The Best Laid Plans

Tamara Mataya

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Jayne Griffin isn’t looking for Mr. Right. She’s looking for Mr. RTFN and a toe-curling good time. She’s got the brains, the powerful job as a futures broker, and thanks to a makeover and a thin book of dating advice, the confidence to turn any man’s head. 

Malcolm Black notices his high school crush, Jayne, from the stage of her company’s work party. His adolescent feelings for her died beneath months of abuse at the hands of bullies. Abuse that was Jayne’s fault. Though this scorching hot studio musician is unrecognizable as the band geek he used to be, the hurt still lives inside him, and he hatches a plan: Seduce Jayne into falling in love with him, and then shatter her heart. 

The white-hot chemistry between them is a pleasant surprise. It all goes so smoothly until Feelings start to develop... and that invitation to their ten year high school reunion lands in their inboxes. 

Jayne wants the perfect lover. Malcolm wants revenge. But you know what they say about The Best Laid Plans...

Malcolm is a professional musician with a body the ladies love. But his build hides the scrawny victim he was in high school. 

Jayne is a futures broker who has worked hard to put behind the quiet, left behind girl she was in high school. She has changed her appearance and done as much as she could to change her image since high school. 

When Malcolm catches Jayne’s eye in a bar, he knows exactly who he is looking at, while she think she has just met her new target, not someone she knew before she transformed herself. 

Both Malcolm and Jayne are playing games with each other. Malcolm is out for revenge. Revenge against the girl who threw him to the wolves that were the bullies who ultimately led to Malcolm finishing his high school career via correspondence. For Jayne, it is all about the chase. She wants to get the guy without keeping the guy. She has reinvented herself into a confident, sexy version of the quiet, shy girl she was when she was young, and getting Malcolm to lose control is her new goal. 

I was ok with the games they were playing, as that was the whole premise of the book. What didn’t work so well for me was the lack of anything outside the bedroom between these two while they were playing their games. 

Their chemistry was off the charts. No denying that. But when they weren’t in bed, they weren’t getting to know each other on a deeper level, or talking about anything of consequence at all. Even considering that Malcolm was keeping his real identity secret, I wish there had been more conversation, more play, more getting to know you. The first two thirds of the book Malcolm and Jayne were in bed together more often than not. 

This story had a great premise, but the lack of communication between Malcolm and Jayne, even considering Malcolm's quest for vengeance, made the emotional connection between them feel flat to me. 

Without getting too spoiler-y, the lessons learned in the end were much needed and well planned. The whole story wrapped up nicely with a few unexpected additions. I actually really like the way the end worked itself out, but it took so long to get there that I nearly gave up a few times. This was a quick read, regardless. From the start it kept me wondering when the secrets would start unraveling around them.

I was gifted a copy in exchange for my honest review. 

Tamara Mataya
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Tamara Mataya is currently a librarian; she lurked there for so long recommending books to patrons and shushing people, that she suspects they only hired her so it would be less creepy. Now she’s armed with a name tag, and a thin veneer of credibility. She’s also a musician with synaesthesia – which isn't an issue until someone plays a wrong note, which makes her want to squirm inside out. It makes for a good live show.