Lead Me On [Mass Market Paperback]

Disclosure: I'd like to mention that I won a paperback copy of this book, but have pre-ordered a copy for Kindle as well, in order to get it in my preferred format.

Jane is the very model of a cool, calm professional. Even a bit of an ice queen. She meets Chase, a large tattooed man, and he asks her out, even though they seem an unlikely match. The truth is that Jane comes from a dysfunctional background, and she spent her teen years acting out based on this - being the life of the party. After having turned her life around and distancing herself from the person she used to be, Chase appears to be the last sort of man she would want to date, or at least the last person she would want people to know she's dating. At first glance, he might be what she wants, but he's not what she needs. However, romance novels are about what happens after the first glance.

The secondary plot is about her brother getting into trouble with the law and her efforts to help him.

I'm on record as being a fan of the author and the other books in the Tumble Creek series. Jane also appears in Start Me Up. Lead Me On, in my opinion, is by far the best one in the series for readers who don't find sexually experienced heroines a deal breaker. Ms. Dahl, and I admire this greatly, seems to make it a priority to allow all of her heroines to have healthy libidos and varying degrees of interest in sex in things likes having fun in public places or the occasional spanking, restraints, etc. These things are not usually the main point of her books, and I don't want to give that impression, but I want to say I find it refreshing whenever a heroine is allowed to be something other than virginal, repressed, or shy to the point of it being a disability.

While Jane projects a more sedate persona, underneath and in the right circumstances her libido is healthy and she knows what arouses her. Jane has a "past." The reasons for Jane's actions in her youth were not usually healthy ones, even her thoughts at the beginning of her relationship with Chase show that she still has some of the negative thoughts about herself on display. However, and this is what I love, the author allows her to remain lusty, even a bit wild while in a relationship that's actually good for her. Perhaps because of her teen rebellion, she knows what she wants and isn't afraid to ask for it, and she finds a genuinely good man who doesn't judge her for the bad choices she made in the past. To paraphrase Bo in Bus Stop: if you love someone as they are today, what do you care how they got that way?

The scene where she makes Chase her birthday present is legitimately sexy, as is a scene in the parking lot of a local bar. Also, not for nothing, but I like a hero who is successful, but also down to earth, and - yes - I like tattoos. And I like that Jane found a way to embrace what was good about her past, while still celebrating the person she is today.

When I look at the three Tumble Creek books, I notice that her characters are not duplicates. The women all seem to like to get soused, and all show naughty streaks, but we have an erotica writer, a mechanic, and a personal assistant, and they're each unique. Of the heroes, we have an alpha male chief of police, a slightly geeky architect, and a guy who picked his line of work so he could blow up things. Also, diverse.

My secondary plot with her brother was needed to make the rest of the book work, but this was also the weak point for me. Even though he was acting out in his own way, and the main story deals with repercussions of the heroine's own past rebelliousness, I can't honestly say I sympathized with him much at all.

However, this is the pick of the Tumble Creek litter!

5 stars

Jane has tried to leave her upbringing and white trash roots behind. She has changed her name and strived very hard to be a productive citizen. She works at a sedate job and does nothing that would bring any attention to her or her name. The men she dates are men that have no hidden secrets or skeletons. And then she meets a motorcyle riding tatooed hottie named Chase. Chase asks Jane out but of COURSE she turns him down -- he is too bad boy for her. But that doesn't stop her from going to Chase and using him for her own satisfaction. Not only that, but Jane continues to use him over and over. Did Chase have a choice. He did. See, Chase found Jane to be one of the most beautiful and enchanting women he had ever met. He wanted her -- warts and all but Jane just couldn't let go.

Because of her position on being with Chase and the fact that she used him blatantly throughout the book, I hated her character. More than once I prayed that Chase would tire of Jane and her "issues" and tell her to take a leap. There was nothing that could redeem this high maintenance woman and sad to say, she ruined the entire book and I can't see myself ever reading it again.

Natalie S. for Amazon Vine

I enjoyed Lead Me On thoroughly as I read it, and I felt satisfied and happy as I turned the last page, but shortly thereafter I realized there were lots of things wrong with it. So it was really fun to read, but no "keeper".

The plot's been summarized plenty of times, so I'll keep it brief here. We know Jane Morgan is a former wild girl who's been walking the straight and narrow for a while, and she wants so badly to keep her former self at a distance that she's alienated herself from her family. And we know Chase is a bad-boy-made-good; where Jane opted for a personality transplant, Chase found a way to make his wild side responsible and profitable. He owns a demolition company, he has a college degree...he's not ashamed of his very visible tattoo because he's a complete, balanced individual who owns every part of himself.

My problem with Lead Me On is that Jane makes one off-putting mistake after another, while uber-eligible Chase just keeps...chasing after her. While I was reading, it felt really good to see warm, generous, understanding, devoted Chase ooze masculinity and never give up on his girl. In hindsight, however, his behavior makes no sense at all. Jane puts a lot of effort into driving Chase away, and the way he's described...well, he could have his pick. At the beginning, while Chase is still on the fence about Jane and hasn't really fallen for her, he keeps coming back for more abuse. And later, as their relationship develops, her offenses scale right along with the depth of their attraction. Fun at the time, but in retrospect even a die-hard romance reader like myself has a hard time finding his behavior realistic.

Then there's Jane's lame lawyer boyfriend, Greg. He's an example of the type of "appropriate" man that Jane tries to date - he's a lawyer. And that really didn't work for me, even as I was reading. The guy is so off-putting and mean, right from the beginning, that I thought less of Jane for going out with him. Jane thinks she's comparing a white collar guy (Greg) to a blue collar guy (Chase), but really, she's just comparing a worthless jerk to a good man. Does Jane really think that every man with a graduate degree is a good potential mate? Because that's pretty pathetic. Every time Jane wondered why she couldn't settle down with a man like Greg, a part of me just wanted to slap her.

Meanwhile, Jane wanders about totally mystified about why she likes these "bad boys" and she thinks it's because her trailer-trash true self just won't reform, but meanwhile we keep meeting her step-dad...a motorcycle repairman covered in tattoos who's as nice and solid and protective as a man can be. I really did not understand why Jane couldn't see the obvious; it's not like she hasn't had a decade to figure it out.

These quibbles seem really important to me in retrospect but I barely noticed them while I was reading. It's sprightly, quick, sexy, a pretty easy read. I'd pick up a Victoria Dahl again, although I'd rather get it from the library than the bookstore.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 71 reviews  4.0 out of 5 stars