Parks and Provocations

de Juliette Cross (2022) - SmartyPants Romance

Résumé : Lola Landry stares through the window of her locked car with the keys in the ignition and the radio blaring Beck’s “Loser.” While standing there and sweltering in the soupy Tennessee humidity, she wonders how her orderly life had crashed and burned so badly. Then her high school nemesis saunters up in all of his tall, strapping, fireman-to-the-rescue glory, slapping her with the humiliating proof that it can always get worse.

When the uber-confident Jedediah Lawson requests a date in return for popping her lock, a lightbulb goes off. Revenge is sweet. He would make the perfect victim—guest, that is—for her next podcast episode on Kiss and Tell. What shocks her is the casual way he not only agrees to the post-date interview on air, but ends up hijacking her audience and wooing them with his swoony, southern charm. Not even a low score on the date-o-meter can dissuade the man or keep her fans from demanding more of the charismatic Jed.

What’s worse, she secretly wants a second date with this man who is so different from his teenage self. His unwavering patience and dimpled smile erodes her will, until she breaks the Kiss and Tell rules by agreeing to a second…and a third date. It’s a disaster. Not the date. They’re wonderful. The disaster is that she is falling for a man she once dubbed Jockstrap Jed.


Si vous ne voulez pas vous prendre la tête sur une intrigue compliquée et que vous voulez couiner à chaque apparition du héros, cette romance slow burn est faites pour vous !

Lola et Jed se connaissent du lycée, au début ils avaient rien l'un contre l'autre, et puis un jour c'est devenu un champs de bataille. Dès que Lola a pu partir de Green Valley, elle l'a fait, pour l'université et un boulot, mais voilà quelques années plus tard, elle obligée de revenir. En attendant qu'une meilleur opportunité arrive, elle partage son temps entre un job de serveuse et l'animation de son podcast "Kiss'n Tell" avec sa meilleure amie. Le sujet du podcast ? Débriefer les premiers rencarts qu'elle a, en faisant participer aussi les messieurs.

Jed quant à lui a dû arrêter ses études pour s'occuper de son père et est devenu pompier professionnel. Il est habitué à voir tout et n'importe quoi à Green Valley, alors quand sa soeur lui demande si il peut aller secourir quelqu'un qui a verrouillé sa voiture avec les clés dedans, il y va sans sourciller. Quelle surprise quand il découvre que le quelqu'un n'est autre que Lola, son grand crush d'ado, que dis-je ? C'est son grand amour, celle qui lui a échappé... Cette rencontre fortuite, c'est l'occasion rêvé, il invite Lola à diner. Et Lola va accepter, seulement pour elle ce sera un cobaye pour son podcast, de quoi se venger des misères que Jed lui faisait au lycée...

Seulement un rendez-vous c'est pas assez, Jed insiste pour qu'ils se revoient, une 2e, puis une 3e fois. Pour Lola c'est dans l'intérêt du podcast ? Quoi que... plus elle passe du temps avec Jed, plus elle oublis son émission.

Ce slow burn fait très bien son travail, Jed séduit petit à petit Lola, qui essaie de résister, mais au final à quoi bon hein... surtout après une certaine scène à la caserne avec tous les pompiers, comment résister. Evidemment le happy ending n'arrive pas comme ça, il fallait bien un petit challenge à traverser pour Lola.

If you don't want a complicated plot and want to squeal every time the hero appears, this slow burn romance is for you !

Lola and Jed know each other from high school, at first they liked each other, and then one day it became a battlefield. As soon as Lola could leave Green Valley, she did, for college and a job, but a few years later she had to come back. While waiting for a better opportunity, she divides her time between a waitress's job and the animation of her podcast "Kiss'n Tell" with her best friend. The topic of the podcast ? Talk about the first dates she has, involving the gentlemen too.

Jed meanwhile had to stop his studies to take care of his father and became a professional firefighter. He's used to seeing anything and everything in Green Valley, so when his sister asks if he can go rescue someone who's locked their car with the keys in it, he goes without batting an eyelid. What a surprise when he discovers that the someone is none other than Lola, his big teenage crush, what am I saying ? She is his great love, the one that got away... This fortuitous meeting is the perfect opportunity, he asks Lola to dinner. And Lola accept, only for her it will be a test subject for her podcast, enough to take revenge for the miseries that Jed caused her in high school...

Only one date is not enough, Jed insists that they meet again, a 2nd, then a 3rd time. For Lola is it all in the interests of the podcast ? Well... the more time she spends with Jed, the more she forgets about her show.

This slow burn does its job very well, Jed gradually seduces Lola, who tries to resist, but in the end what's the point... especially after a certain scene at the barracks with all the firefighters, how to resist. Obviously the happy ending doesn't happen like that, there had to be a little challenge for Lola to go through.

 

Find Juliette Cross online
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/juliettecrossauthor
Twitter : https://twitter.com/Juliette__Cross
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Website : https://www.juliettecross.com/
Goodreads : https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7795664.Juliette_Cross
Pinterest : https://www.pinterest.com/crossjuliette/_saved/

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