This was a beautiful story. A New Year's Eve kiss and a night between strangers is a great plot for a book and Cheris Hodges executes it very well. I found myself rooting for Erik and Slyvie to work things out and fall for one another.

I found myself entertained by this story. Interesting turn of events that took place in the story. I felt like the author did a nice job bringing everything together. Any questions I may have wondered about was covered which made me happy. The banter between Erik and Sylvie was nice I liked Erik’s character. I also liked the relationship between Sylvie and her best friend. The drama in the story wasn’t to overbearing. Overall it was a good book.

The attraction happens between the two quickly. Add in family drama big time family drama and you have a good romance. The switching back and forth between the two characters was disconcerting and hopefully not apart of the copy for publication sold at stores.


I received an ARC through Net Galley.

I really wanted to love this more but it was just okay for me. I couldn't get past some of the dialogue and how much was going on in the stroy. It was kinda a mess halfway through. I think this story was just a 3 star book for me.

Sorry to say, I found it really hard to invest in this book. A lot of the dialogue is cheesy and ridiculous. I was disappointed. Thank you to netgalley for the arc.

A BOOK BAR REVIEW:

Something to be said about the title: Tempted at Midnight.  Which is exactly what happen to Erik Jordan and Sylvia Gates.  Nothing like bringing in the New Year with a kiss, that tempts these two from sparks to flames and night of memorable sex.

No mistaken Sylvia Gates is professional, ambitious, and focused on her craft. When she is shafted by previous relationships both professional and personal, she is left scared with uncertainty in starting anything new with Erik.  Jordan, CEO in Jordan Industries carries a torch for her.

Throw in the Jordan family love child, a run in with ex-business partner and her pregnancy with the ex-lover, there is no denying the display of drama in this one.

Would love to have another visit with these characters to catch on things.

#TemptedAtMidnight #NetGalley

This book was cute. Sylvie and Erik had a lot going on, so many layers to their lives besides the romance. It added to the story. I enjoyed all the characters and the directions the story took.

Great Read from Cheris Hodges! The heroine, Sylvia Elaine “Sylvie” Gates is a young woman, who is confident in her chosen profession, yet full of self-doubt in her relationships. She is sassy, demure, impulsive, thoughtful, and a fighter. Sylvia’s all of that and more, and Erik Jordan, the new CEO of Jordan Industries loves everything about her. This book highlights their love journey as it looks through the lens of two highly competent people working in their individual vocations. And yes, their relationship starts at midnight with an explosive kiss. You’ll have to read the story to discover what happens after that.
However, the stand-out character award goes to Simon Jordan, Erik’s father. Simon is a true throwback to the “do-it-my-way or not-at-all” Patriarch who manages to destroy everything he comes in contact with. Kudos to Ms. Hodges in penning such a despicable character with no redeeming qualities.
TEMPTED AT MIDNIGHT is an entertaining and captivating drama that offers so much more than a love story. I recommend it, and you can thank me later. Enjoy!

So what initially drew me to this was the stunning cover and the blurb. A woman leaving a one-night stand behind ends up holding the professional future of her partner for one night in her hands? Sounds good to me. 


And I did like how the book started off with a bang that drew me right in and hinted at family intrigues and complications and some steamy scenes. 


Unfortunately the book lost me from that point forward. I think my biggest issue were the jumps of POV from paragraph to paragraph. It confused me too often and I struggled with following the plot more than I like to admit. 


The other part that bothered me were the inconsistencies that ultimately made me give up somewhere around the 60% mark. For one, I often couldn't make the timeline work. Add in the POV jumps and I was hopelessly lost on what happened when and where. But it was people's inconsistent behavior that threw me off altogether. 


Sylvie is supposed to bring Erik's firm some good PR, but she ends up really needing this job to go well herself because she's dependent on it to keep her business running. Which is also a power dynamic I wasn't comfortable with, at the end of the day nobody paid attention to her interior design while Erik's family threw bad press at him. Erik himself desperately wants to find out why his mother is betraying him the way she is, but then when he gets the chance to talk to her he has to be threatened by his brother to actually go. And he's cruel and harsh towards his mother, all traces of trying to get to the bottom of her behavior gone. But then… his attitude changes again and again and I didn't understand any of it.


And Erik's mother? She's a mystery to me. She goes from cruel and accusing phone calls to staying silent when her husband really crosses all lines to secretly knowing he was a bad bean all along and trying to make up with her sons. Within a couple of days as far as I understood it. And then revealing that she's sick - which she had known for a week, but went along with her husband anyway, only to do a complete 180 for… Reasons. 


