Housewife Blues and Chihuahua Stories

Book Info
Paperback, 224 pages
Expected publication: September 16th 2014 by Harlequin
ISBN 0373798199 (ISBN13: 9780373798193)
other editions (1)
Source:Netgalley EARC

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BOOK SYNOPSIS

Winner takes it all...off
Former diving champion Piper Clark never loses. Unfortunately, if she doesn't land this lucrative contract, her diving business will fail. Worse still, it will be at the hands of her childhood nemesis, Cal Brennan--six feet of hard, rugged former Navy SEAL. So Piper proposes a wager: whoever loses the diving contract must take orders from the winner...in bed.
Cal needs this contract for his own reasons. A former rescue swimmer, he may be having a few issues with diving since his last mission ended, but Piper doesn't need to know that. Something about her impulsive nature makes Cal rise to the bait, and there's nothing he'd like more than to show Piper exactly what rules are good for.
All bets are on. And someone's about to start playing dirty...

My Thoughts

When read the description for this story it sounded like a light summertime book that had an enjoyable locale as well as characters that would be fairly easy to relate to.

Piper Clark is a young woman who from the time they met when she was six has had a competitive streak where Cal Brennan is concerned, now 26 to his 30 their relationship is still full of playful banter but at some point it became edged with unexpected heat that has caused them both to rethink where they stand with each other.

Cal Brennan, the former Navy SEAL rescue swimmer, is Piper’s main stumbling block to winning a contract that will allow her to fulfill her dreams with her dive business. He and two of his fellow SEAL’s also have a dive business and like Piper wish to expand so they can add on to their team of divers as well as a second base of operations.

Piper had to let go of her long held dream of competitive platform diving when a devastating injury to her knee cost her the ability to perform at a professional diving level, her life has since moved in a different direction and the joyful freedom of underwater diving has replaced what she lost. However, without winning the bid to provide diving services for the Fiesta Cruise Line she will also lose the ability to buy out her business partner to someone else’s offer.

Never one to back down from a challenge Piper issues a bet to Cal that the loser owes the winner a night in bed, a night that will be spent fulfilling the other’s demands.

Cal accepts the dare and when the pair are forced to work together as part of the stipulations by the board for the Cruise Line he finds that spending more time with Piper is not the hardship he was afraid it would turn into, rather the more time in her company the more he finds himself drawn to the spirited beautiful woman she has become!

The combustible relationship that develops between Cal and Piper soon proves to both that no matter what their past encounters were like growing up they are now fully compatible in so many more ways than just in bed, however that in no way hinders either one from giving it all to prove their diving business is the best one for the job with Fiesta Cruise.

Smooth, easy, fun and totally friends to lovers contemporary romance that is a perfect summer reading experience as it flows so well from chapter to chapter you forget that the story is about fictional characters Cal and Piper instead of old friends you have known for 20 years or more.

[EArc from Netgalley in exchange for honest review]