Officer Off Limits by Tessa Bailey

Blurb

His need to possess her is non-negotiable.

Story Brooks’ fiancé just called off their wedding two weeks before the happy day. As if that isn't bad enough, her semi-estranged father, an infamous NYPD hostage negotiator, has suffered a heart attack. Not wanting to examine her lack of emotion over the broken engagement, she hops on a plane to reconnect with her father before it’s too late.

Playboy hostage negotiator Daniel Chase has never, not once, been refused by a woman, so when a debate over hospital snack foods with a delectable kindergarten teacher ends in flat-out rejection, he makes it his mission to seduce her. His only obstacle? She’s the daughter of his mentor who implicitly forbade Daniel from pursuing her.

Despite her father’s warnings and Daniel’s troubled past, Daniel and Story can’t resist their intense attraction to one another. But when the reason for her fiancé’s abrupt wedding cancellation comes to light, can Story and Daniel's already forbidden relationship survive?

Act Like You Love Me by Cindi Madsen

4.5 shining stars!!

Blurb

 

What would you do for a second chance with your first crush?

 Brynn McAdams isn’t the awkward drama geek she was in high school—she’s grown up and confident, or at least she likes to think so. But when her old crush, the impossibly handsome and impossibly unattainable Sawyer Raines, comes back to town to direct her community play, Brynn finds herself determined to be someone other than the girl he doesn’t even recognize. Good thing she’s an excellent actress. 

After his bad breakup in NYC, the last thing Sawyer wants is to get involved with another actress. But the glamorous and beautiful Brynn draws him in, even though as her director, he knows she’s off-limits. There’s just something about the woman that feels…familiar. Like home. 

As Brynn’s lies start to snowball, she struggles to stop acting and come clean. But what if Sawyer is already falling for the fake Brynn, not the Brynn she truly is? 

Wife In Name Only by Hayson Manning

4 stars

Rory and Zoe Hughes are an estranged married couple living apart for year--Rory is in Los Angeles and Zoe in Tonga. She runs a successful honeymoon resort which sells happily ever after. The only problem was no one knows except Zoe that her marriage was a sham. And now, a famous honeymoon magazine wants to run a story about her and Rory.
So Zoe must convince her estranged husband to come to Tonga and pretend to be happily married to generate publicity for the resort.

This story started a little slow for me, and I wasn't feeling Rory or Zoe until about 20% to 30% when it was slowly revealed how their marriage unraveled and we get to see how these two people who were so much in love lost each other along the way.

Rory Hughes

“I fell in love with the young, ambitious, driven, but kind Rory. I fell out of love with the cutthroat businessman who’d sell his soul for a merger. The speak-or-shut-up guy.”

Rory Hughes was a business who came from the wrong side of the tracks. He literally had nothing except for a drive and ambition to succeed. This would be normal of course, but Rory took it to another level to the point where he had no more time for his wife. No time at all. And worse, became somewhat unscrupulous, sacrificing his relationships and caring for no one except the bottom line.

Don't get me wrong. I think he loved Zoe but it was his own interpretation of love. For him, love is giving Zoe everything even the things she didn't ask for. For him, being successful and rich would make him deserving of Zoe's love.

And while I disagree with him and thinks he's an ass, sometimes--well, most of the time actually, Rory's character was actually likable. He's funny, for one, brutally honest, and he did grow throughout the book which I really love. And in spite being estranged from his wife, he remained faithful to her the whole time they were apart. Yay! I loved this little nugget here...

A snort of disbelief tripped out of her mouth. “You haven’t had sex in a year?” She stared up into Rory’s heartbreak-blue eyes and nearly tripped over her feet. Mister I-Can-Have-Sex-Anytime-Anywhere-Just-Give-Me-Two-Seconds hadn't in twelve months? Impossible.
“Nope.” None of my business. Still, a man had needs. A quiver pulled low in her belly. And Rory had needs. She swallowed over a suddenly dry throat.
“But…”
“I take my vows seriously. As far as I’m concerned, we’re still married.” She blinked up at him, surprised at the ripple of emotion expanding outwards from her heart. Oh.
“But we’re only married on paper. We’ve, ah, we’ve moved on.”
“So it would seem.
“So you don’t have a Rudy?” The words squeaked out of her like Helium Barbie. Excellent. Just what she needed. She tried to lighten the mood as her insides went on a washing machine spin.
“I have a shower.”

LOL! Rudy, by the way, is Zoe's trusty vibrator, if anyone is asking. O_o

Zoe Hughes

Zoe loves ABBA. Like Rory, she has had a difficult life but unlike Rory, she knows who she is. And despite her rebel nipples, which always makes an appearance whenever Rory is around, I actually like her character. She's fun, sassy, and honest with herself. She left her life and successfully made her resort successful.

Another thing I enjoyed about her character was that she knows herself. She wasn't whiny, which I appreciated and when she realized she can't make her husband stay, she dealt with it and accepted it.

Overall, I really enjoyed the story. I was surprised by the depth of each character's development throughout the story. Although, the story started in the middle of the couple's separation, we see a glimpse of their life before it went sour. We also get to see where and why it went wrong.

And while this book is not perfect, it did a great job of depicting very real problems that married couples go through, which I really appreciate. The banter is light and fun and of course, we get to experience the Tonga through Ms.Manning's vivid description of the island.

So if you like your romance light, fun with plenty of heart, this would be a perfect book for you.

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Review: Chasing Mrs. Right

Chasing Mrs. Right by Katee Robert
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

We have all read that book where boy-meets-girl, fell in lust/love but the hero tries to keep the heroine at arms length because he has commitment issues right? Right. Well, this book has that same trope but only this time, it's the heroine, Roxanne, who has an issue with commitment. No, she's not flighty, nor does she hops from one bed to the next but she's just wary of men because past experiences taught her that they never stay for long.

So she meets, Ian, who happened to be her best friend's brother (though she doesn't know it at first), had a one-night stand with him, felt the connection but as was her MO, she bolted.

Ian, who has his own issues as well, has just returned from his second tour in Afghanistan a broken man. But he was taken enough with Roxanne and tried to make the "relationship" work. From what you might have gleaned from the title, it was actually Ian who did most of the chasing and Roxanne did most of the running away. The running away was mostly happening in her head though since despite her protests, she keeps ending up in his bed.

Overall, I like the pacing of this book. There were plenty of smexy scenes and the chemistry between Ian and Roxanne was believable. My only comment is that Ian's issues with PTSD was never really explored. Sure they were mentioned and I felt that they were never fleshed out. It was mostly about Roxanne's inability to commit and her flitting from guy to guy because she wasn't into love, commitment and marriage, which was disappointing because Ian as a character had great potential.

But it did work out in the end. I loved the big gesture that Roxanne did in order to prove her love for Ian. Although, the grand gesture didn't quite go as planned, which I thought was funny, it was a satisfying ending. I'm definitely looking forward to Nathan's book.

Rating: 3 1/2 stars!!


*ARC provided by Entangled Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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