One Night Stand

by Cindy Kirk

Which is probably why Marcee Robbens found herself in the arms of a sexy stranger before the bouquet was even tossed at her best friend's wedding. And after a night of hot caresses and knee-weakening kisses in handsome Sam McKelvey's arms, even happily single Marcee is humming the wedding march. So when the sun comes up and Sam hits the road, the usually tough-as-nails beauty finds herself nursing a tender heart. . . . Sam's not the kind of guy who would have a super-hot hook-up with a woman he barely knows. But something about Marcee had him mesmerized—enough for this usually sensible single dad to abandon his responsibilities for one unforgettable night. But Sam never thought his one night stand would turn up as his new next-door neighbor. Or that once he glimpsed the soft side of this captivating woman, he'd find himself falling in love. . . .

Genres: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Adult, Chick Lit

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 29, 2008

About the author

USA Today Bestselling Author Cindy Kirk is a Booksellers' Best Award Winner, a National Readers' Choice Awards finalist, and a Publishers Weekly bestselling author. Cindy launched her Good Hope series with a bang. Christmas in Good Hope hit #1 on the Amazon bestseller list for both Contemporary Romance and Women's Fiction.

A lifelong Nebraska resident, Cindy started writing after taking a class at a local community college. An incurable romantic, Cindy loves seeing her characters grow and learn from their mistakes and, in the process, achieve a happy ending.

Someone once told Cindy that to know a writer you just have to read what she's written; she hopes that once you read her books you can tell she is an eternal optimist, one who truly believes in the power of love. She invites you to kick off your shoes, pick up one of her books, and get to know her.

Cindy and her high school sweetheart husband live on an acreage with their two dogs.

Reviews

[Paige Bookdragon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a fan of insta-love because shit, how can you love someone with just one glance? But insta-lust? Yes. I believe with that one.

One Night Stand is a story of Marcee and Sam. They had this mind-blowing one night stand after they met on wedding.



That was all it's supposed to be. No strings attached, just one night of full of la petite mort.
But the universe loves a good romance and soon, Marcee and Sam found out that they are now neighbors in a small town.

I adore this book. The characters were able to solve their issues without any stupid stunts and there's no too much tear jerking in this one.

[Nicole Baumann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cutesie little book. Super quick read. Very low on the spice meter, so if you’re looking for some closed door romance, this is your book. Honestly, found it to be a little boring at times, but the story itself was cute.

[Nella ☾ of Bookland · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was such a cute, light read!

[Christa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I enjoyed this book, but not as much as I do the majority of what I read. I didn't like the heroine's attitude for about the first one hundred pages, and that really affected my impression of the book. By the end of the story, I felt more sympathetic towards the heroine, but I couldn't forget how much trouble I had warming up to her in the beginning. After about the first fifty pages, I even considered not finishing the book, which is very rare for me. I am glad I continued reading, because it did get better. I found the hero to be appealing from the beginning of the story. A few times it appeared that he was going to be unfairly intolerant towards his daughter's choice of friends, but he stepped up and acted reasonably. If I would not have been turned off by the heroine for a large part of the book, I would have given this one four stars.

Marcee Robbens knows that her best friend's wedding reception is the perfect place to find a man for the one night stand she anticipates, and she soon finds the perfect candidate. Sam McKelvey is an appealing man who immediately tells Marcee that he doesn't have time for a relationship. He tells Marcee that she deserves better, but she assures Sam that she is also looking for only one night of pleasure. After spending a passionate night together, Marcee and Sam go their separate ways, but have trouble forgetting one another. Sam, a widowed father of a teenage daughter, leaves his job with the Chicago Police Department in order to move to a smaller town as Chief of Police. He believes that moving to a small town will give him the opportunity to know his daughter better before she goes to college in a year. Marcee hated the small town where she grew up and hasn't been back since her stepfather unfairly kicked her out of her home when she was a teenager. When the teenage brother she last saw as a toddler is literally abandoned by the rest of the family, she agrees to move back to her detested hometown for a year. Marcee is shocked to immediately encounter Sam McKelvey when she arrives in town. Not only is he the new Chief of Police, he is also her next door neighbor. Against Sam's wishes, his teenage daughter has befriended Marcee's brother, Camden, who is a nonconformist in looks for this small town. Marcee and Sam are drawn to one another and soon begin a relationship. Issues intrude between them as Cam must not only overcome his reluctance to let his daughter, Fern, know that he is involved with Marcee, but must also make a decision about whether he approves of Camden. Marcee must determine whether Sam is ashamed of her or if he is just trying to be a protective father.

