Genre: Standalone Romantic Comedy
~Blurb~
I'm known for being formal. Meticulous. Professional.
So you’d never suspect I spend my nights photographing my impressive junk for a NSFW blog. Don’t roll your eyes. I’m not bragging. I have millions of followers who’ll tell you they live for my posts.
I’m like a superhero, saving humanity one dick pic at a time.
Except leading a double life means I need someone to help me protect my anonymity, so that no one, especially my family, ever discovers my online celebrity.
When I call one of the most respected law firms in town, I expect quality legal advice and confidentiality. Not a sinfully sexy attorney whose dangerous curves and soul-piercing gray eyes make me want to personally demonstrate my particular skill set.
I shouldn’t be tempted.
Especially when she knows all of my best-kept secrets. But everyone has a breaking point.
And I’ve met mine.
So you’d never suspect I spend my nights photographing my impressive junk for a NSFW blog. Don’t roll your eyes. I’m not bragging. I have millions of followers who’ll tell you they live for my posts.
I’m like a superhero, saving humanity one dick pic at a time.
Except leading a double life means I need someone to help me protect my anonymity, so that no one, especially my family, ever discovers my online celebrity.
When I call one of the most respected law firms in town, I expect quality legal advice and confidentiality. Not a sinfully sexy attorney whose dangerous curves and soul-piercing gray eyes make me want to personally demonstrate my particular skill set.
I shouldn’t be tempted.
Especially when she knows all of my best-kept secrets. But everyone has a breaking point.
And I’ve met mine.
~Book Review
2.75 Stars
Josh Cartwright, 28, is an
architect from a prominent socialite Portland family by day and an artsy dick
pic blogger by night. Evelyn Mills, 27, is the fledgling attorney he contacts
when business prospects arise (no pun intended) out of his website.
“‘I don’t do anything half-cocked.’‘You did this full-schlong, dude.’”
The story started off cute and
witty with plenty of puns and innuendo. Josh won me over in the opening pages
when he affirmed that, “Random hookups aren’t my style. I’m not after quantity.
Never have been.” You just don't read these words nearly often enough in
romance these days!
But while Josh seemed too good to
be true and the premise was fresh, the execution had its share of issues. On the surface this seems like it would be a
fun, light-hearted tale, but the plot at different junctures gets weighed down
by unnecessary drama, stereotypical characters, and messages that come off both
too strong as well as contradictory.
One of the biggest obstacles I had
connecting with the story centered around the heroine. Evie
is immature and utterly insecure. I prefer strong, secure heroines and she’s
pretty far from that. And it’s the almost constant talk about Evie’s body that not
only grew old fast, but took away from the mutual interests they had in common,
things that contributed to a mature relationship, making it seem like both of
them were obsessed with her body. This
book might have been more aptly titled All
About the C because the word “curves” appears 21 times (make that 25 when
you add in “curvy”), and I lost count of all the references to her chest (and
every synonym for the twins). And then Josh loses a lot of integrity
when he asserts that Evie is “real” and “genuine” because she doesn’t look
hungry, and she’s not a “twig.” Oh and that “no man” wants to cuddle up to that.
Well I hate to burst “Josh” or the authors’ misinformed perceptions but there
are plenty of REAL women in the world who are thin, whether it be genetics,
metabolism, healthy living, or a combination of those factors, and just because
a woman is small boned or petite doesn’t make her undesirable or any less of a
women any more than it means that she starves herself. This is a form of body
shaming too, and it’s not cool! And as if that’s not bad enough, Josh becomes a
total hypocrite a few pages later when he rallies against someone else for a
similar offense of judging someone based off their looks. So by the time Evie turned
irrational with Josh over the situation that she’s known this whole time, I was
already done with this romance.
Told via Evie and
Josh’s dual first person POV, this story had plenty of potential but, aside
from the epilogue, it underwhelmed at most turns. The angsty drama, whether
brewing in the background or in the forefront, keeps this from being a true
humorous romcom that it’s labeled to be. Let's not forget that romances should make you feel good, and the hero putting other body types down so the heroine can feel better about herself is NOT a positive portrayal of romance.
Lex Martin writes contemporary romance, the sexy kind with lotsa angst, a whole lotta kissing, and the hot happily ever afters. When she's not writing, she lives a parallel life as an English teacher. She loves printing black and white photos, listening to music on vinyl, and getting lost in a great book. Bitten by wanderlust, she's lived all over the country but currently resides in the City of Angels with her husband and twin daughters. Lex is represented by Kimberly Brower of Brower Literary & Management.
Leslie McAdam is a California girl who loves romance, Little Dude, and well-defined abs. She lives in a drafty old farmhouse on a small orange tree farm in Southern California with her husband and two small children. Leslie always encourages her kids to be themselves - even if it means letting her daughter wear leopard print from head to toe. An avid reader from a young age, she will always trade watching TV for reading a book, unless it's Top Gear. Or football. Leslie is employed by day but spends her nights writing about the men you fantasize about. She's unapologetically sarcastic and notoriously terrible at comma placement. Always up for a laugh, Leslie tries to see humor in all things. When she's not in the writing cave you'll find her fangirling over Beck, camping with her family, or mixing up oil paints to depict her love of outdoors on canvas.
~Giveaway~
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