A Taste of Temptation - Cat Schield (HD #2314 - July 2014)

Series: Las Vegas Nights (Book 3)

Is lasting love on the menu?

Hotelier Harper Fontaine only wants one thing in life: to take over her family's business empire. And she won't let celebrity chef Ashton Croft screw up the new restaurant in her Vegas showcase. Getting the adventurer to meet deadlines is hard enough, but turning down the flame on their uncontrollable chemistry soon proves impossible.

Ashton has traveled the world but has never encountered a delicacy as delicious as Harper. Sure, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but will Ashton stay for Harper...especially when the chips are down and she suddenly stands to lose it all?

Excellent conclusion to the series. Harper is the intense one of the three sisters, and the one who wants the CEO job the most. One of the show pieces of her Las Vegas hotel is the new restaurant that is due to open soon. Her problem is getting her celebrity chef to stick around long enough to get the job done. Ashton has a lot on his plate, but getting closer to Harper is getting more appealing every day.

I loved Harper and Ashton. The chemistry between them was hot and their encounters even hotter. Harper has had something of a crush on Ashton for a long time. She is a huge fan of his show The Culinary Wanderer (reminds me of Tony Bourdain's No Reservations) and could think of no one better for her restaurant. But she has been extremely frustrated by his apparent inability to commit any time to getting things done. When he is around nothing pleases him and he makes constant changes. She has also discovered that the charisma he shows on television is nothing to what it is like in person, and her attraction to him keeps growing.

Ashton had an interesting childhood as the son of missionaries, but by the time he was a teen he hated the life. He ran away when he was fifteen and after some early missteps found his calling in cooking. As much as he enjoys what he does, he is always looking for ways to step up his game. At the time of the book he has several things going on and none of them are going the way he wants them to. His attraction to Harper is also interfering with his concentration when he needs it most. 

Things start going a bit out of control for Harper when she finds out her mother is being blackmailed, but won't tell her why, her sisters reveal a secret that could explain it, but that also makes her question who she is, and then she and Ashton act on their attraction.  Being around Ashton makes her think of some of the things she wishes she could do, but can't because of her hotel work. When her life takes an unexpected turn, she takes what she finds out and spontaneously sets out to discover the truth. 

Once they stop butting heads, Harper and Ashton discover that there is more than just attraction between them. Ashton finds that there is a lot he likes about Harper. He also sees that there is a bit of an adventurer buried under all her organization and control and he wants to see her take advantage of it. Harper looks past the fame and charisma and finds a man who is searching for something, even though he doesn't realize it. I loved seeing her try to open his eyes to what he was struggling over.

I loved seeing their connection as they grew closer. I could see their love growing stronger, even though neither realized at first how they felt. It was great to see Ashton's support of Harper during her trip to Africa, and how determined he was to be there for her whatever she needed. He wanted more with her, but wasn't sure he could ever be what she needed. He had to take a hard look at what he wanted and decide what was most important to him. Harper also had to look at her future and decide some things herself. I really enjoyed the ending and seeing how both of them finally accepted who they were meant to be and what they did with it.

A Merger by Marriage - Cat Schield (HD #2304 - May 2014)

Series: Las Vegas Nights (Book 2)

It takes two tycoons to tango…

With JT Stone's birthright hanging in the balance, Violet Fontaine comes up with the perfect solution. The Vegas hotel heiress decides to give her sexy business rival a hand -- so he can put a ring on it and seal a business deal. The one condition is that they keep their boardroom marriage out of the bedroom….

Fat chance! JT isn't letting Violet deprive him of one of the sweetest perks of wedlock. But will giving in to passion expose the one thing that's always kept him from commitment? Now JT could lose everything, including the woman he can't live without.

Very good story of family secrets, trust and love. After her like-a-father-to-her mentor died, Violet received an inheritance that could help her rival JT Stone. It came with some conditions that limited her options but she felt like she had come up with the best solution. JT has discovered that the family company that his father runs is in deep trouble. He'd like to take it over but he doesn't have enough shares to vote his father out. 

Violet comes to him with a proposition. Tiberius had acquired eighteen percent of the shares of the company and left them to Violet. She can't sell them, give them away or vote them because she's not family. If she and JT marry, she becomes family and with his thirty percent they are closer to getting control. JT would just need another three percent. She offers JT a business marriage so they can try to make it happen.

JT has been attracted to Violet since he met her. With the bad blood between his father and his uncle Tiberius, JT had never had the chance to get to know him well before his death and had missed out on the chance to get to know Violet through him. Now he spends a lot of time in Violet's casino, watching her and getting what little bit of time with her he can manage. He is surprised by her offer but sees the advantages. One advantage he sees is the opportunity to get her into his bed, if he can just get past her reservations. He also has some reservations of his own. Thanks to a really crummy childhood, JT keeps very tight control over his emotions. He also doesn't let anyone close enough to learn about what his past was truly like. He finds that spending time with Violet is loosening some of that tight grip and that he wants to share some things with her. 

