Rating: ★★★★ | 354 pages | Sourcebooks Casablanca | Contemporary | 9/26/2017 | Buy Now !
When self-proclaimed homebody Sadie Liberato is made to attend a Halloween party she plans to stake out a corner and fill up on the food.What she doesn’t plan on is hooking up with a masked devil or punching his ex-fiancée in the face. Sadie quickly learns her one night stand is Harrison “Gear” Blackstone, a custom motorcycle designer who was just kicked off his own reality show by said conspiring ex-fiancée Gear and Sadie’s chemistry is undeniable but they’ve both been hurt by love in the past and just want a friends with benefits situation, if only it didn’t feel like everyone around them wanted them fall in love.
Honestly, if I’ve reviewed an author twice they are already on my keeper shelf and this is another keeper. Harte has this great way of developing round characters with rich backstories, motivations and chemistry that makes them so easy to root for. And her dialogue is on fire; the characters talk in this part joke-y/part heckling manner–trading jabs back and forth that is just so fun to read once you get the hang of it. Speaking of fun, this was the first Halloween romance I’ve ever read and it’s a really amusing theme for a book because Halloween is all about frivolity and silliness. Between all the scenes about relationship angst and DTR moments, characters are munching on candywatching scary movies and wearing silly costumes.
Sadie Liberator has to be one of my favorite contemporary romance characters ever. She’s such an interesting hodge podge of tropes. Typically it’s the hero who is the emotionally distant, buff, gym rat but in this case it’s the heroine. The book often describes her as being more masculine, not traditionally pretty and obnoxious, which she is, but then she’s also a pastry chef and just likes to create yummy treats. I felt like she could have gone in a “I’m not like the other girls” direction but it really doesn’t.
All I Want for Halloween is filled with equal parts Halloween hijinks and romance with a few tricks but also oh so many treats.
Now, this is a standalone but it does seem like the hero, Gear, is putting together his own custom motorcycle building garage with two mechanics named Smoke and Chains (as you do) and according to Harte’s website she has an unnamed contemporary series coming out in 2018 so I wonder of that is what it’s about…
Also, while this is a standalone this book does take place in the same town as Harte’s McCauley Brother’s, Donnigans and Body Shop Bad Boys series. I spotted Cyn and Foley from Roadside Assistance and Sadie’s cousin is the protagonist of A Sure Thing so in the back of my head I was trying to piece it all together. I’m going to have to get around to all of these one day!
*Received for review from NetGalley