ARC Review: Desire by Design by Paula Altenburg

Desire by Design is the story of Eve and Matt. Eve works in the construction field and is the project manager for the rebuild on the city's new city hall building. While trying to figure out how to keep the project on budget, the mayor of the city sends his architect nephew Matt in to redesign the new city hall. Eve had been the original designer of the new city hall building and wasn't happy with the change in plans from hers to Matt's. Even though Matt is a well known architect and has a design that takes some of Eve's ideas into account, she is determined to not support him or his design. The two of them circle around each other and although there is an attraction between the two of them, Eve wants nothing to do with him after having been through a horrible marriage that ended in divorce. But Matt is determined to not only convince Eve that they can work together professionally, but that they would also make a great team personally as well.

Desire by Design is the first book that I have read by Paula Altenburg, and as much as I wanted to get into this story I just wasn't able to. I couldn't connect with the characters and found myself wanting to quit reading the story at more than one point. The story felt rushed and unbelievable to me. As far as characters go, there seemed to be quite a few inconsistencies for me. Eve was constantly described as being a strong woman who was more than capable of taking care of herself. She would often tell people that as well. Yet she was constantly displaying insecurity and would panic for sometimes no reason. I just couldn't really get behind Eve's character. I found myself annoyed with her most of the story. Matt was sweet and romantic. I liked that he was patient with Eve and wanted to protect her. But I felt that his character would get kind of lost at points and everything that I had liked about his character would suddenly switch and he would be the almost insecure one.

Another problem I had was that this relationship seemed rushed, but yet actually progressed extremely slowly. It seemed as though one minute there was nothing but some attraction and a bit of flirting and then all of a sudden deep feelings and emotions are there. I just would have liked to see more of a progression and the development of these feelings. I did think that there were some funny parts, and those were the highlights for me. Sometimes there was just so much going on though that it was hard to figure out what was really happening. Overall this story sadly wasn't one that I would revisit or recommend, as for the most part it was fairly forgettable and unrealistic.

**ARC provided by Publisher**

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