There was something about the heroine's blatantly "on the prowl" attitude for one night of sex in the beginning of the book that terribly annoyed me. As I was still trying to get past that, her hatred of small towns, especially her own, was also grating. She had been hurt by people from her hometown, but it seemed that as an adult she had a very narrow minded view and harshly judged all small towns. Whether a small town or a city, it bothers me when an author seems to stereotype locations and all of their residents based only on population. I came away from the book with the idea that the author detests small towns. After both the hero and heroine relocated to her hometown, the story shifted and I liked it much better. I enjoyed seeing the hero and heroine really get to know one another and begin a real relationship. I also liked the way that the heroine was usually (not always) willing to step back when something about the hero upset her and really try to analyze the situation without judging him too harshly. The ending did include a large misunderstanding, but it didn't last for too long. I really enjoyed the last two-thirds of this book, but I had a difficult time getting through the beginning.

[j o r y 👻🪩 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I AM SO EXCITED THAT I AM DONE WITH THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!! Ugh, it was so generic and boring, and not even the trashy romance that I was hoping for.

Marcee is the maid of honor at her best friends wedding when she meets Sam. He's tall, dark, handsome, and a cop (of course), and the connection between the two of them is instant. She invites him up to her hotel room (obvious) and of course, they engage in the all-important one night stand. He leaves in the morning without telling her goodbye, and she's crushed, yadda yadda yadda you know, the usual.

Months go by and Marcee is moving to her hometown to take care of her little brother while he's got one more year of high school. And BOOM what a surprise, the hunky cop she slept with still can't stop thinking about just so happens to be her neighbor. Ugh. It is so generic it hurts. So they see each other again and of course, the connection is still there. They both get jealous of people interested in the other and yadda yadda yadda until surprise, surprise, they start sleeping together again.

But wait, PLOT TWIST! Marcee's brother Cam and Sam's daughter Fern are falling in love with each other. It's like a bad soap opera! So Sam forbids his daughter to see Cam and Cam finds out that Marcee and Fern's dad are boning, and Cam's all like 'YOU WOULD TAKE HIS SIDE, YOU'RE SLEEPING WITH HIM!' and Marcee decides that sleeping together isn't enough. She wants to be seen out in public, for people to know that they are together. Because yes, here it comes ladies and germs, she's falling in love with him. And wouldn't you know it? He's falling in love with her too. But he wants to keep her all to himself, you see. Because small towns run the gossip mill and he's the sheriff of said small town and he doesn't want to be in the middle of the gossip.

So one night Marcee asks him if he wants to go out to eat and he's all 'No, we can eat off each other's bodies, enter kinky yet sad one liner here' and Marcee gets pissed. Kicks him out and tells him that all she is to him is a booty call. But of course, it isn't like that. So a couple days goes by and they haven't talked to each other and then one day after CHURCH for crying out loud, Sam handcuffs himself to Marcee and this busy restaurant and is all like 'I love you, will you marry me?' and of course, being cheesy she accepts and that's the end of the book.

God it's so generic I could vomit. I'm just so glad it is over.

[Julie (jjmachshev) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quick, fun read. My first by this author.

Marcee and Sam meet at a wedding in Chicago. They are instantly attracted and have a mutually-agreed "One Night Stand". Now, although neither calls the other, they both can't stop thinking about that night and how they just seemed to click.

Fast forward a bit. Sam has moved to a smaller suburb in an effort to re-connect with his teenage daughter. Marcee has moved back to her hometown to take over the care of her teenage brother after her Mom leaves town with her 'latest'. I'm sure you won't be surprised to learn that Sam and Marcee are now in the same small town...right next door to each other in fact. And their teenagers are friends...soon there's two budding romances.

Ms Kirk can definately write a love scene. The heat between Sam and Marcee is well done. There are complexities and disagreements between Sam and Marcee as each adjusts to life in a small town and parenting. Also there are issues with looking beyond the outside packaging to discern what's really important in relationships.

I did enjoy this entertaining read and will likely buy the author's next book.

[Jim son of Jim (formerly PhotoJim) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised. I don't know what it was that stood out. Maybe it is just a happy Christmas feeling carrying over to what I'm reading.

Marcee goes to her best friend's wedding and is looking to hook up with some hot and hunky guy for the night. So she's a little slutty. But when she hooks up with Sam, she finds out he is something special. She gives up her man mattress ways and grows some self respect. Not enough to actually call or go after her one night stand that made a difference, but some self respect none the less.

Skip ahead a couple of months to where they end up living next to each other in a small town and it gets interesting.

[Ami · Rating 1 out of 5]

Basically, I think it is a "MEH" story. There is nothing really stand out. The chemistry between Sam and Marcee feels lacking, the story and conflict feels flat, and there are some typos which irritate the hell out of me. I cannot stand it when a published book have wrong character names printed. And it is not just one BUT two typos here. In fact, in this book, I think I prefer the secondary story the most - the story about Sam's daughter and Marcee's younger stepbrother. Surely not a keeper and I'm not looking forward to check out her other books.

[Kesha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book. This book has been on my actual TBR shelf for some months and I dont know why I never read it. The title and blurb leads you to believe that this is an all fluff book but it isnt. Will definitely read more from this author.

