Thirty Nights (Blaze, 5) [Paperback]

While a graduate student at MIT, Hunter's work is stolen by his professor. The professor scoffs at Hunter's anger and urges him to understand that the best way to succeed is to eschew emotion and look out for oneself. Hunter goes on a bender for several months and then straightens himself out, academically speaking, and goes onto a brilliant career in genetics. His research is based upon his "discovery" that one can predict human behavior with over 90% accuracy based upon DNA (which theory I just did not buy, but I was willing to suspend my disbelief). Both the Defense and State Departments are paying him for his research and various terrorist organizations want to kill him, which led to a letter bombing resulting in facial scarring and the loss of one hand. He lives and works on an island in Maine, where he has a lusty, but merely friendly, relationship with a fellow scientist. One night the woman brings over a video of his former mentor's daughter, who is a world-famous pianist, Gillian Cassidy. Hunter is immediately smitten and decides to accomplish two goals at once: revenge on his mentor and sex with Gillian. He forces Gillian's father to convince her to be his sex slave for 30 nights or he will reveal the father's long ago mendacity (the father now on the downslide of his career, everyone would believe the currently envogue Hunter). Although Gillian, who is a 25-year old virgin, has precious little love for her father she agrees, largely because she had a crush on Hunter when she was 12. All of this set up is packed into a relatively short amount of pages and the book truly begins when Gillian appears at Hunter's island. In some ways, I found the resulting love/sex scenes a let down because after Gillian immediately talks back to him and he confiscates her underwear, Hunter retreats to his lab to watch Gillian roam around his house via hidden cameras. Somehow, after several days of barely seeing him, Gillian is hot for him. Although the sex scenes are well done and different (especially the one in a sleigh at a winter carnival), I was expecting more from the story's set up. (Note: Some readers may be bothered by the use of Hunter's hook in the sex scenes.) The subplot about Hunter's work and the resulting violence committed on both him and especially Gillian seemed almost unnecessary -- I thought that there was enough of a story there without terrorism in Maine. Overall a good read.

First, I want to say that I loved this book. I was a little worried at first because of the 'slave' part. However, having read several Johanna Lindsey novels set in chauvenistic Medieval times - where a conquer enslaves a woman because he's enthralled by her beauty and ultimately he falls in love with her - and the stories turned out to be a wonderful romances, I gave it a try.

ANDI LOVED IT!

If you get past the heroes scars (which are both emotional and physical) caused by lots of negative events in his past, you'll see that Hunter St. James is a tender (he doesn't force her into anything she doesn't want to do), caring (he takes care of her after their first time together), albeit sexually daring man (well, you'll just have to read the book for this one). In perfect contrast to him, Gillian is the sweetheart we all love in a heroine. She's smart (runs a very successful music career), sexy (something you have to see for yourself), talented (heck, she plays the piano), and determined to get the man she loves (has always loved). So after Hunter gets it through his head that someone can love him and that he can love someone, the story turns into a true Beauty wins Beast (although I don't feel that Hunter is a Beast by any means) over fairy tale. A truly great example of the wonderfully written stories we're all used to reading by JoAnn Ross.

Now, I can't tell you to buy the book if a bit of conflict turns you away. Or if watching a couple overcome great odds isn't your cup of tea, but I can tell you that this story is not any different from any other where the hero is a bit egotistical, a bit arrogant, a bit afraid of love, and determined to avoid commitment. I can tell you that if you read it carefully, you will fall in love with Hunter just as Gillian does.

As my parting words, I'd like to say that the ending was superb. Better than I've read in a long, long time and I read constantly (sometimes 3-5 books a week).

So, I want to assure you that this book was NOT TERRIBLE and the HERO was just that (especially at the end!). He was NOT a MAD scientist nor was he out to make tons of money.

Happy reading!

I like Harlequin Temptations and the new Blaze series but some are definately better then others. This one was exceptional!
Hunter St. John blackmails Gillian Cassidy to spend 30 nights with him as revenge for something her father did to Hunter many years before. This is a very hot and steamy story with an interesting suspense story thrown in. The hero and heroine were both interesting, independant characters and I found the whole story including the interesting way they were thrown together very believable! Great job JoAnn Ross! This is the first book I've read of yours and I will be buying more!