Review: One Night With a Hero by Laura Kaye

Title: One Night With a Hero
Series: The Hero, #2
Author: Laura Kaye
Published: October 20, 2012
Pages: 183
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Source: Purchased
Publisher: Entangled Publishing (Brazen)
Rating: B
Reviewed by: Marq

Favorite quote: "Sweetness, don't ever confuse me with a good guy."

summary from Goodreads
He wants just one night…

After growing up with an abusive, alcoholic father, Army Special Forces Sgt. Brady Scott vowed never to marry or have kids. Sent stateside to get his head on straight—and his anger in check—Brady’s looking for a distraction. He finds it in his beautiful new neighbor’s one-night-only offer for hot sex, but her ability to make him forget is addictive. Suddenly, Brady’s not so sure he can stay away.

…what they need is each other.

Orphaned as a child, community center director Joss Daniels swore she’d never put herself in a position to be left behind again, but she can’t deny herself one sizzling night with the sexy soldier who makes her laugh and kisses her senseless. When Joss discovers she’s pregnant, Brady’s rejection leaves her feeling abandoned. Now, they must overcome their fears before they lose the love and security they’ve found in each other, but can they let go of the past to create a future together?

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Marq's thoughts:
I've been a fan of Laura Kaye since reading Hearts in Darkness. When I want to a well-written, emotional and sexy contemporary romance, she is my go to person.

Brady and Joss have emotional hurdles they most overcome if they want to be together. In the beginning, it was nothing but a one-night stand that they both agreed upon. But one night is never enough and Brady finds himself unwittingly drawn to Joss. Whenever he needs to get out of his head, he seeks her out. She's his calming force. Joss doesn't want her one-night stand to turn into anything more but she finds herself seeing a kindred spirit in Brady. She knows beneath the surface, there's a hurt person and she wants to be the person to ease the hurt. Brady let's her, but only on his terms.

When I finished reading One Night With a Hero, I was surprised that Joss ends up pregnant. I didn't read the blurb. I just purchased the book and immediately started reading. Accidental pregnancy is one of my favorite romance tropes (friends to lovers is my other one) so I squeed when the pregnancy was introduced into the storyline. I read a lot of romance in the 80s and surprise pregnancy plots ran rampant which is why I am such a fan of them.

I thought Brady was an ass for most of the book. I know he has his daddy issues and is trying to work through them, but in the process of protecting himself, he hurt Joss, a lot. I'd hope that Joss wouldn't continue coming back for more punishment but Brady would always pull the bait and switch. He'd let her in a little, they'd have sex, and then he'd be an ass. I wanted Joss to punch him one good time but she eventually has her moment where she tells him off.

How Brady finally wins Joss back is totally adorable and I loved that she didn't immediately jump into his arms. The man needed to grovel.

Brady and Joss have great chemistry and the sex scenes are hot! I liked how Brady and Joss teased each other especially when Joss constantly called Brady 'sailor boy' in order to push his buttons.

I would say my only complaint is that the ending felt a bit rushed. I love the Brazen books. The set up and build up is wonderful but I feel like because these books are less than 200, the ending is wrapped up too fast. Other than that, I loved One Night With a Hero and I'm now reading the first book in the series, Her Forbidden Hero. The characters from HFH appear in One Night With a Hero (Brady's sister is the heroine in book 1) but it can be read as a stand alone. I hope there are more books in the future for this series.