ARC Review: Tempting Meredith by Samantha Ann King

Tempting Meredith is the first book that I have ever read by Samantha Ann King, but this is actually the third book in her Lovers and Friends series. This one can be read as a standalone, although the characters are interconnected and you do get to see some of them from the previous books. After I read the blurb for this one though, I was really excited to read it. Unfortunately this one fell flat for me and wasn't what I had been expecting at all. I thought this one had a lot of promise, but was ultimately disappointed with how this book turned out.

Meredith Burke is an Astrophysicist that lives her life pretty much alone. She throws herself into her work and hardly does anything outside of her career. She was hurt years ago when she had a menage with her college boyfriend and his roommate and was dumped the next day. She never heard from either of them again, but that night has been affecting her ever since. Now years later she meets the handsome Charlie Connor when she takes a firearms course. She thinks that he is the perfect man to give her one night of pleasure. But Charlie wants more from Meredith and is determined to convince her to give them a shot. Meredith reluctantly agrees and decides to spend a week with him to see how things go. But when she meets Charlie's best friend and boss, Blaine she immediately begins to question her decision. Blaine hasn't seen Meredith since the night his roommate (Meredith's ex) and he had a menage with her, but he hasn't ever stopped feeling bad about the way things went down. He always liked her back then, and his feelings haven't changed now. But he also loves Charlie as more than a friend should. When Meredith proposes the idea of a menage, will Charlie and Blaine agree to see where things take them? Or will more than one of them be left heartbroken by the many secrets and obstacles in their way?

I liked Blaine. He was sweet and took care of Meredith as best he could the night he shared her with Dylan. I felt like he should have tried harder after though, and he definitely should have checked on her to make sure that she was okay. I felt like if he had feelings for her back then like he said he did, that he would have reacted differently even with his young age and some immaturity. I thought that he was great with Charlie and Meredith though, and he took care of them both. I like Charlie as well. He was alpha and sexy, and he wouldn't take no for an answer. He was a great friend and was determined and open-minded. I did feel like his transformation from being completely straight to accepting and wanting his best friend Blaine happened rather quickly. He had never before been attracted to him or any man and had never thought of being with a man sexually, but all of a sudden he just went with it and had no problems. That just didn't work for me. Meredith was a huge part of my problem with this book. She was pretty cold and unfeeling, and I felt like her character was aloof at best and completely selfish at worst. She thought about herself and her career, and didn't seem to really be able to develop feelings for others. I just didn't ever buy into any of her feelings, and was never able to warm up to her. I wish that I could have seen her develop feelings for these guys, but honestly it never felt like she did. I think that they had passion and attraction between them, but I just didn't feel like they had an emotional connection between all three of them.

I also just found this story to be somewhat boring and it didn't hold my interest. The only parts that really engaged me at all were the actual menage relationship and the passionate scenes between them. I didn't care at all what was happening outside of that and I kept wanting to skim through the rest. I expected this story to be sexy and engaging, and I also had expected to be drawn into a relationship that had a strong emotional bond as well as the physical. Part of what makes menage books so good is that you can't help but find them hot, but that you see how the relationship only works with those three. The relationships wouldn't work between just two, and it takes all of them to truly function. I didn't feel that with Tempting Meredith, and honestly Blaine and Charlie would have worked as well alone as Meredith would have worked with either of the guys. I just wanted more from this one and I felt like it didn't deliver. If you are a fan of menage books or have read the previous books in this series, you might give this one a shot. But honestly for me this one was a bit of a letdown.

**ARC Provided by Barclay Publicity**

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