Lead Me On Book Review *Victoria Dahl*

Victoria Dahl has a great way of writing Dudley Doo Right heroines. At first glance, what you see is what you get. But this is never the case when getting to know a Dahl heroine. I love reading about these women, where they look inside themselves and come to the conclusion they want something better in their lives. It could be a new outlook on the way they live their life or perhaps letting out that libido they’ve ignored or never tapped into because they’re waiting for the right man to come along and guide them to that sexual nirvana we all wish we could experience.

Lead Me On is another solid romance with a heroine who tries so hard to turn her back on everything that made her into the woman she is today. Jane Morgan is everything prim and proper, but all for a reason. She is living a lie that eats her up inside. And the moment she meets William Chase, a hunky blue collar worker with lickable arm tattoos who owns a company where he blows up things, Jane must face her past and those demons that still chase her after so many years later.

Jane is the office manager for architect Quinn Jennings (hero in Start Me Up). Quinn would be lost without Jane because she keeps the office running smoothly. Jane’s life is also very orderly. She started dating an assistant district attorney because he embodies the perfect balance she’s been wanting all her life. But her attorney is pretty boring, among other things, and with that she breaks up with him to his shock. Jane will be turning thirty in a few days and longs for marriage and children, but wants hot sex. As Jane ponders a romance with a man who is respectable and can still give her smoldering, wall banging sex, her family matters are about to blow up in her face. Her brother Jessie is a major delinquent who’s been arrested for stealing. Her mother wants Jane to help Jessie because this time his actions will have major consequences. Also, Jane’s step-father, Mac, who is a former convict, but turned his life around, gives up on Jessie. Jane owes Mac a lot because when she was teenager, she was pretty wild, and he gave her guidance. Jane thinks of herself as a fraud because no matter how much she has changed on the outside she is still that former trailer park white trash party girl.

As soon as everything in Jane’s life starts going down the toilet, Chase makes his appearance. On the outside Chase is everything Jane wants to run away from. He looks exactly like those men she used to be attracted to that got her into so much trouble. But on the inside Chase is a big marshmallow. Chase and Jane’s lives have crossed once before even though it takes Chase sometime to figure it out. Chase is able to see the real woman Jane is inside and even though she tells him to hit the road, he won’t. He wants to crack the mystery that is Jane Morgan. He wants a relationship with her, not just a physical one even though she thinks sex will keep him at bay. But Chase is not easily manipulated and he is willing to take on Jane, her screwed up family, and help her brother who is being accused of murder. Jane’s world is crashing all around her and as much as she pushes Chase away, he keeps sticking around because he knows Jane is very special.

The way Chase and Jane interact with each other leads to some good times between them. These fun times are not just the sex, when Jane let’s go and is quite the wildcat, but the way Chase won’t back down from Jane’s ultimatums. Jane says some things to Chase that makes him walk away, but he always came back because he knows this is Jane’s way to cope and keep all emotional relationships at a distance. How Chase is so intuitive to Jane may take some suspension of belief, but the reason may be from their similar backgrounds.

Jane wishes everything was cut and dry and can’t understand that being perfect is not all it’s cracked up to be. Chase channels her imperfections. He wants her to embrace them and not just her passion and lust she has for him and the actual sex act she is able to enjoy. He wants her to loosen up and be proud of who she is because she has come so far from that vulnerable girl who almost went down a path her brother has travelled.

Chase and Jane are written as two very mature adults who are trying to find happiness and security even though they feel it eludes them. When they figure out they can’t change those around them, including those outside forces that cause them grief no matter how hard they try to elude them, then they can work on their new found feelings for one another. Their happily ever after will take work on both their ends but as long as they are honest with one another, they will be able to achieve it.

There are some moments of humor in Lead Me On, especially when you find out what Jane’s true name is and the way Chase tries to understand Jane’s desperate need for physical love. Chase refuses to be a stud service for Jane and he confronts her every chance he can get. Their encounters are steamy even though I would have liked a bit more of them over the investigating they do together in regard to Jessie.

I always find a Victoria Dahl book a pleasing read and so is the case of Lead Me On. Jane leads William Chase on a “merry chase”, and one readers will likely enjoy. I also give major kudos to Victoria writing a heroine, such as Jane, who underneath it all is a woman with sexual needs and is not ashamed to admit she has them and won’t settle for a dead fish in her bed. (January, HQN)

Final Grade: B