To enjoy a Harlequin Blaze you’ve pretty much got to let logic and cynicism fly out the window. Fair enough. But, when a book’s premise is so, well … repugnant, the authors have set the reader a pretty impossible task. In Tori Carrington’s Night Fever, it was certainly beyond me.

Here’s the Problem: On his very first day on the job, a brand new manager sleeps with one of his employees. Worse yet, not the manager, not the employee, not the employee’s friends – no one – raises any of the very weighty ethical, moral, or legal issues behind this very questionable situation. Ever heard of sexual harassment? What about discrimination against those other employees not “lucky” enough to sleep with the boss?

The story itself centers on the instantly combustible relationship between general practitioner Dr. Layla Hollister and her new boss, hotshot plastic surgeon Dr. Sam Lovejoy. They meet cute (neither knows at first who the other is) the night before he starts his new job as her boss, and they get right to it the end of his first day. There are a few ups and downs after that while the authors attempt to bring a bit more than sex into the equation, but to be honest, I was so appalled at the basic plot line that it was all pretty much lost on me.

Layla is another one of those 27-year old superwomen – a full-fledged doctor, not a resident as she normally would be at that age – who works 80 hour weeks (half of those hours at a free clinic) and still finds time for a hot sex life with Sam. The hero is a plastic surgeon to the Hollywood stars who mysteriously decides to take on a chief of staff job at a medical center. And, of course, for a little plot conflict, Sam specializes in enhancing breasts, while Layla is staggeringly insecure about her lack of them.

I’ve read books by the husband and wife Tori Carrington team before and enjoyed them. And, I don’t think I’m too demanding a reader when it comes to something like this – hey, I’m more than willing to put logic aside to enjoy what is certainly designed to be a light, sexy read. But, with that said, the employer-employee scenario was just so distasteful – especially since the risks of this very iff-y move, both career-wise and legally are never explored – that I just couldn’t get past it. These two supposedly very, very intelligent people engage in potentially very, very stupid behavior and neither one of them thinks about the possible consequences for even one minute.

The bottom line for me on this one is that Night Fever is a book I just cannot recommend. As all of us who read romances know, there are thousands of plots out there recycled (sometimes quite creatively) again and again. With so many scenarios to choose from, I’d be a lot happier if authors stuck to those that weren’t so ethically, morally, and legally questionable.