Talk Nerdy To Me (Nerds, Book 5)

VICKI LEWIS THOMPSON

Synopsis from back of book: Fashion model Eve Dupree is fed up with being labeled “the pretty one” while her sister's called a genius. Eve's got loads of brilliant ideas, not least of which is the invention she's building in her garage. But when she turns to the nerd next door to help get it off the ground, she finds herself on dangerous ground.

Charlie Shepherd has discovered that there's more to Eve than meets the eye. But it's not just her body he likes – it's those sexy brains of hers. Romance is a complication he doesn't need right now. The problem is, she has something he needs and he can't seem to resist her.

Keeping her creation under wraps is harder than Eve expected – as is denying her attraction to Charlie. But when a saboteur starts sniffing around her project, she questions everyone around her, even her nerd in shining armor. Can opposites attract, or will they light a fire they can't control?

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, published by St. Martin's Press, 2006; purchased new.

First line: The explosion caught Charlie by surprise.

My thoughts: Is it just me, or are these Nerds books becoming less and less about characters who actually are real nerds, and more and more about sex?

The synopsis above sums it up pretty well, so I'm not going into a description of the plot. Suffice it to say, Eve and Charlie meet, then lust after each other. Eve is new in town and thrilled to have found a place in a cozy homey little middle American town, away from the bright lights/big city of her usual life. Charlie has lived in said town his whole life and can't wait to get away. Thus, they both realize the other person is unattainable as a permanent mate, so they try to hold back, leading to much brooding and internalizing.

Eve supposedly has genius level smarts, though she didn't graduate from high school. Which is OK – I think I'm fairly intelligent myself and I also did not graduate from high school, so nothing wrong with that. When Charlie tells her his phone number, she doesn't need to write it down, because she can just remember it right off the bat. Yet when she visited her sister one time, she set off the alarm at her sister's house several times over a weekend because she couldn't get the code right. And those codes are usually only four digits.

I liked Charlie, very much. He's a good guy, who is protective of his mother and aunt, and rides a motorcycle while wearing leather chaps. Eve was OK. She's sweet enough, a little naive despite being a runway model and having been raised in elite society, and of course she's beautiful with her perfect 36B figure. The supporting characters were all definitely characters, with the neighbor who claimed to have been abducted by aliens and taught all sorts of alien love techniques being the most out there. The whole book just seemed a little silly and over the top.

And yet, I still really enjoyed it. It was a fun read, with some hot scenes and lots of humor. I just hope that at least continues in the rest of the series.