Seducing Simon
By Maya Banks
Samhain - June 2006
Contemporary Romance
Toni Langston had her dreams realized and destroyed all in the same night, and all by the same person. She had loved Simon Andrews for years. The night he broke off with his girlfriend, he had turned to her, and they had made love. Then he had called her by his ex's name. Worse still, Simon didn't remember a thing the next morning.
Toni never said a word about their encounter. It was difficult. She and her brother Matt owned the house that they shared with their two best friends, Simon and A. J. Although she wasn't Simon's girlfriend, she was still his best friend - a best friend who now had yet another secret. She was carrying his child.
Simon didn't know what to think about Toni. She had surprised all of them by announcing she was pregnant, but it was the fact that she wouldn't share the name of the father that hurt the most. The four of them were best friends, they shared everything, but she wouldn't share this secret - even with her own brother. As her pregnancy progressed, Simon began noticing subtle differences in her - and not just the way her body was changing, and very nicely at that. She had mentioned moving out of the house, and she had started dating Mike, someone who worked at the fire station with Simon, Matt and A. J. But even more, Mike was too much of a womanizer for the likes of Toni.
Seducing Simon was an excellent read that I simply did not put down. The love Toni had for Simon and the conflict she felt in hiding the truth from him was superbly portrayed. Maya Banks writes in a manner that allows for strong character development. Although I was able to predict many events in the story, I didn't care. It was the journey these characters took that made for a fantastic adventure. Seducing Simon covers all the emotional range, from the happiest times, to the harrowing moments a firefighter faces, to the turmoil of someone hiding her love. I hope that Maya Banks writes additional stories about the remaining friends and firefighters.
Kathy Andrico - RoadToRomance.ca