Beautiful Distraction could have been an interesting book. Its heroine, Fallon Kelly, owns a burlesque club, which is where she meets Rafe Murano. This set up was what made me pick up the book—it’s not too often that I have the chance to read about a burlesque dancer. Unfortunately, Fallon’s club is pretty much the only intriguing aspect of the book. Everything else runs along predictable lines.

Fallon first lays eyes on Rafe when she’s dancing onstage at her club, Velour. Rafe is home on leave, frittering away his time while he waits for his next deployment. When he and Fallon spot each other across the room, there is an instant connection. They feel a pull which only grows stronger after Rafe stops one of Fallon’s dancers from being mauled by a particularly amorous guest. Fallon takes him out for a drink partly as a thank you and partly to get him away from the police, who are on their way to investigate the disturbance at the club.

Now, Fallon has her share of hang ups. She’s prudish, in spite of owning Velour, and her friends beg her to get involved with someone. Her tragic past keeps her from relaxing enough to become intimate with a man, though, and Fallon doubts that she’ll ever open up with a man again.

Or so we’re told at the beginning of the book. However, as it takes barely any time for Fallon to jump into bed with Rafe, I found it hard to believe that Fallon was as reserved as she claimed to be. It seemed to me that someone with intimacy issues would be much more hesitant about the whole affair.

Rafe, too, is a less than perfect character. He has a tendency to get jealous, for one thing. This wouldn’t be awful if it didn’t translate into an expectation that Fallon would stop dancing at her club, because she’s now “his.” I can forgive some violence and jealousy, because no one is perfect. Expecting someone to give up their job and an important part of their life, though, goes too far for me. If Rafe could expect that of Fallon, then did he understand her at all?

Fallon seemed to think he did. After giving him a talking to, she forgave her True Love and they moved on with a life together. A life where intimacy issues and jealous tendencies were presumably not major problems.

Meanwhile, I was able to move on to reading other books that elicited more emotion on my part. Beautiful Distraction neither sucked me in nor disgusted me. I wouldn’t recommend it to someone, but if I saw it in their hands I would at least be satisfied knowing many worse books exist.