Hot Property pulled out all the stops. Crazy family, hormone overload, danger and the struggle to save a career. So much was going on, I felt like I was watching a soap opera. Working at Hot Zone, Amy has a lot to live up to. So John and his band of chaos proves an uphill battle. The price is high but she's up for the challenge. Until she loses her heart along the way. It's easy to get lost in the organized chaos that is Hot Property. ( )

I liked this story but it spent too much time on the hero's dysfunctional family dynamics and it was hard to believe it really changed. I did like when the hero wanted to work through problems with the heroine. Amy's first job as publicist is to organize John who is recovering from a baseball injury. ( )

Amy Stone has moved to New York City to become the latest addition to the highly successful (both professionally and at matchmaking) athlete PR agency Hot Zone. And her first client is John Roper, the incredibly sexy star baseball player whose disastrous last season left him injured and dejected. She has to make sure Roper focuses on rehab - and not on the distractions of his needy family (a down-and-out brother who blames John for his lack of success, family wars over his sister's wedding, and a drama queen mother scared of a new career and a new relationship with an old flame) or her own growing attraction to him. She's got a lot on her plate, especially since the last thing publicity-shy Amy can deal with is the limelight that comes with dating a hunky baseball star.

Chemistry hits our main characters fast in this story, and I loved that from their very first contact things just seem to sizzle. My favorite scene in the book comes very early on: A New Year's Eve party gone wrong that turns into Amy sleeping on the couch in Roper's apartment. He's an absolute (though reluctant) gentleman, and the description of him the next morning all tousled and shirtless ratcheted up the yum-factor. The initial chemistry is what had me burning through the pages, but unfortunately it seemed like a lot of that was lost as their relationship progressed. Not that the book was disappointing. I liked it. It just didn't quite live up to the promise of its early scenes.

I don't usually much care for stories about star athletes. There tends to be an awful lot of ego and testosterone flying around. I needn't have worried in this case. John is a self-avowed metrosexual - he gets massages and pampered, he's good at interior decorating, he's a great cook. But we never get the idea that he's any less masculine for all that. He's strong, caring and dependable, and as the shirtless with low-slung jeans scene (did I mention that was my favorite?) demonstrates aallllll hunky male.

I thought his conflict was well-handled. John had to grow up to early and became the crutch the rest of his family relied on. Because he was the most put-together of all of them, and because he was the most successful, the most reliable. But now he's breaking down under the weight of their expectations which leave him no time to focus on his own needs and career. He can't say no because he loves them too much. This is definitely a familiar dilemma. I see this played out in a similar vein in my own family a great deal.

Where the book made a bit of a misstep in my eyes was with Amy. Her conflict was, when it all boiled down, exactly the same as Roper's. I didn't like that much. I know it's true that people often are great at managing everybody else's problems and can't handle their own, but Amy cleared her dilemma up with a single quick realization scene - a scene it took Roper weeks and a retreat to accomplish. I guess the issue that lost Hot Property the four star rating it would definitely otherwise have garnered is that Amy's turnaround was too fast and too easy. Deep-seated emotional issues don't get solved by public declarations of love. Period.

That aside, I really enjoyed the story and the characters. It was a good read, and definitely not one that I regret. Hot Property is the fourth book in Carly Phillips Hot Zone series. I haven't read the previous ones, but I'm certainly interested now!

Also posted at my blog ( )