Rafe's Revenge - Anne Stuart

HIS REPUTATION PRECEDED HIM

Too late, film critic Silver Carlysle discovered what kind of enemy she'd made when her scathing reviews launched an all-out war with movie mogul Rafe McGinnis.

Rafe was reputed to be cold-blooded, cynical and predatory. And when he took ruthless steps to undermine her career, Silver swore she'd never surrender.

But no one had warned her that Rafe's smoldering sensuality would set her blood on fire. Or that each new skirmish would only fuel their mutual desire.

Silver knew she was in danger, but she couldn't surrender. Rafe had laid out his terms: nothing less than a night in her arms would satisfy him.

Another of Anne Stuart's older books (isn't that cover something? :-S) with an alpha hero and a heroine to match him. It is set in Hollywood and the hero is a famous Hollywood producer. The heroine is a movie critic who keeps trashing his films in the paper.

While in one or two scenes the hero gets to be a bit too macho I think in general these two were actually a perfect couple as the heroine gave as good as she got. For instance when the hero plans a dinner date to suggest to everyone that she is in fact his lover and is only against him because they had a lover's spat, the heroine decides to find the most hideous dress just to make him look ridiculous next to her. Besides those bad reviews he is interested in doing a movie the heroine believes she has the rights to and doesn't want to relinquish them.

It's a battle of wills that I really enjoyed, they were both very stubborn and that made for some good dialog. I did like the hero a bit more than the heroine - although he was overbearing most of the time - but she seemed to still be very much attached to the past and her problems with her parents. Too much I felt.

The ending was wonderful; truly the stuff romance is made of with the hero totally changing his attitude and behaviour towards what he wanted. Really nice!

Grade: 4/5