Sick of slogging through books so filled with kids, secondary characters, and/or dull mystery subplots that you wonder if you missed the romance? Finding too many books lacking that oh-so-important ingredient called sexual tension? Well, I sure as heck am! So, for me, reading a Christmas Fantasy was like eating Godiva chocolates after months of snacking on cardboard tasting Snackwell’s.

While the plot is a little flimsy, the book is fun, so stick with me. Teddy (short for Theodora) finds herself in a tight spot when she creates an imaginary boyfriend in order to force a lecherous boss into backing off and giving her the promotion she deserves – based on her hard work, not her physical attributes. Now the boss expects her to bring this love of her life to the company Christmas party and she panics. She needs a major hunk of a man in order to pull this off. The only one that pops to mind is Austin, the owner of “Fantasy for Hire,” a business specializing in fulfilling woman’s fantasies. That’s fancy talk for saying he strips to pay the bills. Teddy met the gorgeous Austin a few days earlier when her two best friends’ hired him out for her birthday surprise and she’s been unable to get him off of her mind ever since.

Teddy decides to hire Austin for the Christmas party to act as her devoted lover. Austin, who has decided to retire from stripping and sell his “Fantasy for Hire” business now that his landscaping business is making a profit, agrees to Teddy’s plan only because he wants to get close to her again and ignite those sparks that flew between them. And, boy, does he!

Like I said, the plot is about as far from reality as one can get and reads more like a fantasy cooked up by one of Austin’s former clients. But you know what? I didn’t care. The book was amusing and sexy and there was nothing – no kids, no babies, and, blessedly, no annoying hidden pregnancies – to interrupt the fantasy (Harlequin, are you listening?!). As a result, the pages flew and it was hard to tear myself away from the story when I was forced to put it down to return to real life.

One would think a stripper hero would be conceited beyond belief and a womanizer to boot, but Austin is a great guy who is ready to keep his shirt on and settle down. He even has insecurities about himself and has been used by women in the past. After falling hard for Teddy, he worries that he can’t meet her or her parents’ expectations, but he’s willing to spill his feelings all the same.

Teddy, though, isn’t quite as easy to warm up to. She is beautiful, smart, exudes confidence, and has very little in the way of flaws. Raised by very wealthy parents who expected her to marry well and spend her days taking care of a husband, home and children, she grew up feeling stifled. She relishes her hard earned independence and has become so career driven that she doesn’t believe she has time for a relationship. Her unwillingness to relinquish her freedom makes sense but she carries it a bit too far and her treatment of Austin sometimes borders on unfair.

But at the rate the pages were flying by, my objections seemed like minor details. If you need something to get your blood boiling (in a good way) this winter, grab yourself an Austin – oops, can’t seem to get that sexy man off of the overheated brain – I mean a copy of Christmas Fantasy and start reading.