When I’m reading a book for review and I come across something particularly wonderful – or something particularly heinous – I turn down the corner of the page to mark the spot. My copy of Hot Night contains a not very pretty seven page turn-downs for the latter reason and absolutely zip for the former. And, since I think my choices illustrate just what’s wrong with this book, I’ll list them for you here. 

• Page 82: Heroine Abby Maitland allows her best friend – her emotionally disturbed and almost pathologically submissive best friend – to meet alone a man who has threatened and seriously scared her because, as the friend says, “I’ve just got to do it myself, Abby”. The acronym TSTL was created to describe something exactly like this.
• Page 131: An unintentionally hysterical depiction of a Bitch Boss. As the Bitch says: “I’m not at all impressed by your attitude, Abby! You’re being self-indulgent. Moping about. Starving yourself. Snap out of it, for goodness’ sake.” Need more? As the slacker Bitch prepares to run out the door to her fancy-schmancy dinner while poor Abby faces yet another in a string of all-nighters, she tosses off this bon mot: “I suggest you rethink your need to sleep tonight.” Cruella Deville was a paragon of subtlety compared to this Bitch.
• Page 180: A particularly over-the-top display by one of the most screamingly over-the-top stereotypical Gay Queens I’ve ever come across in a romance novel. Dovey (yes, really), who has a history of fixing Abby up with Really Bad (and I mean Really Bad) Blind Dates, follows Abby into the Ladies Room, pulls a lipstick out of her purse, and muses: “Oh, you fuzzy little duckling you. Russian Red. Naughty slut. Perfect for that hot red suit. Pure sex, in a streamlined package of slick professionalism. You’ll look like a Bond girl. All you need is a Jag convertible and a little silver gun.” O-k-a-a-a-y.
• Page 181: Regarding that paragon of slick professionalism, Ms. McKenna actually writes, “she could care less”. I couldn’t care less about such sloppy writing.
• Page 183: An exchange between Abby, the Bitch Boss, the Gay Queen, and the book’s truly e-e-e-e-e-v-i-l villain that perfectly exemplifies how lackluster and just plain silly a book can be when cartoon characters interact with other cartoon characters. To call it eyeroll-inducing just doesn’t begin to cover it.
• Page 270: Zan, the book’s “hero” (quotes intended) accuses Abby of being willing to screw a “moneybags” who is making a huge donation to her museum. I’ll spare you the four letter word-laden exchange, but I wanted to deck him. Truly.
• Page 285: Zan strikes again and reveals just how seriously he takes Abby’s career by pressuring her to make love during a very important professional event. Guess what? They get caught and Abby gets in trouble. Well, duh.

I’ve enjoyed Shannon McKenna before and the big question in my mind after reading this one is what the hell happened? This plot-heavy, lackluster, and cliché-ridden story involving an e-e-e-e-e-v-i-l thief attempting to steal pirate treasure from a museum certainly doesn’t bear any resemblance to books I’ve read by the author before. And, honestly, Hot Nights reads more like a conventional romance novel than her previous books – and not a good one either.

As for the hero and heroine, locksmith and some kind of computer whiz Zan, fairly likable for the first half of the book, suddenly turns into an ass in the second and heroine Abby has Victim written all over her. Over the course of this story she is Victimized by her friends, her boss, and eventually her lover. And, oh, yeah, that e-e-e-e-e-v-i-l villain, too.

When a reviewer gives a low grade to a popular author, we always prepare ourselves for the slings and arrows sure to follow. Well, hit me, baby, because I stand by this one. Big time.