You Don't Know Jack by Erin McCarthy

A meandering romantic story
3 stars

Jamie Peters is fed up of looking for true love when all she finds are liars, cheats and scumbags. But she can’t help but be a little intrigued when her cross dressing psychic tells her that an accident involving food will bring her a tall, dark and sexy man who is her soul mate.

And then it happens. Jack is the kind of man Jamie has been searching for her whole life – smart, sexy, normal and best of all, honest. But what Jack’s not telling her is that he is really her roommate’s brother, he’s investigating her for fraud and he’s actually a millionaire. But soon the pair are in too deep and the lies just keep piling up. Will they be able to make it work or is destiny ready to be proven wrong?


This book has been sitting on my 'to be read' pile for a long time so by the time I got round to it I was really looking forward to reading it. For some reason, it just didn’t live up to my expectations.

The first part of the book focuses solely on Jamie and Jack as they meet and then get naked. I’m all for sexiness is a story but the long, drawn out foreplay and initial sex scene got pretty tiresome after a while, especially since it drew on for chapter after chapter.

The rest of the book is basically about Jack trying to redeem himself for the lies that he has told. When we got to this bit the book definitely picked up and I enjoyed Jack’s cute little conversations with Jamie as he tried to win her back.

The whole book then took on this fashion of really slow bits punctuated by the more interesting so it did feel a bit disjointed. The story was okay but I did feel Jamie was a little immature and Jack was a little bit wet at times. I just wanted him to get a bit more spark and take charge of what he wanted.

Other than that this was a nice enough story that was okay for a meandering read. I wouldn’t recommend you rush out and buy it but if you’re a fan of Erin McCarthy then it’s probably worth a look. 3 stars.

The Naked Truth

Charming and Entertaining Contemporary Anthology

4 Stars

This is a collection of four contemporary novellas focussing on the misunderstandings between men and women on the path to true love.

The Winning Truth by Erin McCarthy

Tansey Reynolds has decided to swear off men until she can raise enough money to go back to college. But that is before she meets JT Kowalski in line for a radio station competition. In order to win $25,000 the pair must live together in a SUV where the prize might be even bigger than the cash.

This was a really simple story of a pair that meet and fall in love during a strange radio competition. It was a fine enough story but far from exhilarating or different.

The Naked Truth About Guys by Alesia Holliday

Newspaper humour columnist, C.J. Murphy is fed up with being treated like ‘one of the guys’ – even if she does tend to dress like one. So she enlists her glamorous best friend to give her a makeover. Soon she has two guys fighting over her but only Hugh sets her pulse racing. If only he can convince her that he likes her whatever she wears.

This was a fun, engaging and cheery story written in the first person. While enjoying the story immensely, for the first 30 pages I genuinely thought that a man other than Hugh was supposed to be the hero of the story!

Truth or Dare by Donna Kauffman

Soap Opera writer, Bailey Madison, has just landed her big break – ghost-writing the autobiography of the wealthy billionaire, Franklin Dent. Unfortunately for Bailey, Franklin also intends to shoot a documentary of his life at the same time and his filmmaker of choice just happens to be Noah Morrissey – the very same man that walked out on their 6-month relationship without a word.

I love a story where the characters get a second chance at love and this didn’t disappoint. It was entertaining, well-written story with enjoyable characters and an interesting plot.

Nothing But The Truth by Beverly Brandt

It’s Valentine’s Day and Madison Case has to organise three proposals to help with the promotion of Rules of Engagement – the marriage preparatory place where she works. Unfortunately, everything that can go wrong is going wrong except for the appearance delicious divorce lawyer Scott Seaver.

This was definitely the worst story of the anthology, in my opinion. The goings on seemed farcical, the hero and heroine spent little time together and I really didn’t like the fact that Madison’s ex-husband dumped her for her surgically enhanced sister on national TV and Maddie didn’t even hold a grudge.

Overall, this was an enjoyable enough set of three stories. Being so short, they did tend to lose a lot of the character and plot development you would find in a full-length story, but if you’re looking for a quick, fun read then you really can’t go wrong with this book.