Series: Rescue Me Series, Book #1
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Erotic, Romance, Romantic Comedy
~Blurb~
When it comes to doggy style, he’s behind you 100%.Preston Evans is a legend in and out of the bedroom. He’s six foot two, gorgeous, and famous because his celebrity ex snapchatted his huge package. I hate him. I hate his stupid puppy store, Doggy Style. I hate the way he looks at me like I’m a piece of meat. I don’t care that his abs are chiseled, his arms are tattooed, and his face belongs on the cover of a magazine. Every dog bred means a shelter dog dead!
I chain myself to his store in protest, but instead of calling the cops, he throws me a bone.
If I spend one week with him in Hawaii pretending to be his fiancée to snag an investor, he will transform his store into a shelter dog adoption center, saving thousands of dogs’ lives.
One week and I never have to see this sexy, dirty-talking jerk again. How hard can he, uh I mean it, be?
Sex is off the table. So why do I want him to bend me over it?
~Book Review~
2.5 Stars
Former Marine, Preston Evans is cashing in on his notoriety by opening a pet store after a sex video with his reality star ex-girlfriend goes viral. Yesenia Cordova is a tattoo artist and dog rescuer who sets her sights on Preston and his new pure bred puppy store.
The opening kept me engaged; it paced well and the characters and premise had potential, but by the halfway point I found my connection with the characters quickly weakening and certain rhetoric growing stale. Specifically…
While Preston was confident and resourceful and I liked the fact that he was quick to solve problems and had a calm demeanor, the frequent reminders of what a horn dog (pun intended) he was inhibited the connection between them.
“My sex life over the past few months has consisted of swipe rights through dating apps and shopping from an endless catalog of women. As horrible as it sounds, I don’t remember most of them. Meaningless sex and hook-ups soothed my soul for a while.”
Told via their dual first person POV, if Preston wasn’t referencing his penchant for dating app hook-ups, he was mentioning his ex. And talking about other women to the reader is just as tacky and counterproductive as doing it on a real life date. No one needs that in their head when they are trying to make a romantic connection.
“It isn’t love at first sight, more like an insatiable lust, a lust I haven’t felt in months. Not since Kira.”
That I’d agree with. It’s definitely insta-lust, not love, at play throughout the whole story. The romantic angle is weak, overshadowed by Preston’s sex brain working overtime every time he’s in a conversation with the heroine. It was a shame because Preston could have been a great guy—in certain scenes he showed some integrity and respect for women— if he would have just stopped thinking with his dick and prioritizing getting laid. It really felt like the characterization caved to the tired manho prototype that’s a dime a dozen these days in the romance market, much like the billionaire trope. (How did Preston afford his upper-class lifestyle???) Removing those angles would have taken the story up a level. A guy can be sexy without having to be constantly in heat.
But add in the fact that the heroine has not only seen his sex video (which included both doggystyle and muff diving) but she’s watched it more than once! While I believe that people can have a life before finding ‘the one,’ knowing about it and seeing it in living color are totally different monsters. I just couldn’t connect with Yessi’s fascination with his video. Not if I was supposed to believe these two were end game. As a meaningless hook-up, it’s one thing; but as a love story, it doesn’t spell romance.
(Reviewer’s Note: The original blurb when I signed up for this title a year ago read: “Preston Evans is a legend in and out of the bedroom. He’s six foot two, gorgeous, and famous because his celebrity ex snapchatted his huge package.” It has now been updated to the more accurate representation of the story: “…his celebrity ex Snapchatted him doing her doggy style.” If the original story was just a dick pic, it’s a shame it was changed to a graphic sex video. I’m not sure I would have signed up for this if I’d have known he had a porn w/OW.)
While in the opening I appreciated Yessi’s tenacity and dedication to a cause, after a while it just became too much. I wholeheartedly agree there should be better education in regards to responsible pet ownership, but it became too repetitive and outright preachy. It’s hardly the romcom it’s billed as, and while the title evokes a more light-hearted tone, the story’s message comes off heavy-handed. It was about as subtle as a PETA ad flashing across the page.
More disturbingly, Yessi’s obsession with animals was a crutch for her own issues of abandonment. Her activism didn’t make her courageous; it just made her seem like she needed some therapy in order to obtain a well adjusted life.
“…I have the maturity of a five-year-old. I’m emotionally stunted.”
She was absolutely immature, exhibiting a serious issue with pushing her beliefs onto others, at times even speaking hypocritically, as well as letting her emotions interfere with…well just about everything! Between Preston following her around like a puppy, making decisions based on the whims of his peen, and Yessi’s overbearing personality, not only was their business realistically doomed to fail, so was their relationship.
“…our emotional intimacy hasn’t caught up to our physical intimacy.”
Good sex doesn’t equal love any more than flat villains make for a compelling climax. I was ready to check out way back when Yessi got wet from Preston forking over hundreds of dollars to save an injured stray. That was a little creepy and so not my kink. I should have probably saved myself the time and bailed then. I was looking for more romance and likable characters, less Dog Lives Matter.
The next book in the series on his ex is definitely a pass for me.
~Giveaway~
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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