Genre: Contemporary Romance/Romantic Comedy
Release Date: January 8, 2019
~Synopsis~
She’s the Sweetheart of Sweet Romance. He’s romance’s reigning sex god. When the two accidentally collide at a book conference, sparks—and their luggage—fly.
Stacy:
When Gage Blackstone crashed into me, I had no idea who he was. If I’d known he was the man everyone called the king of one-handed reads, I would’ve run in the other direction as fast as I could. Every woman who has ever read a romance novel has at least one erotic book penned by him hidden in her underwear drawer. Never in a million years—not in my wildest dreams—would I ever have imagined waking up next to him. I'm hardly the one-night-stand type of girl he probably goes for but when he finds out what I write he'll be the one running in the other direction.
Gage:
I was dead on my feet when I nearly toppled over the stranger standing in front of me, until I saw her wide green eyes and innocent beauty. She looked like the perfect angel, and from that point on all I could think about was messing up her perfect hair and kissing her senseless. When I found out she wrote sweet romance novels, I was even more intrigued. Could I unleash her wild side, while proving I was just an average guy with a talent for writing fantasies women dream about?
Who would have ever thought
the most novel approach to love would be sweet, spicy and steaming hot?
~Book Review~
DNF
I struggled to connect with this book and the characters. The almost thirty year old heroine is naïve and sheltered, though thankfully she wasn’t a virgin. Most distracting was her narration:
“My inner slut whimpered in desire.”
“My inner ‘ho cheered…”
“…my inner harlot…”
And that was just in one of the chapters.
“that tramp in my head…”
“my inner slut-muffin”
This was starting to feel like a drinking game.
“mental hussy”
“Sluterella whispered in my ear…”
“My sassy inner slut…”
It continued, and I’ll admit I was tempted to keep playing the game. But as entertaining as tracking the heroine’s Anastasia Grey impressions were, nothing else was really gripping me.
I never really had a handle on the hero’s character as depicted here as his POV isn’t provided. However, it is the sole focus of the prequel (A Novel Experience) to this so I decided to check that out to try and get a better connection. I found out it actually worked to the contrary.
So when in the first sex scene with the heroine in this story he rolls off with:
“‘Please tell me you’re on the pill because I don’t think I have the strength to tear myself away to get a condom.’”
I was left wondering if he doesn’t use protection for all the women he’s with before???
Nothing skeevier than a “hero” who’s too lazy or too horny or flat out too irresponsible to suit up for casual sex.
The story’s lofty theme of not judging a book by its cover might have had merit if it didn’t contradict itself. Perhaps it would have been better to focus on a message of safe sex.
This didn't work for me.
*I volunteered to review this ARC. All reviews written by Book-Bosomed Book Blog are honest opinions. This title was presented to the blog with the request from the tour host that they be notified of unfavorable reviews. Upon notifying EJ that it was a DNF title, I was then told to hold off posting. This is a clear review condition imposed upon the review and a title that is already available to the general public. In the interest of transparency and providing unbiased book reviews and to avoid misleading other readers, it is the blog’s policy not to withhold or delay any reviews no matter the star rating.
~Book Review~
1.5 Stars
This is the prequel/prologue to The Novel Approach. I checked it out to help get a better impression of the “hero’s” character. Quite an impression it made.
The "hero" goes to a strip club with his buddies where they pick up multiple women. He has sex with one of them, lamenting that another passed out before they could make it a threesome.
“Not that I indulged in much group sex in my day, but it was a pity that she’d crashed before the festivities began.”
He then proceeds to spout off douche-bag proclamations like:
“…in my experience female readers tended to prefer the male-female-male ménages. I shrugged to myself. That wasn’t likely to happen with me. I wasn’t a sharing kind of guy.”
Oh but he is! He’s perfectly happy to have two women share him.
Did he use protection? It doesn’t say and knowing that he does have unprotected sex with the forthcoming heroine (see review of that book), I think this story is enough TMI.
But he asserts, “I’ve never considered myself a womanizer, just a huge fan of beautiful women with a taste for enjoying themselves like I did.”
None of this endeared me to this jerk who kept “potential repeats” on his phone, nor did it make me warm and fuzzy about his romance with the heroine in the following book, who he meets at the very end of this.
While there are no major grammatical or writing issues here, there also isn’t much of a point to the story. And the purpose of a prequel is to add something to the main work. I can guess what it was trying to do—introduce the erotic writing hero as a stud. But the problem is that this is a romance series and connecting with the hero and heroine is essential. The hero’s very recent (as in just a few weeks before) manwhore past works against that goal.
*I one-clicked this title from Amazon as a freebie. All reviews written by Book-Bosomed Book Blog are honest opinions. In the interest of transparency and providing unbiased book reviews and to avoid misleading other readers, it is the blog’s policy not to withhold or delay any reviews no matter the star rating.
~Playlist~
Heather Guimond is a Los Angeles native, a fact she's abnormally proud of. When she's not trying to write something that will make people laugh or rip their hearts out (or both!) she's either reading or doing her best to crack the whip on her three home-schooled teenagers. She loves all things witty and wise-cracking, as well most varieties of smart-assery. Other favorites include French roast coffee in copious amounts and the dirtiest Dirty Martinis she can find. More than anything, she hopes she writes books that stick with the reader long after the pages have been read.
