What happens in the stacks stays in the stacks… Professor Victoria Reese knows an uphill battle when she sees one. Convincing her narrow-minded colleagues at the elite Pembroke University to back a partnership with the local library is a fight she saw coming and already has a plan for. What she didn’t see coming? The wildly hot librarian who makes it clear books aren’t the only thing he’d like … thing he’d like to handle.
When a tightly wound, sexy-as-hell professor proposes a partnership between his library and her university, children’s department head John Donovan is all for it. He knows his tattoos and easygoing attitude aren’t quite what she expected, but the unmistakable heat between them is difficult to resist.
And then there’s the intriguing late fee on her record. For the Duke’s Convenience… A late fee and a sexy romance novel? There’s more to Dr. Reese than she’s letting on.
John might like to tease her about her late fee, but when he teases her in other ways, Victoria is helpless to resist. Mixing business with pleasure–and oh, it is pleasure–always comes with risks, but maybe a little casual fun between the sheets is just what Victoria needs.
This book is approximately 111,500 words
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I adored this book so much. Victoria is one of my favorite heroine’s ever. She’s brilliant and fabulous and has wonderful friends and a mother who cares about her (just is sometimes a bit misguided in her attempts at making her daughter happy). She’s a college professor whose hard work and brilliance is under constant assault because she’s both a woman and black, and the system was deliberately made to thwart her at every turn while making things easier for people like Kenneth, who are allowed to just work and succeed, not navigate a billion landmines, cater everyone else and still somehow have to time work and be brilliant. I thought the book showed this really really and I adored her journey professionally and with John.
Oh John. I adore John who is sweet but also messy, but works well with Victoria who deserves happiness (and happiness does not always look like “perfection”). Happiness sometimes looks like a soft-place to land and support, not help (which goes both ways). And this was all done so brilliantly and just LOVE.
I know I’m in the minority here, but I struggled to finish Charish Reid’s “Hearts on Hold.” I had high hopes for it because I liked the author’s previous book so much, plus I’m a library nerd, so I was predisposed to enjoy reading a book that featured a librarian as the hero. Unfortunately, I ended up having a difficult time connecting with the female lead character, Victoria, and there was just too much going on with the plot for me to really enjoy any of it.
On the bright side, I found the main characters, John and Victoria, to be mostly likeable. John in particular seemed like a real sweetheart, and I loved how hard he tried to be a good guardian to his niece, Becca, even though he felt like he was completely out of his element with her most of the time. By contrast, Victoria came across as very rigid and uptight, and it took quite a while for me to warm up to her. However, her interactions with her BFFs, Regina and Paula, really humanized her for me, as well as the way she slowly let her guard down with John. I also enjoyed the way Victoria related to John’s niece and immediately became an advocate for Becca when she needed one.
On the not-so-bright side, I wasn’t crazy about the way John and Victoria’s relationship developed. While I enjoyed their early banter and flirtatious text message exchanges, there was a definite insta-lust vibe between them that I did not find appealing. Their relationship seemed to be so focused on the physical side of things that the emotional connection was overshadowed for me. I was also bothered by how many of their sexcapades took place while they were at work. It didn’t seem to fit with what I knew of Victoria’s character, plus it seemed unnecessarily risky for her to engage in that sort of unprofessional behavior when she was already fighting so hard to be treated as an equal by her department chair. I’m certain that he would have used it against her if he (or anyone) had caught her and John together.
In addition, I found the story itself to be oddly paced. I somehow managed to get bored with it at times despite the incredible number of plot threads that kept being added. To me, there seemed to be almost too much going on by the end of the book. For example, university politics alone would have been enough for Victoria to deal with; why complicate matters by adding the problems with her mother on top of it?
Despite my problems with this book, I remain a fan of Ms. Reid’s writing and still plan to check out her next book. Unfortunately, this one just wasn’t for me.
*ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.
It all started with a tweet…
No really! I was minding my business and scrolling through my Twitter feed when I saw a tweet from the author promoting the book and I proceeded to drop everything (aka: my previously scheduled TBR) to read this book and I’m quite happy that I did. It started off a bit slow for me but I think that was my fault; I went in thinking that this was a novella and so I expected the heat to come at me quick. Once I realized it was a full length novel, I settled in and truly enjoyed the ride. I appreciated the characterization of Victoria as a black women in a professional environment and all that entails. I loved her interaction with her friends (fingers crossed we get a book about Paula) and how real and witty and refreshing their dialogue is. And John… don’t even get me started on how much I loved him as the hero! From reading to a group of small children, helping his niece cope with an overwhelming number of life changes, his absolute lack of toxic masculinity, and his ability to get down and dirty however Victoria needed him to – he’s one of my favorite book boyfriends of the year (and yes I’m aware we’re only a good month into the year but still). After finishing Hearts on Hold, I immediately looked to see if Charish Reid had any more books published and lo and behold, The Write Escape is already on my Kindle! I look forward to reading it and more from the author 🙂 4 out 5 wine glasses.
Charish Reid (The Write Escape) endows this interracial romance set in academia with authenticity, insight, and humor. Dr. Victoria Reese, is a lovely and ambitious, but guarded African American assistant professor of English literature at an elite university. John Donovan, a well-built, well-read local hero, is a bookworm, who looks like a Viking and manages the children’s collection at the public library. They meet when Victoria proposes a joint internship program co-hosted by their institutions.
Sparks fly at first sight, fueled by their mutual bookish passions and his gift for sexy literary banter. John has done his homework—he looks up Vicky’s profile and discovers a library book long overdue, a steamy historical romance titled For the Duke’s Convenience. He astutely interprets this as a sign that the cautious professor has a playful romantic side. It’s a clever scene and representative of the novel’s style. Both are role playing. She’s haughty. He’s naughty. Or, in the language of historical romance, she’s the bluestocking and he’s the rake; it’s a turn-on for them both.
Hearts on Hold is also distinguished by its sophisticated portrayal of the social context in which the courtship takes place. Between John’s family, Vicky’s teaching and her tense situation at work, Reid delivers thoughtful exploration of contemporary racial dynamics seldom found in most fiction of any genre. Ultimately though, what makes their story work is that John and Vicky’s relationship is as sweet, sexy and deeply romantic as it is complex. These kindred spirits have incendiary chemistry and a great deal in common intellectually and emotionally, where it counts. (Feb)