Helpful Score: 7
I always look forward to a new Megan Hart book and Stranger was well worth the wait for me. Dan and Elle from Dirty make an appearance as well as pretty pierced tattooed Jack.
Grace deals with the pain and sorrow of others every day at the funeral home that she owns. She never wants to feel that loss or pain so she "rents" companionship rather than having a real relationship. That is until she meets Sam one night in a bar, who she mistakenly thinks is one of her paid companions. She finds out differently right after their hot encounter and even though she thinks she will never see him again since he truly was a stranger, they cross paths once again when Grace handles the services for his deceased father. Grace hasn't been able to forget him and Sam's determined to chip away at the walls that she has put up to protect her heart.
As usual with Megan's work I couldn't put this book down. And even though the book had my "hoped for" happy ending, when I finished I had such jumbled thoughts and feelings that I was left a little melancholy. I always have to sorta let the book sink in for a few days before I'm ready to pick up something else to read. For me, when an author makes that kind of emotional impact on a person they are truly gifted!
Grace deals with the pain and sorrow of others every day at the funeral home that she owns. She never wants to feel that loss or pain so she "rents" companionship rather than having a real relationship. That is until she meets Sam one night in a bar, who she mistakenly thinks is one of her paid companions. She finds out differently right after their hot encounter and even though she thinks she will never see him again since he truly was a stranger, they cross paths once again when Grace handles the services for his deceased father. Grace hasn't been able to forget him and Sam's determined to chip away at the walls that she has put up to protect her heart.
As usual with Megan's work I couldn't put this book down. And even though the book had my "hoped for" happy ending, when I finished I had such jumbled thoughts and feelings that I was left a little melancholy. I always have to sorta let the book sink in for a few days before I'm ready to pick up something else to read. For me, when an author makes that kind of emotional impact on a person they are truly gifted!
Helpful Score: 2
In this novel Grace Frawley is the owner of a funeral home. She is single and does not see the point to having a boyfriend. So she pays for sex using an escort service.
Sam finds his self in a situation that can only be described as once in a lifetime, and he takes no chance in losing out. He finds Grace sitting at a bar talking about going up to the hotel room and living out a night of passion. Though he does not know Grace thinks he is a paid stranger. Things only get stranger from there.
Grace finds her self getting more involved with a particular escort and knows she will have to break it off. In the mean time Sam insists on calling her all hours of the day and night. At work. At home. Then nothing. Frustrated, Grace knows this is the reason she does not date. But her lovely paid sex dates relieve any worked up stress she gets.
The complication of paid sex but no relationship, then a maybe relationship and breaking it off with her escort she was falling for was the perfect mix of emotion and erotic sex Megan Hart brings to her novels. There was the underlying family meddling but it was not so heavily dosed as with Tempted. I enjoyed this book very much. The love scenes were bittersweet.
Sam finds his self in a situation that can only be described as once in a lifetime, and he takes no chance in losing out. He finds Grace sitting at a bar talking about going up to the hotel room and living out a night of passion. Though he does not know Grace thinks he is a paid stranger. Things only get stranger from there.
Grace finds her self getting more involved with a particular escort and knows she will have to break it off. In the mean time Sam insists on calling her all hours of the day and night. At work. At home. Then nothing. Frustrated, Grace knows this is the reason she does not date. But her lovely paid sex dates relieve any worked up stress she gets.
The complication of paid sex but no relationship, then a maybe relationship and breaking it off with her escort she was falling for was the perfect mix of emotion and erotic sex Megan Hart brings to her novels. There was the underlying family meddling but it was not so heavily dosed as with Tempted. I enjoyed this book very much. The love scenes were bittersweet.
Helpful Score: 1
Megan Hart doesn't write books the way other authors do. Her books sometimes have ambiguous endings and characters that are deeply flawed. The heroine in this particular story is very guarded. Rather than have relationships, she hires for no strings attached sex male escorts from a discreet agency. The rest of the time she runs a busy funeral home she inherited from her overbearing father.
Hart did a great job educating readers about the funeral home business. I didn't know a thing about what it takes to run a place like that, but now I do. The heroine's reason for not having relationships seemed flimsy, but it doesn't take much to build walls around a person's heart. I liked the heroine. She is smart, hard working, unafraid of her sexuality. The hero was likable too. He is the brother of Dan who showed up in Hart's book, Dirty. This book is steamy, but I wouldn't classify it as erotica. It's more graphic than your usual adult contemporary fiction though.
The male escort featured pretty heavily in this book is mentioned in Hart's other book, Naked. You see "him" from the point of view of his girlfriend.
Hart did a great job educating readers about the funeral home business. I didn't know a thing about what it takes to run a place like that, but now I do. The heroine's reason for not having relationships seemed flimsy, but it doesn't take much to build walls around a person's heart. I liked the heroine. She is smart, hard working, unafraid of her sexuality. The hero was likable too. He is the brother of Dan who showed up in Hart's book, Dirty. This book is steamy, but I wouldn't classify it as erotica. It's more graphic than your usual adult contemporary fiction though.
The male escort featured pretty heavily in this book is mentioned in Hart's other book, Naked. You see "him" from the point of view of his girlfriend.
Helpful Score: 1
I'll agree that this book was different. I have mixed feelings about it.
I thought that the main character Grace's excuse for hiring her boyfriends from an agency to avoid emotional entanglements to be kind of a flimsy one. She states that because she watches others grieving over their loved ones as she runs her funeral home, she wishes to avoid having to do this. Therefore, she hires her sexual partners from a discreet agency.
During one of these "encounters", she begins seeing an escort named Jack, who I actually found myself liking better than the "stranger" Sam that Grace meets in the beginning of the story and that the actual story revolves around. The secondary "relationship" that runs through the book is almost more interesting than the one involving the main characters. Their role playing scenes were some of the best parts of the book.
The story also has several side things going on... Grace's co-workers have a romance, her sister is going through emotional issues, and there are also issues with her father. While it made the story an interesting read, I'm not sure if I like all these emotional issues going on in the middle of my erotica. Grace's job as a funeral director is described quite often as well, and I found that to be a bit depressing. Overall, though, an interesting read.
I thought that the main character Grace's excuse for hiring her boyfriends from an agency to avoid emotional entanglements to be kind of a flimsy one. She states that because she watches others grieving over their loved ones as she runs her funeral home, she wishes to avoid having to do this. Therefore, she hires her sexual partners from a discreet agency.
During one of these "encounters", she begins seeing an escort named Jack, who I actually found myself liking better than the "stranger" Sam that Grace meets in the beginning of the story and that the actual story revolves around. The secondary "relationship" that runs through the book is almost more interesting than the one involving the main characters. Their role playing scenes were some of the best parts of the book.
The story also has several side things going on... Grace's co-workers have a romance, her sister is going through emotional issues, and there are also issues with her father. While it made the story an interesting read, I'm not sure if I like all these emotional issues going on in the middle of my erotica. Grace's job as a funeral director is described quite often as well, and I found that to be a bit depressing. Overall, though, an interesting read.
