Review: Flirting with Disaster – Victoria Dahl

Posted 26 January, 2015 by Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms in Reviews / 15 Comments

*I received a free copy of Flirting with Disaster from Harlequin HQN via Netgalley. This has in no way influenced my voluntary review, which is honest and unbiased *


Warning: This book includes mature content such as: sexual content, and/or drug and/or alcohol use, and/or violence.
Review: Flirting with Disaster – Victoria DahlFlirting with Disaster by Victoria Dahl
Published by Harlequin HQN on 27 January 2015
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 384
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
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5 Stars

There's no hiding from sizzling chemistry…

Artist Isabelle West has good reasons for preferring a solitary life. Tucked away in a cabin in the woods, she has everything she needs . . . except a red-hot love life. That is, until a hard-bodied U.S. marshal threatens to unearth secrets she's spent years protecting. But giving in to the sparks flying between them can only lead to one thing…disaster.

Tom Duncan lives by the letter of the law. But no one has tempted him—or confused him—more than free-spirited Isabelle, who arouses his suspicion and his desire. As their connection grows, and their nights get hotter, they find their wild attraction might shake everything he stands for—and expose everything she has to hide.

Sexy and hot, Flirting with Disaster has some great characters, mystery and a lot of romance.

My Flirting with Disaster review:

Flirting with Disaster incorporated everything I love in a contemporary romance novel! Dahl truly outdid herself with this story. The characters are mature, Isabelle is thirty-six years old, and Tom is a little older than her. Isabelle’s best friend Jill is lesbian, and it’s only mentioned because Jill and her girlfriend had recently broken up. Safe sex is very sexy in Flirting with Disaster, and that always makes me so very happy, condoms, are important and it is sexy to take good care of yourself and your partner! There is also mystery, Isabelle is living under an assumed name, and it takes a long time for both the readers and Tom to understand why, and of course, Tom is a Marshall, so his job is to solve mysteries…

I had already met Isabelle in Fanning the Flames and Looking for Trouble, but she was much more in the background. In Flirting with Disaster, I got to know her character very well, and I loved her confidence, the way she explained how difficult it can be for a woman to not only enjoy sex, but dare to ask for what she wants and needs. Reading about strong female characters is always a pleasure, and Dahl incorporates them perfectly into her romances, the fact that these strong women are also mature just makes them seem even more real to me.

Of course, I can’t really have a review about Flirting with Disaster without mentioning a little more about the sex. It is extremely well done, both Isabelle and Tom are attentive lovers, and they basically made me vacillate between wanting to put my kindle down and hurry to find my husband, or to continue to read because it was so hot I just had to. Isabelle was very guarded, and as her past slowly unfolded, it was easy to understand why. She had been betrayed by all those she thought she could count on, and left with no choice but to leave everything behind and try to start a new life. No wonder trust didn’t come easy for her.

Written in third person point of view, Flirting with Disaster permitted me to get to know both Tom and Isabelle vey well, while at the same time the story expertly included the side-characters in a way that helped me get to know them very well, too. Between the inner musings of the main characters, and the dialogs between them and the others, I felt like I was almost inside the story myself, and I can only say I hope there will be more stories in this series… Maybe with Jill as the main character?

Some of my favorite Flirting with Disaster quotes:

“You haven’t met the judge?” Jill asked.
“I don’t think so. You know how I am.”
“Hermit-y?” Jill tossed out. Isabelle nodded.

Isabelle watched them grin at each other as Jill poured hi a glass. All right. So, Jill liked him. But Jill liked almost everyone. She was terrible at being a hermit.

Aside from that, the only noticeable thing about her were her size D breasts and her odd career. She’d found it fairly easy to keep those under wraps.

Was he blushing? That was cute as hell. Maybe he wasn’t used to women joking about sex. But Isabelle had discovered that freedom was the best thing about getting older. 

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.

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15 responses to “Review: Flirting with Disaster – Victoria Dahl

    • Victoria Dahl is made of awesome! I love her writing, and her characters are always fantastic 🙂 You are definitely going to have to pick up this series, Brandee, I’m sure you’ll love it!

      *BIG HUGS*

    • LOL, I know, right? Safe sex is great! Blind Faith is awesome, too, I love that series, it’s well done and the suspense is almost killing me with each installment.
      Have a great week Carmel 🙂

  1. I love that it draws you in so much to the story. The part about choosing between whether running to find your husband, or finishing with the passage was hilarious and truly shows the writing must be pretty great. I hope you are doing well!!

  2. 5 stars?!?!?! 5 stars is some serious business! 🙂 I swear because of all this discovering of new blogs, my TBR is growing at an obscene rate! *snickers* Not that I’m complaining and now, I have a new series to check out!! Fantastic review Lexxie! 😉

    • Yeah, Dahl always manages to get me smack into the story with her great characters and hot romance, Cristina. I can’t say I’m sorry to participate in making your TBR become a bloated mountain 🙂
      Thanks for stopping by.

  3. Holy cow! I had no idea Flirting with Disaster was right around the corner! I can’t read your review yet, but I’m so excited to get my hands on this one. I did catch the part about how Dahl is big on safe sex. I remember in the writing steamy scenes seminar with her that one of her big pet peeves when she’s reading a story is when the author doesn’t have the guy deal with his condom afterward. She went into a whole shtick about it (hehe).

    Robyn Jones recently posted: Looking at Normal
    • I think safe sex in my romances is extremely sexy, Robyn! And I have actually started to take off a star when there is unsafe sex happening – I could go on and on about this as well! Victoria Dahl will be at RT in may, I really need to make sure I can chat with her a little – both about safe sex, and about more mature characters – both are really great!

  4. This sounds like something I could really enjoy. I know this is #2 in the series, but I’ve found that is not as hard to jump in out of order in a contemporary romance as it is in a Paranormal.
    I’m adding to my list…I have to go check on audible later on tonight.
    I’ve been doing a lot NA lately, so it will be nice to listen to an adult romance, it’s been a while. I just did an erotica, but they lack the sweetness of a contemporary romance.
    Thank you Lexxie 🙂

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