The Boy Next Door
Nicole AustinContemporary erotic romance
Available from Ellora's Cave
ISBN: 1-4199-0567-7
March 2006
| Cathy Markham had loved Blake Carlisle from the moment that she had seen him moving in next door. At the tender age of eleven, she had been smitten and was overjoyed that he and her brother Steve had become best friends. Usually they let her tag along during their adventures, but as teens they discovered girls and started dating only the girls that were known to put out, and Cathy could not help feeling jealous. Cathy had been so in love with Blake that she could not help feeling that he was hers, and when she was sixteen she baked him a tin of cookies then went next door to deliver them only to be told that he had joined the Navy. Cathy was devastated!
Now at the age of twenty-six, Cathy glanced around The Filling Station where she worked as a waitress and her heart filled with pride. This was her place and she owned it with seventy per cent of the shares, leaving Steve a silent partner at thirty per cent. It had taken her blood, sweat, and tears to make it successful but she had done it. Now her only remaining dream had to be fulfilled-- a house on the beach, and she was so close to making that happen without involving a bank. Cathy was fiercely independent and wanted no one to be able to take away her possessions with the stroke of a pen. There was one more thing she needed and he had left ten years ago taking her heart with him. Blake Carlisle knew that Cathy had a crush on him and he thought that it was cute. Cathy had hung out with him and Steve with her bouncing braids and too thick glasses that he found adorable. As she grew into a fine lady, Steve had warned him off his sister. That's why he left to join the Navy and did his damnedest to become a SEAL. Now after getting a bum knee he was released from the Navy, and as he thought over what he wanted to do with the rest of his life, he headed toward the home his mother had left him when she had died years before. The town had grown some since the last time he had been there and his thoughts ran to his old buddy Steve and he wondered if he was still living in town. Blake was delighted when Steve wanted to meet for dinner and they went down memory lane, laughing so much that when Steve asked if he wanted to go clubbing, he readily agreed--the empty house could wait. They made their way to the only available table in the club and as Blake looked around, his eyes fell on the gorgeous woman on center stage. Steve knocked him for a loop when he said that she was Cathy! Wowser, the girl turned out to be stunning and Blake began making plans to make her his…damn what Steve said! Nicole Austin creates a wonderful story in her novel: The Boy Next Door. It is filled with so much passion that it brought tears to my eyes and I could not help but think about my very first crush. The book flowed smoothly and it was well written. This one is a keeper readers!
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Reviewer: Linda B |
