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Hot Item.

The Hot Zone Series by Carly Phillips
• Hot Stuff - Annabelle Jordan/Brandon Vaughn
• Hot Number - Micki Jordan/Damian Fuller
• Hot Item - Sophie Jordan/Riley Nash

Heidi insisted that I read this series of books because the main characters reminded her of me, and now that I’m done with them, I’m rather sad. I really did enjoy them. Yes they were trashy romance novels, but I can say that they have really helped me come to my senses as far as my own “love life” is concerned. I used to read trashy novels back in High School, but they were all based in medieval times, you know… knights, castles, all those things I’m interested in and studied in college. But this series is based in modern times in modern cities around the US. I wasn’t quite sure how I’d like it, but I’m glad I at least gave it a shot.

The series is about three sisters, Annabelle, Sophie and Micki (in that order) who come to live with their uncle after the tragic death of their parents. Uncle Yank raises them into promising young ladies who open up a PR firm, The Hot Zone, as an off shoot of their Uncle’s Sports firm. Each of the girls has their own unique personality that separates her from her sisters. As the oldest, Annabelle takes on the roll of mother for the two girls and feels that she is responsible for keeping the family together. As the middle child, Sophie defines herself by her knowledge and control. Micki, the baby, attached herself to Yank as a baby and grew up as a tomboy. Each of the girls know the men they end up with through their Uncle’s Sport Agency, and through some “twist of fate” (also known as Uncle Yank’s meddling), they end up in some situation involving their guy that they have to work together to over come. Typical of this genre, and not really true to life, but fun to fantasize about.

The first in the series, Hot Stuff, was my over all favorite. Of the three sisters, Sophie, the star of the last book, Hot Item is my favorite sister because I am most like her: very controlling and anal. I have this thing for details just like she does. I really am a mix of all three of the sisters, but most like Sophie. And Brandon Vaughn, who marries Annabelle in the first book, is my favorite male character. What can I say, I have a thing for the name and football players!

Since it was a series of books, there were a few themes that carried on throughout all three. The relationship of Uncle Yank and Lola, his lover/secretary was a major one. Lola and Yank were lovers before the girls arrived in Yanks care. She was also his secretary at his firm. After the girls arrived, Lola stepped in as their surrogate mother and kept the four of them together as a family. Yank’s deteriorating health also played a major roll in the book and bringing Lola back into the picture once she walked out. The theme of how the girls ended up with Uncle Yank– the tragic death of their parents when they were so young. The Yank/Lola story was rather amusing but the way “their parent’s death” kept coming up to cause conflict got a bit old. I have no way of empathizing with the situation and I tend to avoid dealing with my emotions, so I guess that’s why it annoyed me.

I really enjoyed this author and think I will try to read some more of her works. Its great being out of college: I have all this time to READ! Finally. And Heidi has got a long list of books for me to read. I have read more books this summer for pleasure than I have in a really long time. I’m pretty impressed with myself, it took me longer to read the first book than it took me to read the last two in the series combined. I just couldn’t put them down! I read almost all of the second one on my flight home from LA and the last one was my trip to Waco and the rest of the afternoon when I got off from work early.

Two thumbs way way up!