[Neon · Rating 1 out of 5]

It probably would have been fun read… but it isn’t. The chemistry between the characters is nil…. They met and they had sex and they spoke such random things that only because it’s written that they were attracted we will know that…. I would probably talk to people I met on bus like that… well I love a simple, no drama romance but this was just a cat being tired of you meh.

[JoAnn M · Rating 4 out of 5]

One night stand leads to a relationship between 2 small-town residents. Only the busybody townspeople think they know what's best for this couple - not each other! I liked how the coincidences kept coming in the story. Fun little read.

[Judyth · Rating 3 out of 5]

~3.5/5

[Read more at my blog, Geeky Reading!]

This was a surprisingly good book. I was expecting a very light, fluffy, smutty book, but there was a surprising depth and small amount of smut.

I liked the characters, all of them, and really liked their growing relationships and growing as people. Marcee and Sam were nice together, and I liked how they worked through problems, even if Sam was rather frustrating at times and sometimes Marcee misunderstood what he was doing. I really liked Marcee’s brother and Sam’s daughter, and those two’s relationship. As well as Marcee’s relationship with her brother and Sam’s with his daughter, although I would have liked more focus and development in those areas. There was a lot of focus on everyone’s relationship to each other and their back story and how it developed them, and their nosy small town neighbors, and very little sexy scenes, which was nice, but not what I was expecting.

I don’t like the title or cover of this book, as it portrays the book in a much different light than it really is, and that bothers me.

This was a surprisingly good, fast story, and I really enjoyed it.

[Suzie Quint · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a light read. The characters are enjoyable, motivation changes are well done, and yet.... there were moments when I almost put the book down because the author was not paying attention. For example, fairly early on in the story, the hero and the heroine are running to avoid the rain. The author says that his lungs are burning and yet... they have a conversation while they're running. Uh, no. If your lungs are burning from exertion, you're not going to be talking. Things like this drive me crazy because they're so easy to avoid, so when an author doesn't avoid them (and their editors don't edit them) I'm not inclined to read anything more.

[Hope Frost · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun fast read. The story line was great, and the meddling town was....well meddling. There was great chemistry and it was really lovely to see Marcee become a respected member of the community, finally. I wished there was an Epilogue, her brother had applied to Julliard, what happened with that? Marcee started a new job and Sam asked her to marry him, did they live HEA? Another thing that really turned me off to this book was the edit issues. One chapter Marcee had a Saturn, a few chapters later, she had a Jetta, then back to the Saturn. Just one of my pet peeves.

[The Book Junkie Reads . . . · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marcee's one night stand means more to her life than she could have possibly thought. That one night changed the trajectory of where he life was heads.

Sam never expected a woman to change his world so completely. Not now that he has a chance to make a real relationship with his 17 yr old daughter. But walk away from this woman he did because he has something more important and most valuable to take care of right now.

Things unfolded very slowly and repetition was very evident.

[Caprice Galvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read this book more then once! I fall in love with it more and more everytime I read it. Don't let the cover fool you into thinking it's a dirty book. It's a very cute romance novel!! I can't help but smile at the way Sam and Marcee are with each other. I love the chemistry they have!! Simply wonderful and irresistable!

[Ashley Page · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an okay read. A book you can defiantly turn your brain off while you read. My only gripe with this novel is that the phrase "His spicy aftershave.." is repeated an obscene amount of times throughout the story. I wish the author could have come up with a new line rather than repeat the same one over and over and over again.

[Lynn]

About way more than a one night stand! It's about family, love, friendship, small town life, growing up and so much more. Read it in 2 days and it only took that long because I had to be a responsible adult and go to work otherwise I'd have finished it the same day I started. Very much worth the read.

[Tressa · Rating 2 out of 5]

One Night Stand started in one direction, then switched to another direction, and switched again, which is when I stopped reading. It seemed as if there were two different plots the author wanted to pursue. The tonality was odd and confusing.

[Lyndi W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this a shot mainly because another review says the heroine doesn't do all the stupid trope stuff that you usually see in these books. That's a lie. This bitch is one Big Misunderstanding after another. Trope Town. Tropalicious. Tropetastic. *shrug* It was alright, though.

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read!

I really enjoyed the story. The characters were well developed. The sexual encounters were not too explicit which I found refreshing. I'm a big fan of Cindy Kirk the author and would love to read more of her works.

[Trish]

Hate to end the year on such a whimper of a book, but alas, I did. Romance of the love-at-first-lust variety, and really there is nothing much to make me recommend this book. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good either. It was mostly just a waste of time, or so I felt at the end.

[Kaori · Rating 5 out of 5]

read in under 4 hours!!! it was good......

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute book - modern romance but the people actually had normal feelings, thought things through and made realistic decisions. How refereshing!

[Shawna · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars – Contemporary Romance

[Teryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like a 3.5.

[Vickie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in hours, couldn't put it down.

[Leslie Crockett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked it alot... Read this on my iphone.

[Gale · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a one night stand with this book. It came up short and came too fast. Cliche with no twists.

[Cocktails and Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was cute and predictable. Good book to read while getting your hair done.