The Hot Box: A Novel

This moral train wreck centers on the love lives of best friends Milena Clark and Lydia Sterling. (Perhaps the sister of Patrick Sterling from  Total Eclipse of the Heart: A Novel ?) After breaking off her engagement the day of her wedding, Milena is now a hermit that focuses only on her local veterinary practice. Having been hurt so badly by her ex-fiancé, Milena has foolishly for the past eight years warded off men completely, and even let her appearance go in hopes of not attracting the opposite sex. On the other hand, Lydia is a conceded nymphomaniac on the prowl, and has seamlessly been juggling two lovers secretly for years. These best friends appear to be opposites at first, but before long it becomes clear that the old saying, "Birds of a feather flock together." rings true.Milena's ex Jacour abruptly returns to town for good after eight years of playing for the Yankees. He is on a mission to reclaim his lost love and although she is still in love with him, she still refuses for forgive him for his only transgression. Immaturely she fabricates a love interest and decides to do anything within her power to keep the facts that she has been alone, pissed, and miserable all these years a secret from him. She is determined to search every inch of the state for a man that can pose as the fake "light of her life" as she puts it, Randolph. Disturbingly, Milena finds her fake Randolph in the form of a homeless man begging for change in the street. Once the man, whose actual name is Yosef, agrees to lie for her, not only does she clean him up and let him move in, but she actually develops feelings for him. Love and lies were already involved, but sex quickly follows as Milena finds herself stuck in a love triangle with a millionaire and a vagrant.Lydia has a scandal of her own that she immerses herself in. Not only is she having sex with her boyfriend Glenn everyday, she is also doing it with his best friend Phil as much as she can. She feels as if her lady parts are lined in gold, and that she is irresistible to the opposite sex. She somehow feels that her beauty and bedroom skills can get her anything she wants, yet her reality is very bleak. She works a dead in job, lives off of her boyfriend because she cannot support herself, and has never done anything halfway decent with her life. She absolutely hates living in North Carolina and dreams of moving constantly, but never does anything but make empty plans. Lydia doesn't care a bit for the men in her life, and as repulsive as this character is, she is somehow endearing.Although the roller coaster of ups and downs with Milena, Jacour, and Yosef/Randolph is frustrating, unnerving, and sure to make you cringe, you won't be able to put this book down. You will be flipping pages as fast as you can watching the story of Lydia, Glenn, and Phil unfold while holding your breath waiting for the other shoe to drop. The happily ever after ending is sure to shock.  The Hot Box: A Novel  was of course well written, like all of Zane's other novels. It has a flow unlike her older works and along with  Total Eclipse of the Heart: A Novel , it is in a different class. Although the drama and the sex are still there, Zane now seems to be focusing more than ever on the meaning behind everything she writes. Noticeably trying to reach out to her readers and teach us lessons as she entertains. Although noble, I say it unfortunately does not make the material better, but takes from it. I will still buy the next novel if this new style of Zane is here to stay but, I doubt it will be a five star read.

Zane's latest novel "The Hot Box" is a page turner, just like all her other novels. I truly enjoyed this book. In this novel we meet Lydia and Milena, 2 best friends stuck in a rural North Carolina town, Kannapolis.Lydia is juggling two men: Glenn and his best friend Phil. Only Glenn has no clue, Lydia and Phil have been gettin' it on for years!! Lydia works at a grocery store and is totally disgusted with her life; she desires to get out of Kannapolis and find stardom. In the meantime, messing with two men and satisfying her huge sexual appetite will keep her busy. Hopefully, her secret affair with Phil will remain a secret!!Milena is a veteranarian and has lived a sheltered life ever since breaking up with her one time fiancee Jacour, former superstar millionaire baseball player for the Yankees. Milena spends her time tending to sick pigs and cows yet her love life is as dead as it can be. Hoping to spice things up when Jacour returns to Kannapolis, Milena meets Yosef and convinces him to assist her in a plan to make Jacour jealous. The plan works, and soon Milena's boring life and frumpy clothes are gone. Milena finds herself in a love triangle with more drama than she could have ever imagined!"The Hot Box" was a great read, and I love that it wasn't the typical setting or storyline I read in most books! 5 stars!! I'm looking forward to Zane's next book!

I am glad I didn’t give up on this book because then I wouldn’t have know the surprise that kept popping up. This book was everything good. Omg 😆 omg is all I could say. Soo good.

This book was pretty good. Its the first book I read of this author. Even though this is not my kind of read, I am enjoying it. I wanted to take a break from dark horror books and read some drama, and boy did I find a nice pocket full. I will try more books from this author in the future when I want a nice drama story.EDIT REWVIEW 10-26-2012The last few chapters of this books will have you saying "WHAT!!" "OMG!" "HUH!" "WOW!" The book takes off at the near end! The outcome is not predictable. (At least not to me!) The last few chapters in this book has made me come back and edit my review and give it a 5 star other than a 4.When I first made the review, I was close to finishing it but I thought I would know how it would end. Boy was I a dummy! I recomend you buying this book or buy it for a friend! This was a good book of players who thought they could never be played.

I was surfing the Internet looking for books to put on my iPad. Then I remembered a friend lend me a couple of zane books, but nothing current. I search through kindle and saw her latest book. Let me tell you that this book is awesome. It took me Part of the day to finish reading it. I couldn't put it down. It had me laughing, it made me sad as well. Then it shocked the mess out of me. I was in awe of how it was written. It had me in a spiral. It was in great detail. What really got me is I have family in north Carolina. Could one of them be one of the characters in her book. Lol. Needless to say it's a page turner. Please get this book. I'm telling you that it's her best work yet.

My item was delivered earlier than expected and I was happy about that! My item arrived in great condition with no damage. I'm excited to read this for my book club.

This was a very good book. I am convinced the characters are REAL (I'm sure the names have been changed). This book was very interesting. The only part I did not like was Milena's occupation. Zane, this was an excellent book!! I was reading on my Kindle at home and reading it everywhere else on my cell phone's Kindle APP (shhhhhh!!; keep that part quiet). I could not put this one down. I can't wait for Zane's next book. Lydia was very "colorful". Yosef was interesting. OK, just read the book. It's very good.