Review: Blackmailed by the Hero by Julie Particka (Gone Hollywood #2)
Note: This ARC was provided by Entangled Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
Vicky Stone is starting over. Her dream of becoming a party planner has her working as a waitress for a party planning company but she hopes her hard work will be rewarded with a promotion. Her best friend reminds her that she also needs to focus on her personal life and suggests she finds herself a hook-up as soon as possible. While at a party she's working at, she's invited by an infamous actor to sleep with him but ends up in the wrong room--a room that belongs to her brother's best friend and fellow actor, Dante Palladino. The sparks that have always been there are tempting but Vicky's been warned off Dante before.
Dante Palladino has had a thing for his best friend's sister since they first met, but she went off and married her then-fiancé. He's glad that she's finally divorced because he never felt her ex was good enough for her. When he finds out that she was planning on sleeping with an actor whose reputation has made him tabloid fodder, he blackmails her, telling her that he'll report her to her boss, a threat he has no plans of making good on. In return, she'll be spending time with him, something she's avoided doing but spending time together makes it far clearer it is that they've got the power to irreparably break each other's hearts.
Blackmailed by the Hero is the second book in the Gone Hollywood series by author Julie Particka and turns the spotlight on Vicky Stone, who was briefly introduced to readers in the first book as the male lead character's sister, and Dante Palladino. After divorcing her cheating ex, Vicky refuses to be dependent on anyone for anything. Seeing Dante again at a party she's working at proves that the feelings that were there when they first crossed paths still very much alive. However, they kept their distance from one another for five years, with some maneuvering from Vicky's brother Evan. Now, Evan's warning about Dante being a womanizer still plays in Vicky's waffling as to whether to act on her attraction to him or not.
I admit that Vicky was far more difficult to like than the previous female lead character, Stasia Grant, and it had a lot to do with how she treated Dante, who was simply a nice guy. Yes, he was pretending to blackmail her, but she could also see that he cared about her. Even with the need to be independent and Evan's words prior to her getting married, Vicky's supposed to be able to make her own decisions based on what she sees and experiences on her own. Dante was such a sweetie and his wanting to go above and beyond for Vicky certainly earns him bonus points on the book boyfriend scale. Overall, this was a fun read and a pretty good sequel as well. I'm giving book two, Blackmailed by the Hero, four out of five stars. ♥
Release Date: 11 August 2015
Date Read: 07 August 2015
Learn more about Julie Particka here.
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