Fooling Around by Noelle Adams Pages: 244
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Goodreads
In this steamy novel from New York Times bestselling author Noelle Adams, a notorious tech mogul makes a mild-mannered woman an offer she can’t refuse. What he gets is a battle for control—and a million-dollar affair. Eric Vincent isn’t in the habit of asking for help. As the founder of a lucrative sports videogame franchise, he’s accustomed to getting his way and enjoying the fruits of his hard-earned success. Then all his illusions of dominance are shattered by a skiing accident that leaves him hobbled, facing a string of surgeries and months of immobility. The only way he’s going to survive is with someone by his side to anticipate his every desire. Someone who will devote every waking second to his comfort. Someone like Julie Nelson . . . Julie’s life revolves around other people: her students, her parents, her sister. But even she has her limits. Julie has zero interest in playing personal assistant to Eric Vincent, a man who’s as arrogant as he is charismatic . . . until he ups the salary to one million dollars for three months’ work. Soon Julie’s struggling to bite her tongue—and resist the chemistry that draws her to Eric. But after one scorching kiss, Julie decides it’s finally her turn to be selfish. And this time, she’s going to get what she wants. Includes a special message from the editor, as well as an excerpt from another Loveswept title.
Fooling Around
Noelle Adams
Fooling Around is the story of a rich asshole who finds himself in need of assistance. He has broken his leg in 3 places and is pretty much immobile. He finds that the previous nurses he has hired are all annoying. Honestly, I think he really wanted a mind reader. He didn’t want to have to tell the nurses what he needed but instead just expected them to know. He meets Julie in an elevator and she seems to be able to tell what he needs without having to speak the words. He decides to offer her a million bucks to work for him for the 3 months he is immobile. Honestly, Eric is a bit of an ass. He has led a very privileged life filled with pro football and video game design that left him with more money than manners. Julie was a sympathetic character-she has spent the past few years caring for her parents while putting her doctorate on hold. Now that both her parents are gone, she is struggling with what to do and how to move on with her life now that there is no one to care for. So, I feel like she would have taken the job with Eric because she needed that familiarity back; taking care of people was all she knew. It made it difficult for me to really respect Julie’s decisions and it made her seem immature for a 30 year old. However, as the reader, I understood why she made the choices she did; I didn’t agree with them and I thought she was a bit spineless, but I understood.
Eric has a daughter from a one night stand who is very ill. Julie has an insufferable sister. I really hated her sister Marie. I really wanted Julie to just beat the shit out of her. Alas, my wish was not granted. I found myself skimming the book. LOTS of skimming. Julie has some esteem issues that got a bit tired. Eric is also super emotionally immature which got old as well. He gets close, he starts to catch feelings, then he promptly pulls back with no explanation. Then she decides to run away. Its all very immature for 2 people in their 30’s.
I think this trope has been done better by other authors. Adam’s writing isn’t bad but it just didn’t really engage me. I think maybe if there were more character depth or more tension I might have been more drawn into the story in Fooling Around.
- POV: 3rd (with alternating focus between Julie and Eric)
- Tears: no
- Trope: Single parent, billionaire
- Triggers: none
- Series/Standalone: Stand alone
- Cliffhanger: No
- HEA: View Spoiler »
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