FIVE WAYS TO FALL

At a tequila-soaked bar in Cancún, a womanizing lawyer meets a beautiful woman with a bruised heart. Steamy shenanigans and romance ensue.

Tucker (Four Seconds to Lose, 2014, etc.) returns with her fourth novel in the Ten Tiny Breaths series, which began with the Cleary sisters and quickly embraced all the quirky, unattached minor characters, developing their own love stories. This time, it’s Ben Morris’ turn—Ben is the bouncer from Penny’s Palace, a strip club. He’s left the strippers behind and aced law school. Before he starts working at a Miami law firm, he’s taken a vacation in Cancún, where he meets purple-haired, gorgeous and very drunk Reese MacKay. She’s reeling from a shattered marriage. Finding her husband, Jared, in the shower with his high school sweetheart was certainly surprising. Discovering that the sweetheart had moved herself into their apartment (while moving Reese’s belongings into the hallway) prompted war. After Reese had finished vandalizing what was arguably still her own home, her stepfather, Jack, had no choice but to bail her out, pack her up, take her to Miami, enroll her in an online paralegal degree program and hire her at his own law firm. Her friends have taken her to Cancún to erase Jared from her memory. Ben and Reese’s one-night stand goes horribly wrong, and Reese is eager to forget the embarrassing details. Back home in Miami, however, she discovers that Ben’s new boss is her stepfather. Of course, they can't resist the attraction they feel, and soon Reese is asking Ben to play her fake boyfriend in increasingly complex make-Jared-jealous schemes, and Ben is asking Reese to play his fake girlfriend in repel-clingy-women schemes. 

Tucker gives her leads just enough past damage to earn sympathy but wisely spends most of her time ratcheting up the sexual tension in this light romance.