Violet is equally attracted to JT but hides it just as well. Helping him gives her the chance to get closer to him. She likes what she sees, but she is cautious about getting involved with him. She knows that if she lets herself go she is likely to fall in love with him and that could only lead to heartache for her. She has also come across some information that could rock his world completely and she has to decide what to do with it.

I loved Violet and JT together. Violet is a pretty uncomplicated person. She sees a way to help JT and wants to run with it. There is so much heat between them that you know the business only side of the marriage isn't going to last. She also sees how hard he tries to protect himself and really wants to show him that trusting her isn't a bad thing. She knows that she can help him get what he needs and gets very frustrated with the way he shuts her out. I loved seeing her keep trying. JT wants Violet so much he can hardly stand it. He's managed to keep it from her for awhile, but now that they're together so much he's losing the battle. His growing need for her scares him because he's never let anyone get that close and he's afraid of what could happen if he really lets her in. When he discovers that Violet had access to some information about him, he feels betrayed which leads to a heartbreaking confrontation between them.

JT's father is a real piece of work. Violet gets a taste of it when he comes to Las Vegas and confronts her about her marriage to JT. He makes some pretty nasty threats that end up pushing Violet and JT closer together. The information that Violet has about him makes JT question a lot of things about his father, but he's not sure what he should do with it. I loved seeing everything that happened at the shareholders' meeting. There were a couple nice twists that came out of it. Even better was seeing JT finally open himself up to Violet's love.

At Odds With the Heiress - Cat Schield (HD #2279 - Jan 2014)

Series: Las Vegas Nights (Book 1)

What happens when the man she loves to hate becomes the man she can't live without?

Actress turned casino mogul Scarlett Fontaine uses her beauty to get what she wants. But it doesn't work with Logan Wolfe. Now the infuriatingly gorgeous security expert needs her help. Finally, Scarlett sees her chance to show him she's more than just a pretty face.

Yet when her safety's at stake, their flirtatious games turn serious. Scarlett suddenly needs him, too. As things heat up, their steamy kisses--and steamier nights--make her wonder: is the man who has always tormented her finally showing his true colors?

Scarlett uses the abilities she learned as an actress to get people to do what she needs them to do.  She may not have the business training to run her casino/hotel, but she knows how to hire the people she needs to get the job done.  She's always had a somewhat hostile relationship with Logan, whose security firm works with her family's casinos.  She senses his disdain for her abilities and loves to torment him.  Logan has never understood why she was given one of the casinos to manage since she doesn't have the training to do it properly.  Seeing her use her beauty to get things done just irritates him.  Now he needs some help from one of the sisters and she's the only one available.  His niece is visiting for the summer and he's been given the job of convincing her to go to college not run off to Hollywood to become an actress.  He doesn't see Scarlett as being the right one to get that point across.

Scarlett has her work cut out for her to show Logan that she is actually very capable of running her business.  Her enjoyment of irritating him is her way of dealing with her attraction to him.  She is hurt by his refusal to believe that she can properly guide his niece.  Working with him because of Madison shows her that the attraction is not one-sided.  Logan has been fighting his attraction to Scarlett for years, but finally gives up the fight.  The heat between them is intense and his lack of control bothers him.  He also doesn't trust that she's going to stay around, that if she's offered a chance to go back to acting she'll take it.  He was previously hurt by a woman who put her career first and he doesn't want to risk it happening again.  I loved Scarlett's different way of looking at things and how she used it to run  her business.  She was also better able to relate to Logan's niece Madison.  I loved seeing how the relationship with Logan grew once they stopped fighting the attraction.  I liked the way that Logan's attitude toward Scarlett started to change as he actually got to know her.  He started to fall for her but that lack of trust caused him to expect her to leave at any time.  Because of that he gave the appearance of pushing her away just as things got more intense.  Some of the things he said to her hurt her badly, which he knew as he said them, but he couldn't seem to stop.  I loved seeing him make things right at the end.

I loved the way that Madison was used to show the differences between Logan and Scarlett, but also that compromises were possible.  Though there are times she seems a bit spoiled, most of the time she has a great outlook.  I loved her relationships with both Scarlett and Logan and how important she was to both of them.  Though she could have communicated her intentions better, I loved the way she took charge of her life at the end.

We got a bit of a mystery in this first book of the series when Scarlett inherits a whole bunch of information about many people in Vegas, including her own family.  There is some information about one of her sisters that could cause a lot of heartache and trouble and Scarlett isn't sure what to do about it.  It also puts her in some danger as she is attacked and some of the files are stolen.  While that culprit is caught, I suspect that the information about her sister will have an important part in a later book.