Sizzling erotica from the queen of steam... but lackluster suspense

books:


	• All U Can Eat (Berkley Sensation) Emma Holly Berkley, 2007 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 19 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Sizzling erotica from the queen of steam... but lackluster suspense

After a torrid bedtime romp, Frankie's lover Troy tells her he's leaving. Dumped, the diner owner comes face to face (or rather face to engagement ring) with the gal that he left her for. Rather than cry, she beds the stranger she's hired as a cook and manages to come across a dead body in the alley behind her diner, becoming a suspect in the murder when the weapon is found in her storeroom. Chief of Police Jack West has lusted for her for quite awhile and wants to clear her as a suspect before pursuing her. Faster than you can say Miranda rights, she's back in bed with new cook Michael, and then with the local bi-sexual tag team who have bedded (and videotaped) numerous local women. You'd think with all that action in a matter of days that the Chief would be turned off... But no. In between viewing homemade porn and couplings with Frankie, Chief West solves the crime that most readers guessed by chapter 3.

Holly can always be counted on to provide a good, dirty read. She falters when she attempts to add suspense, since that's just not her strong suit, resulting in predictable mysteries. While this one is very titillating, I found the voyage into role playing both cringe-worthy and laughable. Okay, maybe I did like the frisking... Other great Holly reads to check out are "Personal Assets" and "Cooking Up a Storm."

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Emma Holly does it again

Emma Holly is on my must-buy list for a reason.

Troy, diner owner Frankie's boyfriend of 5 years, breaks up with her directly after sex. A week later, he and his new fiancee show up in her diner. Frankie starts getting over it when young ex-Marine Mike comes by, looking for work. She hires him as a cook, and decides to let him cheer her up, but as they're sleeping upstairs, they hear a noise and discover a dead body in the alley behind the diner--the best friend of Troy's fiancee, and Frankie's the prime suspect.

Police chief Jack West has had a thing for Frankie for a long time, and now that her boyfriend is out of the picture, he has a chance--except the murder got in the way. Both Frankie and Jack investigate from different angles, and find love along with the solution.

All U Can Eat is not one of Holly's more mainstream novels. Just FYI. If you read this expecting a straightforward romance, with the h/h having sex only with each other, and nothing more shocking than some oral, you're going to be... surprised. The sex scenes are many and varied. And they are, every last one of them, integral to the plot, show character development, and are full of emotion and sensual detail.

Take the first scene in the book, with Frankie and Troy, for example. You can tell that they genuinely like each other and enjoy their sex life, but that Frankie's settling, and that there's something Troy needs that he's not getting from their relationship. It's not spelled out--it's there in how they act with each other and in the few words they say. And it's clear before he tells her that Troy's ending the relationship. All that on top of hot, steamy sex.

It's all like that--Emma Holly is not an author whose sex scenes I skip, or even skim: I'd miss a lot of the turning points in her stories that way, besides which, they're never boring or repetitive.

The characters are all vivid and three-dimensional. Nobody's all good or all bad, and they all have believable motivations for their actions. One duo that was intriguing and I'd like to see more of is Dave and Pete, the Team Boys, of Dave and Pete's garage. They'd started out double dating, and end up bisexual. There's a bit of their emotional journey in All U Can Eat, but they're really not the focus of the story, so it's of necessity brief.

The mystery was clever and had a nice twist to it, and the romance was emotionally believable.

I don't know what else to say. It's so much easier to point out the things I don't like in a book. Emma Holly makes every word count. I have all her books; she's on my must-buy-as-soon-as-it's-released list; I'm a huge fangirl.

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Smoking hot!

I'm a great Emma Holly fan, having read and loved Menage, Strange Attractions, Personal Assets and Cooking Up a Storm (and enjoyed them from most to least in that order). This is one hot story. I loved Frankie, she's one of my favorite heroines, and Jack West is mouthwateringly sexy but vulnerable at the same time...how can you resist! There are two things I didn't like about All U Can Eat: the Team Boys characters were not as fleshed out as I'd like, and as mentioned elsewhere, the mystery is kind of lame. That's not enough to knock off a star though, and the scene with Frankie and Jack in her garden made me need a cold shower! A definite re-re-re read, and please Emma, let's have a sequel featuring Mike the sexy Marine finding the love he deserves!

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Give Mike True his Own Story !!!!

Emma please give Mike True his own story ! I fell in love with him. He was the perfect blend of bad boy filled with tenderness. Even though I knew Frankie would wind up with Jack I still held out that Mike would find a place with her. Days after finishing the book I still think of Mike and need closure that he also finds love and happiness.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

The sizzling erotic bestseller-now in paperback. Under suspicion for murder, Frankie Smith joins sexy police chief Jack West on a rollercoaster ride of an investigation. And as the twists and turns unfold, letting go of her inhibitions begins to seem like the most natural thing in the world.

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