After getting hurt in college by a gorgeous man, Nicole Magette vowed never to risk losing her heart again. Now she lives a structured and satisfying life. Her work is easy, her friends are her family, and the only consistent men in her life are her two cats, Winchester and Huntington Peabody the Third. She doesn't date, and she hooks up only with losers—men she has absolutely no risk of falling for. But if she finds herself in danger, she has her old fail-safe in place—the Code Red.
In college, she and her four best friends came up with the system as a way to keep away the good-looking bastards that might worm their way past their carefully constructed walls. Seven years later, three of her friends have succumbed to their last Code Reds and are happily married. Now it’s just Nicole and her closest friend, Jen, who are still on their own, and Nic is just fine with that.
That is, until Joshua Daniels is transferred to Nicole’s office from New York and assigned to work with her on a special project. He's everything she's avoided and everything she claims she doesn't want, so why can’t she get him out of her mind? He's persistent, dangerously handsome, and sexy as sin. In other words, he’s her worst nightmare. She turns to her friends to help her resist Josh’s considerable charms and the inescapable draw she feels every time she gets near him. Can the Code Red save her this time, or will Josh send her perfectly balanced life into chaos?
3.5 Stars
Code Red: It was our way of forming a support group and to keep ourselves from falling for Mr. Wrong.
Someone had recommended this book to me stating that it was similar to Alice Clayton. I, being a huge fan of Ms. Clayton, couldn’t resist the draw of a contemporary romance with a ton of laughs. This book had a lot of potential: Hot Hero, likeable and relatable heroine, building sexual tension, and a ton of kick ass secondary characters. I couldn’t wait to dive in.
Good-looking men were my kryptonite, and my friends were the antidote. I needed them.
Nicole needed her circle of friends more than ever. Her last relationship ended in disaster. After that, she vowed never to let any man get close to her ever again; she will never be hurt again. This is when Code Red was first implemented. With the support of her friends, she can withstand any man. However, as the years passed, her friends have slowly succumbed to the whims of man and are now happily married. Out of her circle of friends, only her and her BFF Jen remain single.
One damn smile, one stupid touch, and I was ready to throw him down on the desk and mount him.
When Josh Daniels storms into Nicole’s life, she feels not only feels the tingles of lust and desire, but something else as well…something, more. To say Nicole is freaking out would be an understatement. She’s called a Code Red. This is going to get interesting.
“You terrify me. You have from the first moment, because I think I knew I was going to fall for you. And I did.”
I loved Josh. The only thing that bothered me about him was that he was almost too patient with Nicole. She is such a hot mess. She tried and tried to do whatever she could to not fall for Josh.Code Reds were flying everywhere in this book. It was actually starting to get ridiculous.
Could a person die of sexual frustration? Because if they could, I was going down, no lie.
I liked this story. It had a good amount of humor, plus Nicole and her friends were awesome for the most part. I could easily picture myself as part of their group. They are a hilarious group of girls. However, as much as I loved the connection between all of them, it wasn’t enough for me. I started to get frustrated. You knew where the story was headed, but MAN, did it took FOR-EV-EVER to get there. This was definitely one sexually frustrating story. Nicole’s character, as much as I liked her, I wanted to smack some sense into her. There were countless times where I was just like, “What the frick is your problem?! Can’t you see how into you he is?!” Gahhhh!! And when, finally, Josh and Nicole finally got together, it felt like it was a little too late. It kinda lost its entire muster. **sigh** Anyway…like I said, for the most part, this was an entertaining read with an HEA that left me smiling.
**Thank you to NetGalley and the Writer’s Coffee Shop for the ARC**
