Review: Even the Score by Kate Meader
Even The Score
Book One
253 Pages
Release Date: 07/21/2015
Publisher: Entangled Publishing | Imprint: Brazen
Genre: Contemporary Romance | Series Romance
Series: Tall, Dark, and Texan
He’ll make her an offer she can’t refuse…
Actress Tess McKenzie is performing in the Tenth Circle of Showbiz Hell-dinner theater. All she really wants is to start a theater of her own. Then Tess receives an offer she can’t refuse. She’ll get her funding…if she pretends to be the fiancée to her nemesis, Texan property tycoon Hunter Dade. If she’s going to pull this off, she’ll need all the luck she can get. Break a leg, indeed.
On the verge of a big business deal, Hunter needs to hire a fiancée. He hasn’t quite forgiven Tess for ruining his wedding, but when their chemistry goes from combative to straight-up lust, the “no sex” clause in their mutually beneficial arrangement is tested. Which is a serious problem, because if Tess isn’t careful, she’ll go from breaking a leg to breaking her heart…
*ARC provided by Publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review *
Even The Score by Kate Meader is a newly released contemporary romance from Entangled Brazen about a disillusioned theater actress and an angry, revenge-minded property tycoon. Thanks to her prior interference in his life—on his wedding day, Tess McKenzie is the last woman on earth Hunter Dade wants to spend any of his time with, but he needs a fake fiancé if he’s to win over a morals-minded potential client and as far as Hunter’s concerned, Tess owes him.
This is a new to me author so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect in reading it, but it turned out to be a good read. Well-written, interesting characters, and an opening setting that proved visually engaging. Through the first chapter, I kept imagining the dinner theater as a darkly-lit bordello or an old-timey Tombstone-esque western bar, which made me laugh since the place is in Chicago. But made for a fun scene, picturing it like I did.
Since this is an enemies to lovers, fake-fiancée story, which is among my favorite themes to read, I had high expectations for the characters and their story journey. I don’t know if I would say this book is among my favorite reads for the given themes, but I can honestly say it’s a good read for them. It’s hot, the characters are likeable and relatable, and I believed in their attraction and chemistry to each other fairly early on in the story.
I liked that Hunter could rattle Tess and make her lose her footing even when she tried her best to play it cool. He got beneath her skin and I think the author did a great job showcasing that in this story. And I could definitely see why he would, too. He’s very much a take charge kind of guy, but his emotions are intense and run deep, which I loved.
If you love enemies to lovers, fake-relationship stories, Even The Score is an excellent romance read. The story is sexy, hot, fun, and engaging, the characters are dynamic and realistic, and the scene settings feel unique and natural to the characters and the story, which is yet another huge plus about this read for me. Definitely recommend checking this one out, folks!
Kate writes sexy contemporary romance with alpha heroes and strong heroines who can match their men quip for quip. Her latest series, Hot in Chicago, features the Dempseys, a family of firefighting foster siblings who scorch the pages both in and out of the bedroom!
Sounds like a hot read! I like the enemies to friends stories, it’s quite hard to do that believably without just flipping a switch.
http://libbycole.wordpress.com
It’s such a good read! I really loved the characters and the dynamic between them, and I enjoyed the story more and more as I read it.