I'm honestly not sure what happened there and why. Because the book lost me completely at that point. It felt like a cheap plot twist, a last Hail Mary to make sense of behavior that just… still didn't make any sense


So I stopped. I really wanted to love this, but I didn't. I was confused and irritated and I didn't understand or feel with the characters. Except maybe for Sylvie. I don't know if it would have gotten better later, but I was not invested enough to try and find out. I skimmed the last 30% or so and didn't feel like anything would be changing for me. I am willing to give another book by Cheris Hodges atry because the beginning did work quite well for me. This book just didn't.

i've never been this saddened by a book. to say i'm deeply disappointed is an understatement. because while this isn't a very hyped book, i was super excited to read it.

TEMPTED AT MIDNIGHT looked A-MA-ZING. i mean, two people having a one-night stand on new year's eve? then meeting a few weeks later? SIGN ME UP. the premise was just super amazing, and the book had great potential. and it was kinda enjoyable in the first 30%. but then, things somehow went downhill for me. i just couldn't get into it anymore.

one of the main things that alarmed me was how cringy the dialogue was. i don't know how to describe it except for the fact that it was just so unrealistic. it didn't feel like an exchange people in real life would have? it didn't bother me at first because i've had my share of cringy romance, but as i went on with the book it became more and more inconvenient.

this, beside the fact that i was bored for more than half of the book. things happened but it didn't feel like it did? i felt so disconnected from the story that i honestly couldn't care less about what happened to the characters.

so yeah, i'm...disappointed. i expected more from it. i think i just had so much hope for it that it didn't live up to my expectations. BUT, if you enjoy cringy romance, it could be your cup of tea!

This book is why this author is one of my favorites. There is always plenty of drama and sex (especially if you like that in a book) There were also a lot of twists and turns that shocked me several times throughout the story. It was full of drama and deception and kept me wanting more. I enjoyed this book very much and will be looking for more from this author in the future.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The sex scenes were alright but I felt like the characters really didnt connect. There was a LOT of family drama that was just extra, dramatic and not in the good way. Parents need therapy

Sylvie Gates takes a chance and makes a very bold move on New Year’s Eve that will change her life, she decides to live in the moment and take a chance and enjoy what she believes will only be one night. Erik Jordan has recently became the CEO of his family’s company and he has his work cut out for him to keep the business a float. Erik decides to spend New Year’s Eve with his brother since he knows he will have a heavy workload in the New Year, he never expected a unexpected kiss to be life changing.

Tempted at Midnight was a great read, I enjoyed the storyline and all the unexpected twists and turns, it was full of drama romance. I wish Sylvie would have stayed confident and bold throughout the whole story but understand our insecurities can get the best of us, miscommunication and assumptions can ruining a lot of relationships.

TEMPTED AT MIDNIGHT starts off steamy and continues throughout as Sylvie and Erik battle outside issues and sometimes each other on their way to a future together. There is drama in their story, some from issues they both have and some is self-generated by misunderstandings. I got why Sylvie was hesitant to commit, and I also understood the family crap going on with Erik yet watching them so often turn away from each other instead of leaning on the person they’re so involved with was… sad is the only word that fits for me.

I say “drama” but don’t take that as a bad thing, there is a lot going on in each of their lives outside of figuring out their personal, romantic attraction. And if you love your Romance on the steamy side, then you’ll love this one. It’s easy to say “I wish” a character had done something different – and there were a few of those moments – but it’s not my story to tell only to read and enjoy. I had an enjoyable time in this world and would revisit this world and Cheris Hodges’ work without hesitation.

*I received an e-ARC of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley. That does not change what I think of this story. It is my choice to leave a review giving my personal opinion about this book.*

If drama is your thing, then you need to read Tempted at Midnight by Cheris Hodges. This is a romance novel by an author that’s new to me, but Ms. Hodges has made a good first impression.

It all started with a kiss. Sylvie Gates sees sexy Erik Jordan at her best friend’s New Year’s Eve party and knows she has to get a kiss to ring in the new year. The two end up spending a magical night together, but Sylvie leaves before Erik awakens, so he never gets her last name or contact info. As luck would have it, Erik’s offices are being remodeled by, you guessed it, Sylvie Gates.

Both Sylvie and Erik are facing trying times in their personal and professional lives, which makes it hard to begin and maintain a new relationship. How much power is there in a single kiss?

Tempted at Midnight is an enjoyable read. The characters are well-developed. The plot is compelling and the dialogue is engaging. There’s plenty of drama to keep the reader entertained. I rate this novel 3 out of 5 stars and recommend it to those who enjoy dramatic romance. There is some explicit sexual content that may be inappropriate for sensitive readers.

My thanks to Kensington Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book. However, the opinions expressed in this review are 100% mine and mine alone.

