deanie's review
3.0
This is a strange book. In the prologue, fun loving artist Daisy Kidde overhears her college boyfriend's friends ripping her to shreds. Because of that one night, she transforms herself into business genius/ice queen Desirae Harper. A bit of an over-reaction, IMHO, but okay. Then she meets up with her ex, Joel Blackwood, when his family's company tries to take over hers. Joel's brother, Jake, who was Desirae's good friend in college, tries to find the fun-loving woman inside the ice queen, and somehow, that leads to Desi (as she's now known) having a BDSM experience with Joel, Jake, and two friends. This does not make sense. Honestly, Joel is such an asshole I don't know why she forgives him. Seriously, she should have chosen Jake, who is awesome. I will read the next book in the series, because I loved Jake and Charlotte in this one, but this book was simply okay.
lifeinthebooklane's review
4.0
Wow did I seriously underestimate how much I would enjoy this book!
I've followed this author for a while on Facebook mainly because she's from Wales, which is one of my favourite holiday destinations in the UK. But until yesterday I hadn't actually gotten around to reading any of her work. There are so many authors churning out bland "BDSM romances", as part of the FSoG bandwagon, that I no longer hold expect too much when I pick up a kinky book. So colour me both surprised and immensely pleased when this one grabbed my throat, pushed me against the wall and fired up my nerve endings with its wonderful mix of great story and hot sex.
Personally I could have stood another hot kink scene BUT that would have only happened by artificially forcing one into the story. Because this is a second-chance, we don't actually get to see all that much of our H and h alone together. However I fully bought into their emotions and connection, the author did a fantastic job of showing us, rather than telling.
The book starts with a couple of events from ten or eleven years ago. Despite barely having met the characters, Daisy's heartbreak really tore me up, I was devastated for her and wanted to hit Joel, not to mention Eric. What I really liked, when we finally know the full story of that night, was that Desi wasn't considered equally to blame. Yes she made a hugely rash decisions, but an understandable one based on her age, experience in life and utter devastation. However Joel ignoring a friend's rude behaviour, was tantamount to his condoning it, especially when his loyalties should have been with Daisy/Desi.
His actions in the 'present' were not always much better, but somehow the author kept me from disliking him. I still wanted to shake him, but at least I didn't want to shoot him! What really impressed me was the huge personal growth that Desi underwent. Her mature acceptance of situations and how she moved on in a better way this time. Joel's epiphany seemed a lot quicker, though not as easily gained. He did have Jake, Connor and Logan to frequently point out his idiocy too. Whilst some might argue that Joel didn't grovel enough, didn't do enough to earn Desi back, my take was that she loved him, had always loved him, why would she turn down what she had always wanted? That doesn't make her weak, in my book, it makes her mature, willing to forgive past mistakes and not willing to cut her nose of to spite her face.
This story certainly echoed old Teddy's thoughts above. It was a long, hard struggle to reach that HEA, but not once did it feel contrived, repetitive or unnecessary. I was caught up from the first few lines of this book and didn't want to put it down until I'd got to the end. Without a shadow of a doubt I will be reading the rest of this series.
I've followed this author for a while on Facebook mainly because she's from Wales, which is one of my favourite holiday destinations in the UK. But until yesterday I hadn't actually gotten around to reading any of her work. There are so many authors churning out bland "BDSM romances", as part of the FSoG bandwagon, that I no longer hold expect too much when I pick up a kinky book. So colour me both surprised and immensely pleased when this one grabbed my throat, pushed me against the wall and fired up my nerve endings with its wonderful mix of great story and hot sex.
Personally I could have stood another hot kink scene BUT that would have only happened by artificially forcing one into the story. Because this is a second-chance, we don't actually get to see all that much of our H and h alone together. However I fully bought into their emotions and connection, the author did a fantastic job of showing us, rather than telling.
The book starts with a couple of events from ten or eleven years ago. Despite barely having met the characters, Daisy's heartbreak really tore me up, I was devastated for her and wanted to hit Joel, not to mention Eric. What I really liked, when we finally know the full story of that night, was that Desi wasn't considered equally to blame. Yes she made a hugely rash decisions, but an understandable one based on her age, experience in life and utter devastation. However Joel ignoring a friend's rude behaviour, was tantamount to his condoning it, especially when his loyalties should have been with Daisy/Desi.
His actions in the 'present' were not always much better, but somehow the author kept me from disliking him. I still wanted to shake him, but at least I didn't want to shoot him! What really impressed me was the huge personal growth that Desi underwent. Her mature acceptance of situations and how she moved on in a better way this time. Joel's epiphany seemed a lot quicker, though not as easily gained. He did have Jake, Connor and Logan to frequently point out his idiocy too. Whilst some might argue that Joel didn't grovel enough, didn't do enough to earn Desi back, my take was that she loved him, had always loved him, why would she turn down what she had always wanted? That doesn't make her weak, in my book, it makes her mature, willing to forgive past mistakes and not willing to cut her nose of to spite her face.
“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty…"
Theodore Roosevelt
This story certainly echoed old Teddy's thoughts above. It was a long, hard struggle to reach that HEA, but not once did it feel contrived, repetitive or unnecessary. I was caught up from the first few lines of this book and didn't want to put it down until I'd got to the end. Without a shadow of a doubt I will be reading the rest of this series.
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