Good steamy romance about a couple that must overcome sad situations & his chauvinism. After shoulder injury, famous swimmer Poppy takes a job as sports writer but experienced star reporter & author Jake doesn't think she deserves the job.
( )

I bought this book because I've enjoyed Mayberry novels in the past, but I was kind of put off when I realized the hero and heroine are both journalists. As it turned out, there was no reason to worry. The characters were stellar and their careers played a minor role in the overall story.

I liked both Jake and Poppy. Our first impression of Jake isn't a favorable one. He resents Poppy being hired with so little journalist experience and sets out to let her know right away. He isn't one of the wounded-heart types who's only an ass to hide his true feelings. He's just isn't afraid to say what's on his mind.

Although Poppy is out of her depth and intimidated by Jake, she doesn't let him walk all over her. She stands up for herself and gives as good as she gets. Although writing is a new career for her and doesn't come naturally, she's determined to make it work.

Overall this was a very sweet love story with solid characters. I every much enjoyed it. ( )

Her Secret Fling by Sarah Mayberry - C . I had a bit more trouble than usual getting into this one. Perhaps it's is because I am Australian and I'm familiar with various ex-Olympic swimming stars who have taken up a role in the media after their retirement and I kept trying to work out which one Poppy was based on. I had to take 2 goes at it which is unusual for me but after finishing Home for the Holidays I thought I'd pick it up again. The book nearly became a wallbanger for me when Poppy and hero Jake are in BRISBANE (Queensland) for the AFL GRAND FINAL where 40,000 people attend. Um, sorry but not just no, HELL NO! Sure, the Gabba (which is where the Brisbane Lions play their home games has a maximum capacity of 40,000 so, as far as that went, that was accurate) but any self-respecting Australian (or any non-self respecting Australian with, you know, GOOGLE) KNOWS that the AFL Grand Final is ALWAYS and HAS ONLY EVER BEEN at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground - yeah, I know, but they play footy there too). The AFL Grand Final is a massive big deal (in fact, this year, such a big deal they played it twice) and attracts a capacity crowd to the MCG well in excess of 100,000 - and that's only because they can't fit any more people in. I understand that the author needed to get the characters interstate to further the plot, but could they not have been attending a preliminary final instead? For any other author, I would have thrown the book at the wall (except that would have ruined my Reader, so not really) but I decided to give her a pass this time - but I still marked the book down a bit. Grand Final in Brisbane? As. If.As for the rest of the story, it was a pleasant but fairly standard story of a committment phobic hero and a young ingenue - I thought the conflict was resolved too quickly at the end and Jake started to lose some of his alpha mystique in the doing of it. Not my favourite Mayberry.ETA: I commented on DA recently about this and Ms. Mayberry replied. She told me that she had meant to put an explanation in the reader letter at the front of the book. She wanted the characters in Brisbane and particularly wanted to use the AFL Grand Final - I think the preliminary final or the NRL Grand Final (rugby league) would have worked better - they could both have legitimately been in Brisbane. I appreciated her taking the time to comment though. ( )

Sarah Mayberry very quickly became one of my favourite authors. Her Best Friend inspired me to read her entire backlist in the space of five minutes (which I’m not sure was the best idea). Her Secret Fling is definitely my least favourite so far.

What I like so much about Mayberry’s books is that I’m going to remember them for long after I’ve read them. They’re marketed as category romances, but they’re so much more. However this one was definitely more on the generic category romance side of things – I’m not sure I’ll be thinking about this one for long – and the weird Americanisation of the story (which is set in Melbourne in Australia) drove me insane. I thought the beginning of the book was much stronger than the end, mostly because there wasn’t a particularly strong conflict between the couple once they got together.

WHY does this author remove everything Australian from her Australian books, and replace it with American slang and terminology?! Why not just set your book in another country then?

Nobody in Oceania (or Britain, for that matter) calls petrol ‘gas’ or petrol stations ‘gas stations’, or rubbish ‘trash’, or mobile phones 'cell phones', or an arse an 'ass', or takeaway food 'takeout'!! It’s maths, not ‘math’. And we don’t call our mothers ‘Mom’!!
Mayberry does this in all of her books, but for some reason this one seemed worse. ( )