If you’re lamenting the lack of sexy, funny, character-driven romances on the bookshelves these days, you absolutely will not want to miss reading Kimberly Raye’s Midnight Kisses.

Dr. Josephine Farrington is a brilliant scientist who has a fulfilling job in a doll factory but a very lame personal life. Her thirty-fifth birthday is fast approaching and her biological clock is ticking away at a mad pace. She desperately wants kids before she runs out of time. Sadly, she has given up on the fantasy of finding a handsome, sensitive male to spend the rest of her days with and has instead resigned herself to settling for one of two men who meet her “Ten Compatibility Commandments.” Both are major duds who don’t exactly induce mad fits of lust in her soul. While working late one night, Josie comes up with the perfect solution. She’ll use her invention of an incredibly lifelike synthetic skin to create a hunky robotic man to keep her company. In order to bring her “man” to life she needs some help and convinces her coworker, the reclusive ultra-geek Marvin Tannenbaum, to help her out.

Marvin is actually a hunk in hiding. His real name is Matt Taylor; just six months ago, he was a well-known playboy and a respected scientist whose reputation was ruined when he was framed for stealing his own idea. Now all Matt wants to do is hide out and work on the project that will win back his credibility, avoiding any human contact for fear of being discovered. He decides to help Josie only because he sees it as a good opportunity to put his experiment to practical use. Even though he’s secretly madly attracted to Josie, Matt’s sure that his put-on nasally voice, his greasy hair and his Coke-bottle glasses will keep him “safe” from her clutches. He naively assumes that no woman in her right mind will be attracted to him. But he doesn’t know Josie yet. She thinks Matt’s just perfect for her and sets out to seduce the shyness right out of him. And, wow, do the sparks ever begin to fly!

This book is pure unadulterated fun. It was nearly impossible to put down once I started reading. The plot is sometimes zany and sometimes downright silly, but it’s always amusing, and the romance never gets diluted by too many subplots (as is too often the case in romantic comedies).

Matt spends the book trying to keep his distance from Josie because he can’t risk having his cover blown. On top of that, he’s a typical commitment-shy male. He has a load of excuses: he’s not ready, he wants to be somebody first, his dad succumbed to the wiles of a woman and spent the rest of his life miserable…no sirree, he’s not going to take that route! Fortunately, Matt’s attempts to avoid Josie fail miserably and he has absolutely no will-power where she is concerned. Watching him fall hard is both hilarious and touching. His resistance could easily have grated but it is handled with lots of humor. It was difficult for me to become annoyed at this guy for even a brief moment.

These two characters could have degenerated into the stereotypical behavior expected of a commitment-shy man and a supposedly shy-woman-turned-seductress, but luckily that didn’t happen. The author takes these stereotypes, shakes them up, and has a ton of fun with them. Both Josie and Matt have weaknesses and continually do the unexpected, which really helps bring them down to earth despite their above-average intelligence. Together they make a sizzling couple and, although the sexual tension is as intense as it gets and is an important ingredient in this story, their friendship and growing love for one another are displayed skillfully and shown in a myriad of amusing ways throughout the story.

Since it’s as sexy and amusing as Dara Joy’s High Energy, only with a much brighter heroine, I’m shocked that Midnight Kisses isn’t receiving the buzz that it deserves! Buy this one, read it, and then tell all your friends to go get themselves a copy. This is one buried treasure that deserves to be discovered by romance fans