This book is basically romance reader catnip and I'm not even going to pretend otherwise.
I finished Tempt Me during a miraculous two-hour Sophie nap (I know, I checked for breathing twice) and honestly? It was exactly the kind of escapist fantasy I needed after spending my morning fishing goldfish crackers out of the heating vent.
The Boss From Hell You Secretly Want
Henry Wolf is the kind of hero who would make me roll my eyes in real life but absolutely works on the page. Arrogant hotel heir, gorgeous, treats his new assistant like she's simultaneously incompetent and irresistible. It's not groundbreaking, but sometimes you don't need groundbreaking. Sometimes you need a broody rich guy who says he doesn't want the girl while very obviously wanting the girl. Paris Rose gave me that same delicious push-pull dynamic, though with a completely different setting.
Abbi is our fish-out-of-water heroine running from some vague heartbreak back home, and she lands this personal assistant gig despite having—by her own admission—mediocre computer skills and a talent for color-coding. The power dynamic is messy and the slow burn is SLOW. Like, you will be several hours in before anything really happens slow. Some listeners found this frustrating. I found it delicious. There's something to be said for anticipation when your real life is just an endless loop of snack requests. I got a similar slow-burn payoff from Toilers of the Sea, though that one trades sexual tension for man-versus-ocean obsession.
Avery Reid Gets It
The narration here is genuinely good. Avery Reid has this way of capturing Abbi's internal chaos—that mix of attraction and annoyance and complete bafflement at why this man is the way he is. The sexy scenes (and yes, there are sexy scenes, hence the mature themes warning) land well without feeling over-the-top or awkward. She reads the tension like she understands it, which makes all the difference.
I listened at my usual 1.25x and it worked perfectly. Reid's pacing is natural enough that speeding up doesn't make it sound like chipmunks arguing.
Fair Warning: This Is Part One
Here's the thing nobody told me going in—this ends on a cliffhanger. Like, a real one. Not a "satisfying ending with some loose threads" situation. More of a "wait, WHAT just happened" situation. I sat in my car in the garage for an extra ten minutes just staring at my phone trying to process.
If you need closure—and honestly, as a mom of three, I NEED closure because I get so little of it anywhere else—this might frustrate you. It's clearly book one of a series and it knows it. Some reviewers mentioned feeling confused about where the story was going, and I get that. It's a beginning, not a complete arc.
That said? I immediately put the next book on hold at the library. So clearly it worked on me.
Who's Going to Love This (And Who Should Wait)
This is for you if: you love a good enemies-to-lovers slow burn, you don't mind cliffhangers, you want something steamy but not wall-to-wall explicit, and you have about eight hours to kill across multiple listening sessions.
Maybe skip if: you need your romance wrapped up with a bow, you're not into workplace power dynamics (which, fair), or you're looking for something with a lot of plot beyond the central relationship.
At just under eight hours, it's a perfect length for a week of school drop-offs and nap times. Survived 47 pauses and still made sense—which is honestly my highest compliment.
The Mom Verdict: Worth the Cliffhanger Rage
Look, I'm giving this a solid rating because it delivered exactly what it promised: a sexy, tension-filled romance with a narrator who made me want to keep listening. But I'm docking a bit for that cliffhanger ending because I have enough unfinished business in my life (the laundry, the dishes, that closet I've been meaning to organize since 2019). I don't need it in my audiobooks too.
But will I listen to the sequel? Obviously. Henry Wolf is a bastard and I need to know what happens next. K.A. Tucker knows exactly what she's doing.
