Review: Romeo Romeo by Robin Kaye

Rosalie has just escaped from the family dinner where her Italian mama has been haranguing her to get married and have babies when she has a flat tire. She also has no spare. Furiously cursing her luck and her brother (who was supposed to have gotten her a spare), she is kicking the car when a wrecker pulls over to help her. Nick is gorgeous and charming and despite herself, Rosalie finds her hormones at attention. They spar all the way to her house and somehow end up with a date scheduled. What Nick doesn't tell Rosalie though, is that he is really Dominick Romeo, wealthy car dealer, not just Nick the mechanic.

And after their first date, it seems impossible to tell her who he really is. Not only is it refreshing to him to be wanted for himself rather than his money, but as a kid he was friends with Rosalie's older brother and the two of them were arrested together. The good news is that both Rosalie and Nick are completely against marriage, for different reasons, and they agree to keep their relationship monogamous but not serious. When it is no longer fun for one or the other, they will walk away with no hurt feelings. Of course, neither of them realize that real true love is creeping up on them. And it is complicated by Nick's subterfuge about who he is (although Rosalie knows) as well as by the fact that he is the person who had been dropping rumors about the uncertain financial position of the dealership Roaslie has just been retained to turn around and make successful again (Rosalie doesn't know this bombshell).

This contemporary romance has some pretty steamy sex scenes in it. It also has some pretty entertaining scenes in the bosom of Roaslie's nutjob family. The secondary characters really help to move the plot along and inject some levity into the story. Rosalie's reason for not wanting love and marriage is understandable but Nick's is rather sillier, highlighting a blind spot in his character that wasn't necessary. Watching Nick be stymied by a woman who is everything he purports to want (independent, casual, natural, and uninterested in anything more emotionally binding than sex) is pretty entertaining. Their chemistry is believable and with the exception of one stereotypical and unneccessary plot twist at the end, the storyline cooks along of its own accord. This is a fun romp of a romance and fans of contemporaries will thoroughly enjoy it.