous for her. This will be Kate's last adventure for a while.

Act II—plot point
Kate is furious and threatens to quit. But Ty needs her. So what can he do? Keep her occupied by filming every minute of their intense and definitely unrehearsed sex!

Act III—cliff-hanger
It's Kate's choice now: Her hard-won career? Or end credits featuring dangerously wild sex with Ty? Ha. Some choice. But either way, the final cut is guaranteed to be a thrilling ride!

Title: CAUGHT ON CAMERA
Author: Meg Maguire
Series: No info on whether this is a series or not
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Harlequin Blaze
Year of release: 2011, March 22
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Source: Bought via The Book Depository

First line:
Kate scanned the trees, one thought in her mind--food.

Memorable Scenes:
- the filming scene (Kate filming Ty) in the emergency shelter/cabin > intense and sizzling hot
- first full-out sex scene > I'm surprised the pages of my book didn't combust into fiery flames...so hot


My first review note for this review was:
“Ooh goodie! Co-workers AND friends-to-lovers trope. That's an extra point for Meg Maguire right there on page 8 already.”
And it just got better and better.

Kate Somersby is a production assistant and personal assistant to Dominic Tyler. She’s a control-freak and a take-charge kinda woman. Dom “Ty” Tyler is a survival reality TV show host. Ty is one yummy Aussie and Kate is one stubborn woman. The banter between Kate and Ty was awesome! It felt very natural and easy and the underlying attraction comes through loud and clear without being too obvious or contrived. With subtle small tidbits of information, thrown in almost casually, you get a thorough knowledge of the main characters' backgrounds, back-stories and personalities.

I must honestly admit there were some bits that didn't completely make sense to me and I didn't understand the reason for them (Kate's reason for filming Ty pleasuring himself, Ty insisting Kate slap him) but I didn't care because I was engrossed in the story and the romance and I trusted Meg Maguire to make it all make sense in the end.

This is my first encounter with Meg Maguire's writing and I can't say anything other than that I've fallen in love with it. Her writing is indescribably good! It sucks you in and makes you want to keep reading. All elements --descriptions, characterizations, humor, setting, dialogue, heat-- fit perfectly together and flow into each other seamlessly. Comprised of complicated, richly layered characters and characterization, adventurous setting and scenery and an intense and red-hot romance I'm still in awe of how Meg Maguire incorporated this into a 220 page Blaze.

CAUGHT ON CAMERA is hands down the best Blaze I've read and without being dismissive about categories or the Blaze imprint, I think this should've been a full-length 400+ pages book and even then I still wouldn't have had enough of Kate and Ty.

Favorite Quotes:
Ten thousand women probably had school-girl crushes on Dom Tyler, and Kate didn’t need him knowing she was among them. Still when he got that gleam in his eye and lowered his voice to that devious hush he was more than just Kate’s friend and boss. He was the man who set her on fire off camera, no flint or tinder required.

For a dozen or more racing breaths he stared down at her; Kate was helpless on her knees, but he was the one rendered helpless.

Watching his fist running up and down his c#ck, his body a playground of bare flesh just waiting to be used and enjoyed and made to beg for mercy… Her own body wouldn’t allow her to pretend indifference. She stared at him with shameless fascination.

She whispered against this ear. “You keep me up nights, Ty.”
He seemed to lose the ability to form words, reduced to primitive sounds–the same ones she’d heard him make two years earlier, ones that had haunted her memory when they were spoils of some other woman’s victory. But now these sounds were hers. All this animal need was hers to satisfy.
“Say my name, Ty,” she breathed.