Love Me If You Dare by Carly Phillips
Bachelor Blogs, Book 2
HQN
Contemporary
ISBN: 978-0373774708
Reviewed by Shayna




When NYPD hostage negotiator Rafe Mancuso is injured protecting his former partner, Sara Rios, he has no idea that his actions will make him the newest target of the now-infamous Bachelor Blog.  With the blog spotlighting him as New York’s most eligible bachelor, Rafe decides it’s time to hide out in his home town of Hidden Falls.  Spending time with his zany family will surely keep the damn blog off his mind…not to mention the all-too-alluring Sara.  Then Sara shows up on his doorstep, needing a place to hide out while she also recuperates and waits to testify in an upcoming trial, and Rafe’s noble intentions fly out the window.  Close quarters mean mounting sexual tension, but Rafe wants happily ever after and Sara doesn’t believe in it.  Can New York’s most eligible bachelor get the city’s most commitment-phobic bachelorette to walk down the aisle?

Carly Phillips charms readers with the absolutely delightful Love Me If You Dare.  Rafe and Sara are two protagonists that are absolutely perfect for one another…if they can stay together.  Sara’s pessimistic about love, but Ms. Phillips made her fears about relationships understandable.  Sara’s past has done nothing but create and validate her belief that a cop can’t have a happily ever after kind of relationship and it will take all of Rafe’s considerable persuasive skills to get Sara to take a chance on them.  And what woman could resist Rafe?  He’s got the whole package: kindness, patience, generosity, and dangerously high levels of sensuality.  I admit, I kinda wanted to toss Sara out of the way and claim Rafe myself (if only that were possible).

Love Me If You Dare is the second Bachelor Blogs book, but if you don’t mind a few spoilers from the first story, Kiss Me If You Can, then Rafe and Sara’s story can be read as a standalone.  I should also mention that Love Me If You Dare features not one, but two love stories, as there is a lovely subplot involving Rafe’s brother Nick who is separated from and trying to win back his wife, Angel.  Nick and Angel were every bit as endearing as Rafe and Sara, so it was easy to become invested in their romance.

Love Me If You Dare is an entertaining read from start to finish that fans of Ms. Phillips, both new and old, are sure to enjoy.  I finished Love Me If You Dare a well-satisfied reader and am looking forward to revisiting Rafe and Sara’s romance many times over.