You Don't Know Jack

You Don't Know Jack Erin McCarthy Grade: B- Sensuality: Hot

When I last blogged about Erin McCarthy, I mentioned that as far as I had made it into You Don't Know Jack, too much of the page count was devoted to sexual activities for a straight contemporary romance. For an erotic romance there wasn't quite enough sex, and as this is marketed as a straight contemporary, my initial observation stands: As much as I enjoy McCarthy's voice, her characters, her humor, and yes, her love scenes in this one, take the sex out there's not a whole lot left.

Jonathon "Jack" Davidson just retired after making millions as a Wall Street trader, and Jamie Peters is a social worker. After being told by one of her "success stories", who happens to be a cross-dressing psychic, that she will meet her soul mate during an accident involving food, she's primed when, in fact, she meets Jack on the New York City subway while bumping into him and spilling his jar of spaghetti sauce all over his shirt. Conversation ensues, as well as a plan to meet for dinner the next night, after which they return to his apartment and act upon their incredible attraction throughout the night. Many times, in various and sundry ways, and with great humor and chemistry.

It isn't until the next morning that Jamie discovers that Jack is none other than her roommate's brother. This horrifies her; not only did Jack lie to her, he's a "suit." What she doesn't know would horrify her further; he's currently investigating her grant proposal to his grandfather's charitable trust for illegalities.

The remainder of the book focuses on Jack's fairly quick realization that Jamie, while not his usual "type", is somebody he cannot let get away from him. And on Jamie's slowly giving in to the fact that try as she might, she is falling in love with a man she fears will hurt her horribly in the end.

Jack is not your typical Gordon Gekko alpha hero. While, as he tells Jamie during an extremely hot love scene, "I can be gentle, I can be loving, but it'll always be raw with me" - gosh, isn't that wonderful? - he contemplates giving away all his money if Jamie will give him another chance. Jack has no intention of hurting her, and shows her in the most delicious of ways, not all of which are physical. Eventually Jamie sees that while Jack is gorgeous, and a suit, he's a genuinely nice man.

There's not a whole lot to this book. That first night they spend together eats up quite a lot of word count. And yet McCarthy's style, her characters, and their interactions so engaged me that I didn't realize until I'd finished that there was very little of substance to the story. Yes, Jamie has trust issues because of her parents' relationship - or lack thereof - and her self-confidence as a woman is low because, until Jack, no man ever saw her as a particularly sexual being and he sees her as a goddess. I appreciated that of the two issues, the author didn't dwell on Jamie's self-doubt and instead focused on the trust problem, but this book is more of a souffle than a main course. Of course, there's nothing wrong with an airy treat every now and then, but I don't like paying main course prices for dessert, and buying this in trade format, at $14.00, annoyed me.

I really enjoy Erin McCarthy and in a blog comment regarding my discussion of Smart Mouth, Alyssa mentioned that McCarthy's next book, out in November, is not with Brava. I hope it's another light, fluffy, and sexy one, but if it's as airy as You Don't Know Jack, that it's not released in trade format. I can't afford many trade books on my budget, and being patient with auto-buy authors isn't something that comes easy.

TTFN, Laurie Likes Books

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