Call me old fashioned, but when it comes to sex, I definitely need a little foreplay.

A frustrating (very frustrating) first half, including instant sex between two people we’re supposed to believe “don’t do that kind of thing,” gives way to a better (although totally unbelievable in a number of ways) second half, making Naturally Naughty a barely acceptable choice for those who enjoy hot series romance.

Heroine Kate Jones returns to her small Ohio hometown 10 years after high school with revenge on her mind. Now the owner of Bare Essentials, a successful Chicago lingerie and sex toy shop, her visit is ostensibly to settle matters in the old house her mother plans to sell. But considering that she hates, hates, hates the snobs who looked down on her family as the Trashy Tremaines and that her sexy model cousin plans to hide from a stalker in the same town for a few months, she soon finds herself living in the old family duplex and planning to show those small town biddies just what’s what by opening a branch of her store on the town’s main street. (Now that’s a sound business plan, don’t you think?) But all that happens only after she has hot sex with a stranger in a public place.

Seems that town Golden Boy Jack Winfield is also back in town to settle the affairs of his recently deceased father. Planning to stay just a few days, he sees sexy Kate and, before you know it, the two get to know each other really well. Well, at any rate, they get to know each other in the you-know-how kind of way but not in the who’s-who-and-who’s-related-to-whom way which – trust me on this, as the former resident of one of the tiniest burgs around – I can tell you is definitely advisable before having sex in a small town. And, in this case, their haste bites both of them in the butt when he finds out exactly who her mother is (more about that later) and then uses that pitiful excuse as the reason he doesn’t call her once both return to Chicago.

The ugly truth is that Kate and Jack have a history. Her mother, his family’s longtime maid, carried on an extra-marital affair for more than 20 years with Jack’s father. Jack finds out about the affair only after his passionate encounter with Kate, and Kate doesn’t make the association that Jack is actually “J.J.,” the son of her mother’s lover. To make matters worse, Jack doesn’t know that Kate knows and Kate doesn’t know that Jack knows. All I know is that I really lost patience with this whole thing. And, though both have their reasons to return to the town for a longer stay some time later, just why either one of them would voluntarily sentence themselves to stay for months in a place they both despise is completely and totally beyond my comprehension. (Note to authors seeking to elicit sympathy for heroines who were Unbearably Humiliated in High School: Ask yourself, is there anybody who wasn’t, at least once, Unbearably Humiliated in High School?)

Now on to the second half. With all this frustrating plotting, including the inane idea of taking revenge on a whole town by investing your money to open a business, there is enough in the second half to make the book readable. Kate and Jack do get to know each other a bit better and their romance eventually becomes believable. But, patience is definitely advised, since it does take quite a while to get there.

Also, on the positive side, despite that plotting that definitely made me crazy, Leslie Kelly manages to pack quite a few plot and character details into a very short book without once resorting to awkward or uncomfortable prose. There have been so many bad Blaze titles since the line’s inception that, given Kelly’s ability to write a good half of a book, she’s an author to consider when making your monthly picks. But given those plot problems and the frustrating first half of Naturally Naughty, my final recommendation would be to check her out next time around and read the Jill Shalvis’ companion story instead.