When Lightning Strikes by Brenda Novak Series: Whiskey Creek #1
Published by Harlequin MIRA on 28 August 2012
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 448
Source: Kindle Purchase
Buy on Amazon 
When Lightning Strikes starts out with PR maven Gail facing the problems her company has since she let Simon O'Neill, the famous Hollywood actor, go. She soon figures out that she has started a fight with the wrong client, as he is able to get a lot of her other clients to leave her as well. As she is struggling with having to let some of her employees go, she decides to try to talk some sense into him at his premiere party.
Simon O'Neill is in a dark place since his ex-wife Bella is denying him access to their son Ty. To deal with all his trouble, he drinks too much, picks up too many women, and starts fights he knows he can't win. When Big Hit drops him, it's no big deal to him, until Gail shows up to apologize, and he actually feels sorry for her - at least until the next morning when the tabloids are writing about an attempted assault charges Gail seems to be charging him with...
When Lightning Strikes is book 1 of the Whiskey Creek series, and I have already read the prequel – and I loved that, too!
From there, a merry-go-round is taking both Simon and Gail on a wild ride. And it ends up with Gail telling Simon he should marry an innocent-looking woman he can trust, stop drinking, and get his life back together so he can regain shared custody of his son. Things don’t go according to Gail’s plans when Simon’s manager Ian thinks that Gail is the woman who should play the role of the bride. As she secretly admires Simon, she wants nothing to do with a fake marriage at first, but she gives in when she sees an opportunity to save both Big Hit and Simon, even if she is very afraid to lose her heart in the process.
Simon’s ex-wife is a true bitch in this book! She only uses Ty as a means to hurt Simon, and throughout their marriage, she is the one who was cheating on him – not the other way around. Simon plays the tough guy to not let anyone see how hurt he is, both to be separated from his son, and because of his Bella’s betrayal. In the beginning, not even Gail realizes how much he’s had to go through, and how Bella continues her slow torture after filing a restraining order against Simon.
To further complicate Simon and Gail’s budding romance, just when Gail decides that Whiskey Creek is the best way for Simon to get his life back on track, her very own crush Matt is also coming back to town. The road ahead the protagonists is rocky, but they both want to change something in their lives, and they slowly start to trust each other, and while they both try to protect their hearts because of their business-deal like marriage, they also fall in love.
I truly loved both Simon and Gail, such wonderful characters, they both showed both their strengths and their weaknesses, and they grew a lot during the story. I loved how they interacted, and their romantic scenes were steamy. The way Simon treated Gail’s friends an family appealed to me as well. And when he finally realized that Bella wasn’t the only one who had betrayed him, he understood that maybe Gail could be the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with after all. A delightful tale – all romance lovers should read this – the character building is excellent, and there is no insta-love to find here.
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.
Thanks for commenting - chat soon!