High-Powered, Hot-Blooded

By: Susan Mallery

Narrated by: Gayle Hendrix

Mr. December: Duncan Patrick, CEO Scrooge.

His Objective: Lose the "bah humbug" attitude.

His Plan: Find the right (temporary) mistress.

A powerful businessman, Duncan didn't like ultimatums, unless he was making them. But the board demanded his public image change. When he encountered sweet kindergarten teacher Annie McCoy, he knew she'd make him look like a perfect angel, though it would take some devilish manipulation.

Once he had Annie playing his pretend mistress, Duncan needed to make her his real-life lover. Could a grouchy CEO cultivate the charm necessary to win the woman he'd almost destroyed?

©2009 Susan Mallery (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Good Story...BAD Narration

I really enjoy Susan Mallery books but I will never purchase another book narrated by Gayle Hendrix. The story was great. It was cute and at the end I was smiling, which is exactly why I read this kind of romance book. However, the narrator was just awful! She shows no acting ability at all. Her voices barely differ from one character to the other and she not consistent with their voices. It makes it very hard to keep track of who's speaking sometimes. She is just flat through most of the book. I asked my 15 year old son to read a couple of pages aloud to make a point and he did a much better job. Doesn't someone listen to these people before they are hired to read? If I wrote a book, I would make sure that the narrator read the book to match how I have written the characters and are able to bring the book to life. The entire reason I get audio books is for the actor who reads it to bring it to life for me while I listen. This was no better than listening to the computer voice that reads the pages from my kindle.

Not great

It was very cliche... a jaded(arguably misogynistic) douchebag rich hero who's had bad relationships with the women in his life meeting a sweet selfless and practically stupidly naive heroin and reluctantly falls for her as she thaws the ice around his heart with her love blah blah blah. Very very predictable story. On top of that the hero and heroine had no chemistry that i could detect... the bots that were supposed to be sweet were just blah and the parts that were supposed to be sexy were just a bore.

***SPOILER ALERT***
I honestly felt like the hero's description of what he felt for his ex was full of more heat and passion than what he said he felt for the heroin. i was also not a fan of the heroins's martyr stunt; it was truly annoying and stupid... especially considering the fact that the hero said he didn't want his ex back.

Think "Mary Poppins Meets Scrooge"

Fun, Light-Hearted and Fluffy!
This romance hits the spot for a rainy day or quiet night.
It's a classic theme romance readers have always loved with a perfect amount of STEAM!

Sensuality Rating: 7

What's with the narrarator?

I love almost all Susan Mallery books and this was no exception, but the narrarator was awful! She sounds like an old woman which meant that it was like having my grandma read me steamy sex scenes! Her various secondary charachters ended up having weird accents that did not go with the story. Read the book yourself, don't have Gayle Hendrix do it for you!!!

Not my favorite Mallery book

It had more of a harlequin book than a Susan Mallery book. Still okay but not the high humor and great love story.

Rushed...

Romance novel that is a light read. Everything just seems so rushed...no offense please but it is like the author wrote it in an afternoon. But I guess you know what you are getting when it is one download and not expensive. It's like she went down the checklist of how to write a novel.

Actually It Should Be 0 Stars

This book is one of the most boring I’ve ever tried to listen to. I realized pretty quickly that it went on and on about absolutely nothing. There was no meat to the story, the characters were blah and worst of all the narrator NEVER even tried to change her voice when she was reading different characters. This is all especially bad because it’s a Susan Mallory book. So skip this one and go read the phone book, you’ll find it to be a lot more interesting.

Bad narration - she emasculated the hero.

The cadence and pitch was so hard to listen to that after about 2 hours I gave up and quite listening. I think it could have been a good story but I just couldn't listen any longer. Really, who pauses after every 3 or 4 words?

I got bored

The story felt too unreal for my taste. About half way I got bored but I can predict the ending as a HEA for the teacher and CEO.