Seducing Simon

Maya Banks

Publisher:
Samhain Publishing

Release Date:
June 6, 2006

Genres:
Contemporary Romance
Erotica

ISBN:
eBook
9781599981123
Print
9781599982632

Bookmark Rating:

Reviewed by
Jennifer Ray

Review Posted:
April 2008

Toni Langston has gotten herself into a bit of a pickle.  OK, it’s actually a pretty big mess, if you want to know the truth.  Not only is she pregnant, but the father doesn’t even remember having slept with her, having been uncharacteristically drunk the night it happened.  To make it even worse, the father is Simon, her long-time friend and one of her roommates, who she has harbored a secret crush on for more years than she can count.  Toni sees this as her last chance – if she wants Simon, she must seduce him, preferably before their baby is born. 

Simon has never noticed Toni, not romantically.  They are best friends and he’d do anything for her, but he has never seemed to feel the same way about Toni as she does for him.  But he starts to see her in a different way after learning she is pregnant.  It drives him crazy that she won’t divulge the father’s identity – he wants nothing more than to bash the idiot’s face in for leaving Toni in this mess.  In fact, the thought of her being with another man unearths feelings he never suspected he had for her.  Sure, he has always been protective of her, knew he loved her, but only in a brotherly way, right?  Then why has a sneaky possessive feeling suddenly started to surface, and why can’t he take his eyes off of her?  And above all, where did these sexy dreams about her that feel all too real come from?

Before you even buy this book, make sure you are stocked up on tissue.  I think I went through at least one box while reading Maya Banks’ Seducing Simon!  This book has been on my wish list for quite a while and I could kick myself for not having read it much sooner.  I guarantee the story will stay with me for a long time to come and I will pull it off of the bookshelf time and time again. 

Toni absolutely broke my heart.  Her struggle to cope with her unrequited love for Simon and an unplanned pregnancy while also dealing with the financial pressures to make a life for herself and her child, possibly alone, would be enough to break many women.  The unconditional love and support she enjoys from her brother, Simon, and their other roommate, A.J. is phenomenal, and gives her the strength to keep going.  The foursome fight the major life changes they know can’t be avoided as they deal with Toni’s pregnancy, her brother’s impending marriage, and the fact that these events will require them to separate and find new homes, leaving the unconventional, yet comfortable family nest they have built together. 

Watching Toni learn how to seduce Simon is hilarious!  Growing up a tomboy who never had eyes for any man but Simon, she has not had much experience developing seduction skills.  Taking tips from their firefighter friends on how to catch his attention, she sets about her task with a vengeance, knowing her time is short, and she must soon tell Simon the baby is his.  The changes she goes through in her attempts serve to confound Simon at every turn - and who doesn’t love to watch a man in utter bewilderment trying to make sense of his own feelings as well as a woman’s actions?  Toni learns fast, keeping Simon on his toes as he slowly starts to realize his own feelings for her. 

But the secret Toni has kept threatens everything they build.  She’s taken so long to spill the mystery of her baby’s father that she can’t quite figure how best to tell him without leaving him feeling betrayed, or worse.  Readers, who enjoy an omniscient view of the tale, and the one friend she confides in, well understand and support her reasons for the delay, but empathy for Simon is present as well when he finally learns the truth.  His reaction sets off a chain of events that threaten to destroy everything he holds dearest, and force him to face his innermost feelings and truths. 

Maya Banks can write a tragic heroine like no one else.  She knows just how to tear your heart to shreds, and then put it all back together better than it ever was before.  If ever I’ve finished a story and started to think of the characters as real people, this would be it.  The characters were so very lifelike, the situation so possible, that I could easily believe it if someone told me it was a biography.  Ultimately, Seducing Simon serves to remind readers that even situations which seem impossible to recover from can have a happy ending.  It is a book I’ll read whenever I need to recharge my own hope.

Note:  This review was originally written by Jennifer Ray for another review site.  It is being reposted at Wild on Books.

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