I found Sizzle All Day, Geralyn Dawson’s new release, to be something of a mixed bag. Dawson has created an engaging couple and some funny scenes, but at times, the humor and the quirky supporting characters felt forced to me. Fortunately, most of the overly precious scenes occur earlier in the book, which improves as it goes along.

Texan Jake Delaney has gone to Rowanclere Castle in Scotland in search of a copy of the Texan Declaration of Independence. Jake has spent many years providing for his mother and sister, and now that his sister (the heroine of the prequel, Simmer All Night, is married, Jake is eager to finish this chore so he can go on his long-awaited world trip to countries where women don’t wear much clothing. The castle belongs to Gillian Ross’ great-uncle Angus, who wishes to sell it to provide for Gillian and her younger sister Robyn after his death. But an English buyer wants a haunted castle, so Gillian is pretending to be a ghost and is practicing on the visitor from Texas before the buyer arrives. She switches between pretending to be her twin sister Flora (who is also present) and the castle ghost, who accidentally exposes her breasts to Jake on his first night in the castle.

I found the opening chapters to be rather tedious. Jake is cute, and he thinks Gillian is cute, as evidenced by his constant erection when he’s around her. Gillian is trading places with her cute and very pregnant twin sister Flora, which confuses Jake because he is not attracted to Flora, which leads him to think he has some sort of strange male disorder. Gillian’s cute little sister Robyn and cranky-but-cute great-uncle Angus are also acting wacky. Oh, and don’t forget Jake’s very cute dachshund, Scooter. The whole thing was so very cute that I was tempted to ditch it.

That would have been a shame, because Sizzle All Day gets much better. Jake and Gillian try to deny their attraction and be “just friends,” spending time together fishing and getting to know each other. Gillian’s family persuades Jake to take part in their scheme when the buyer arrives with a guest – Jake’s widowed mother! In the meantime, the fiancé who jilted Gillian to marry for money is sniffing around again, and Jake’s mother suggests a solution to Gillian’s money problems.

During the second half of the book, the characters lost their ultra-cuteness. They actually experienced intense emotions and had problems to deal with, which made them far more interesting and believable. This really turned the book around for me. I especially appreciated the fact that falling in love didn’t make Gillian and Jake’s differences magically go away – they wanted very different things in life and had to learn to compromise.

The love scenes are also very notable. The sex is hot, and rather unconventional – Jake has a bit of a foot fetish, and there’s one scene with a bondage bent that I was quite surprised to see in a romance.

Fans of Simmer All Night (which I haven’t read) will likely enjoy this sequel – in fact, it might be a good idea to read it first if you haven’t already. Despite my frustration with the opening chapters, I’m glad I read this book, and if you can handle the cuteness, you may like it even more than I did.