DNF at 10%. I gave up in the first sex scene when the hero 1) vocally said “beautiful yoni” as he “stroked her wet slit,” 2) mentally referred to touching the heroine’s “honey pot,” and 3) mentally referred to the heroine’s “throbbing pearl.” I’m sure the book is fine, but I’m very picky about description and I don’t think the book will work well for me. YMMV, so you should try an excerpt and decide for yourself. I really liked the premise though.

I also mentioned the book in the upcoming 9/28 Smart Bitches, Trashy Books "Whatcha Reading" biweekly post.

Summary: Sylvie kisses a random man at the stroke of midnight during new year's eve. It turns out that he's the CEO of a makeup company, and she's contractually obligated to work with him in her capacity as an interior designer.

What I liked about this book: This book has a lot of layers. There's the main plot about Sylvie and Erik's love story. There are also subplots about Erik's dysfunctional family and Sylvie's former business partner/ex-boyfriend. The subplots are interesting and add to the character development.

What I disliked about this book: It starts strong and gets slow in the middle but finishes strong. The book also has some inconsistencies. For example, the text tells us that Sylvie is (an aspiring) vegetarian in the beginning and mentions it frequently throughout the book, but then the word vegan is mentioned at the end of the book.

Overall: The author has a great writing style and the book is campy and fun. 3.5 out of 5 stars (rounded up to 4)

This is a great storyline of romance, drama, deception and plot twist. The characters are well developed. You can imagine and feel the emotions each character felt. I felt like I was right there, where I wanted to laugh, cry, get angry and slap some sense in a couple of the characters.
The relationship between Sylvie and Erik Jordan was an emotional rollercoaster but yet they were right for each other. Olivia and fiancee Logan Jordan had a relationship that is a couple's dream of loving, caring and supportive of each others dream job.
I enjoyed reading this book, a page turner from the beginning until the end and I still wanted more.
I highly recommend this book to read and look forward to reading more books by this author.
Cassandra H.
I received a ARC from Netgalley for an honest review and opinion by me.

A strong 2.5

Jordan and Sylvie had a one night stand,...and then a relationship was supposed to develop from there. But these two barely got to know one another because:

a. Jordan is immediately tapped to take over the family business and then there is another issue (besides his father stealing) that compounded that.

b. Sylvie has trust issues from a previous relationship.

Nothing in Tempted At Midnight connected for me. Jordan and Sylvie because of their separate issues didn’t really have chemistry between them. They slept together a couple of times after the one night stand but with all the extra drama going on in here, I feel like they were too quick to be falling in love with one another.

Both of them claiming that this was going to be just a friends with benefits type of thing got marred in Jordan falling too fast because Sylvie was “magical” (I don’t want to see this word again for a minute, lols) and Sylvie running to and from the “D” because she wasn’t trying to get hurt again.

And I get Sylvie’s trust issues but Jordan literally gave her no reason for the reactions we got and I was confused. But shoot, she was damn confused so...
She never wanted to fully talk about what bothered her and this lead to her always jumping to conclusions. And she has a good girlfriend that gave her damn good advise that myself as a reader was 100% thinking about while reading. But Sylvie willfully chose to ignore it.

Then the side stories. Nothing wrapped up completely. Why didn’t their father tell the true reason for what he did? I can’t fully believe that all that money went to a side chick...
It didn’t add up.
And then the mothers sickness. When I read that, I was like...huh? I really threw my hands up like “come on now!” It felt like a last minute thrown in shock moment and to get the reader to feel sympathy for her character because of the way she was portrayed earlier in the story.
It didn’t add up either.

It all honestly read like haphazardly thrown together paragraphs and I think Tempted At Midnight could have been more of a solid story if we had gotten more length, a clear story arc and better character development.

This is a ARC so maybe we’ll get a more cohesive story with the final version...I don’t know. But for now, this story didn’t work for me.

*thank you to the publisher/author for the opportunity to read/review.

This was a fun and enjoyable read for me. I typically do not read romance novels, but this book told the story in such a way that I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. To me this was a sweet story with enough realism in it to make the storyline plausible. So many romance novels follow a set plot path that it is easy to determine what will happen next.

There is tons of family drama in this book, along with friendship, attraction and sex. There are some areas within the novel that I would like to have had fleshed out a bit more, and I would love to see a sequel to this book in order to get a peek into the lives of the Jordan men and their significant others. However, overall, I found this to be a great read for me. I found myself smiling while reading and anxious to get back to the story when I wasn’t. Thank you to Dafina, NetGalley and Cheris Hodges for the opportunity to review this book. All thoughts and opinions found within are my own.