Now For Something Different: Review of DIARY OF A ONE-NIGHT STAND by Alexandrea Weis

Recently, Alexandrea Weis asked me to read her newest release, DIARY OF A ONE-NIGHT STAND. Now normally I wouldn't accept this challenge for UNWRAPPING ROMANCE because Chick-Lit isn't really considered romance even though it can contain elements of romance and sometimes, even a happy ending. Well, when I read the description, I was intrigued. I was fascinated by the concept of a fortyish woman, wife and mother, embarking on an adventure that could destroy her life as she knows it. I just had to find out what happens in the aftermath. Once I did, I thought - yes, my readers might like this one. So, Alexandrea, thank you for the opportunity to read this wonderful story and as promised, I will present an honest and unscripted review.

Blurb for DIARY OF A ONE-NIGHT STAND:

Resilient and practical, Kara Barton has continually strived to live a respectable life. She went to college, embarked on a promising career as an attorney, married a great guy, and always appeared to be the perfect wife and mother. But all is not what it seems, and the troubling past Kara has been running from her entire life is about to catch up with her. Urged on by her insecurities about growing older, and desperately wanting to feel one more night of passion, Kara agrees to share a tryst in a hotel room with a sexy business associate, Scott Ellsworth. But Scott wants more than one night together, and Kara quickly discovers it is impossible to resist him. Soon Kara finds herself transformed into the kind of woman she vowed never to become, and the secure world she has struggled all her life to build begins to fall apart. Kara Barton is about to find out how a one-night stand can change everything.

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Kara Barton is an attractive, intelligent forty-something lawyer who has been married for 12 years and has a spirited and precocious ten year old daughter. She also has a very unhappy marriage with her husband, Cal. Feeling as if her youth is slipping away and that she is no longer sexually attractive, Kara succumbs to the flirtations of a handsome older man who invites her to join him in a night of unbridled passion. With the promise that this will only be a one time thing, she gets what she wants - passion, excitement but perhaps more.

Scott Ellsworth is a man with a reputation. He has a reputation for chasing married women and for causing more than one divorce in the process but he, himself, has no desire to be tied down or even in a relationship. Yet when Kara Barton comes into his life, things change. He cannot resist her after their one-night stand and when her husband becomes violent, he comes to her rescue giving her and her daughter a place to stay even as he continues to romance her, seduce her, and claim her.

DIARY OF A ONE-NIGHT STAND by Alexandrea Weis surprised and delighted me. It's a story of wishing for what was, what can be and discovering that it was there all along.  This story takes the reader through many ups and downs. It's full of passion, heartache, anger, and resentment but most of all it's filled with a sense of wanting what once was and discovering that it had never gone away but merely changed over the years.

I'm not one to usually quote a book in a review but there is one line from the book that summed up this experience that Kara Barton and many other women are faced with sometimes - the guy left holdin' your hand when life turns to shit is the man you should give your heart to.

DIARY OF A ONE-NIGHT STAND by Alexandrea Weis may be labeled a Chick-Lit but it's a romance. It has everything in it that makes you smile, wipe away a tear, and cheer for the heroine when she finally stands up for herself. It even has a happily-ever-after ending.

I do sincerely recommend DIARY OF A ONE-NIGHT STAND by Alexandrea Weis to anyone who is looking for a grown up story about a grown up woman that is living a life that can change on a dime not once but twice. And when her search for a real life ends, discovers it's brought her full circle.

Happy Reading Everyone!

DIARY OF A ONE-NIGHT STAND by Alexandrea Weis, World Castle Publishing, available now in print and ebook format.