Golden Heat by Ju Ephraime

I received the book, Golden Heat by Ju Ephraime as a review copy from Njkinny’s tours and promotions and would like to thank Nikita for the same. This book is the story of two strong willed characters, Andy and Bernie, set in New Mexico.

The blurb:

Andy rushes into the lounge area of the Crown & Bull where he’s meeting Bernie. Taking a seat where he can observe the entrance, he orders a Scotch on the rocks and sits back to wait a bit. Just then, a strikingly gorgeous woman walks through the revolving doors. This is the kind of woman who drives a man to drink, he thinks sardonically.

It takes him a moment to realize she’s coming toward him. Man, she’s gorgeous; beautiful is too mediocre a word to describe her. She has a body that makes a man twitch just watching her, and he has the itch. He’s so busy trying to conceal the evidence of her effect on his body that he is taken by surprised when she addresses him.

“Mr. Redfield? I’m Bernie Harp.”

The voice is a husky contralto that makes the blood vacate Andy’s brain and rush to his masculine parts. He has to take a deep breath to slow down his heart rate. His powerful physical response to the woman irritates him. God damn it, he was expecting a man. James never told him the investigator was a woman. He’d foolishly assumed, with a name like Bernie, it had to be a man. —–, he needs a moment to get himself together. So, instead of responding immediately, he sips his drink that the waiter had put in front of him a few moments earlier. Without saying a word, he lets the mellow taste of the liquor course its way through him like a kiss from the lips of a sensuous woman—like the one standing in front of him now, with her hand extended. Only after the taste on his tongue has dissipated to a shimmering echo of heat does he look up. Why, he asks himself, would a woman who looks like this, be named Bernie?

The story:

Andy is a real estate agent, a billionaire, who has inherited a treasure from his father. But he does not know where it is hidden. All he knows is that it is hidden in one of his many properties. And he wants to look for the treasure. So he approaches his friend James.

Bernie Harp is a boxing champion and a private investigator and James is their family friend and asks Bernie to help him with it. Bernie agrees only on one condition that she will first see the client at a neutral place without the client knowing it and if the client seems OK, she would agree to it.

They are physically attracted to each other and Bernie wants to keep it a professional relationship until things go out of her hand. The treasure is discovered and Bernie runs away.

Read the rest of the story to find out what happens next.

My take:

The characters are strong willed. The main story starts after Bernie runs away because only then did I get an insight to why is Bernie the way she is. I for one am a stickler for romance but I missed the emotional part in the story.

The book is ok for a one time read..

Book Source: Njkinny Tours and Promotions