Maggie Dallen is one author that gets me! I loved getting swept away with these characters and their world. I wasn’t ready to leave them. I hope there is more in this series.

I voluntarily reviewed this book.

Really liked it!

Alice is independent and cynical. She doesn’t do love. Having successfully built a sturdy wall around her heart, she finds it really hard to trust people. She can actually be quite cold and distant as a means to protect her fragile heart. And then she bumps into a hunky doctor… can/will she allow him to tear down her wall?

Nicholas is finally ready to settle down, but just hasn’t met THE ONE yet. He’s looking for easy companionship, but he can’t seem to find the right woman. Maybe he is focusing too much on his list of demands? And then he bumps into Alice… and she is anything but easy!

I think Nicholas is a hero for continuing to try and woo Alice, the way she treats him. She humiliates him, again and again, hurts him and still he is not put off. She doesn’t have any consideration for his feelings. She’s being unnecessarily harsh. Actually, she took it a bit too far in her cruelty, making me dislike her just a little.

Alice has a lot in common with Ben (book #1) and she knows it. She says about him that ‘he needs to get his head out of his …’ (you know what; I don’t know if I can use the word in a review). Ehm, yeah, are you not seeing your own head is kinda stuck up there too? I can understand that she thinks that somehow she’s not worthy of a relationship, but does she really HAVE to hurt other people’s feelings in the process?

Despite my slight dislike of Alice, I did really like the story! From the start, I was immediately drawn into it. I am always in the mood for a feel-good book and this is definitely one of them! I am slightly disappointed though that there is no mention of the promotions (such an important part of the book) in the epilogue. I will definitely want to read the next book too, and it’s already very clear who that book is going to be about!

It is spicy :) so be warned if that’s not your thing.

book two in the reel romance series, his leading lady, has doctor nicholas bale falling head over heels for ice princess alice klein while she leads him on a merry (and occasionally not-so-merry) dance. she's avoided things like love and relationships her whole life. especially since her drug abusing mother kept a revolving door of losers around when she was growing up. she swore she's never end up like her mother and she'd been doing so well.

except when nicholas helps alice out during an emergency with her neighbor he witnesses some of her most vulnerable moments. but she's never let anyone get that close. and now she's all off-kilter. and as much as she tries to push him away, he keeps coming back for more. and she can't understand it. because there's a part of her that believes that she isn't made to be loved.

but nicholas believes differently. he's known since she plowed into him desperately seeking a doctor that she's the one. and sure he's a man of science and doesn't really believe in love at first sight, but there is no other name for it. and so he tries everything he can to convince her to give them a chance. he's never had to work this hard for anything in his whole life.

the truth is that he can't do all the work for both of them. at some point she has to decide she wants it too and fight for them. and it's a close thing because alice has a lot of emotional damage. but if she lets it happen, if she trusts him, he could be the one who heals her. and the tension in this will-they, won't-they keeps you reading. alice is a hard heroine to love, and nicholas is kind of a saint for putting up with her since he spends most of his time trying to figure out where he went wrong. but you can't help rooting for them.

The initial chemistry between the main characters, Alice and Nicholas is palpable. Of course, Dr. Nicholas Bale is an easy man to fall in love with. At least for the reader. Not so easy for Alice, though. Let’s just say she has a lot of baggage and pre-conceived ideas about relationships. Which is curious since her sister has a wonderful marriage and she rooted for her friend Caitlyn to find her HEA with Ben in the first book, Her Leading Man. But when it comes to Alice’s own relationships, romantic and friendly, she has a lot of learning to do.

I get Alice’s hesitation to get into anything deep with the guys she dates. But when it came to Nicholas she drove me nuts. That man is a saint to stick with her through it all. As much as I got it and as much as I enjoyed this book, there were one or two too many times Alice went into her own head with her convictions and was just a plain jerk to Nicholas. It made it very hard for me to continue to like her and it made the chemistry between the characters hard to hold onto.

This story would have been well-served to have had Alice’s neighbor and grandmother figure, Ena, play a more prominent role. She seemed to understand Alice and Alice seemed to trust her more than anyone other than her sister. Since her sister was in the last stages of her pregnancy and Alice didn’t want to burden her I feel as though Ena could have given her more advice than she did.

I really enjoyed this story, don’t get me wrong. I was just a little disappointed in Alice. There are some loose ends that weren’t tied up but not in a cliffhanger way. I’d like to know what happened with both of their jobs since the whole premise was they were both hoping for a promotion after doing a fundraiser together. Since this is a series I’m thinking we haven’t seen the last of them yet. I’m assuming the next story will be Tamara’s and her hunky billionaire boss. I’m looking forward to that one and only hope Tamara’s roommate/friend Marc doesn’t get left in the wind. I’d love to see him get his own story.

3.5 stars

3 1/2☆
I will post the link to my review on Amazon when the book goes live.

Alice is avoiding relationships. She's calm, cool, collected & doesn't let her heart get involved. She has a strict three date policy & never varies from it. When her friend Ena has a medical emergency, Dr. Nicholas Bale comes into her life & sends everything into disarray. Can she keep her heart safe from him?

Nicholas is interested in Alice from the minute he sees her. He isn't discouraged by her efforts to push him away. Then they end up working together on a fundraiser for a new clinic. Can he managed to scale her fences?

This is a great follow up to Her Leading Man. The characters are the same but you won't feel lost if you didn't read Book 1. Alice has to learn to trust others & her own emotions. She has some baggage from her past that she has to get through before she can accept Nicholas's feelings. Nicholas has to learn patience. While he knows how he feels, he has trouble giving Alice time & space to figure out hers. I really enjoyed this sweet romance.

There are perfectly lovely people in 'His Leading Lady' by Maggie Dallen. The growth of the two main characters was poignant. For me it was marred, however, by the coarseness of their language and their graphic sexual activity. Otherwise, the perfectly lovely people would have had a perfectly lovely book.

I absolutely loved this book. It was my first time reading thisauthor but it will not be the last. It was a big role reversal and Alice comes off as a total bitch at first but Nick. OMG he really is an amazing character.

The mainstar of this book is Alice. She really is a character and is very hard to describe. She is sweet and gooey inside but she has a million walls up to keep everyone out. She has two weaknesses, Enya her 80ish neighbor and her sister. One night Enya and Alice are watching an old movie when she has a heart attack and that is how dr Nick meets Alice.

Nick is this sweet and hot dr and he helps Alice and Enya and falls into instalust/love with Alice. But Alice does not trust any man and she is beyond a bitch to him. In fact I hated her at one point. But Nick knows how to go after what he wants and he wants Alice.

He really made this book. He fights hard for Alice's heart and I loved him to pieces. Alice, really grew on me and as Nick falls harder for her I really started loving her. This was a really great story and I look forward to reading more from the author.