Review: Femme Fatale (Hard Bodies #1) by Cindy Dees

Former teen star Olivia Harper has a problem. If she can’t shake her girl-next-door image and become the femme fatale her latest role requires, her career will flop. But with her squeaky-clean image, Liv’s hardly been kissed, let alone had her world rocked between the sheets. There’s no way she’ll ask her playboy co-star for pointers, so she turns to the sexy new military consultant for some discreet…guidance.

Major Blake Ramsey is stuck hiding out babysitting actors who can’t even lace their combat boots, until his boss can deal with the fallout from his last mission. When Liv propositions him, he can’t decide whether she’s the naïve girl she claims to be or a bombshell looking for another conquest.
But as the lessons heat up, Blake and Olivia catch the eye of the papparazzi and jeopardize both their lives. ~ Goodreads

Review:I liked the premise for Femme Fatale more than the delivery.

The characters had such conflicting emotions and their actions seemed inconsistent for the most of the book.

For example Olivia grew up on the set of a Disney style TV show and is now trying to rebrand herself as a badass action star. Unfortunately that means participating in smexy scenes that leave her very uncomfortable due to her lack of real life experiences. Her handlers want her to shed her wholesome image so she acts the part of a wild child for the paparazi but then doesn't want to be seen with the hunky marine might cause a scandal. Um…wouldn't that *help* your image as a wild child? She is also  always worrying about what people think of her behavior. I get that she's portraying an image that isn't quite her but I don't know....still seemed inconsistent to me.

Olivia acts almost like a virginal teenager but she's 27 years old and pretty confident and bold so I just couldn't' get a firm read on her character.

Blake (the hunky marine) agrees to help Olivia to relax and become a - you guessed it - femme fatal. He doesn't trust women because he let his guard down once and got burned. Sometimes he came on too strong for me and waffled between I don't trust women to let's have hot monkey sex within a few seconds.

I guess it's a minor quibble but it was things like that that kept me from begin fully engrossed with the story and characters.

The bigger problem for me was the over the top unnecessary drama that kept piling on. Russian spies, paparazzi, two people that wouldn't just say what they were thinking and a sicko lead actor. Too much for me as all those differing plot threads raced for a conclusion.

There was one incident that I don't want to spoil but it made me SO mad. There is a character that does something very disturbing and it's kind of passed off as an annoyance. Hollywood or not...this person should have been arrested. Not just threatened.

The ending was a sweet HEA but a little unbelievable for the time span that this relationship developed.

Final thoughts: I liked Olivia and Blake so I kept reading. They have great chemistry and the requisite smoking hot bordering on erotica love scenes. They were too graphic for me but I can see how other readers will love it. I wish the story stuck more to Olivia and Blake's relationship issues and the movie business. There was just too much going on that couldn't fully be addressed in between the sexy times.

Author: Website | Goodreads
Source: Provided by Entangled Publishing for my honest review
Buy the book! Femme Fatale (Hard Bodies)