The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
shellysbookcorner's review against another edition
3.0
First off let me say I was a huge fan of Black Swan Affair! After this reading this book I had to stalk the author on social media, join her readers group and tell anyone who would listen about this story. I even gave away a copy on my blog. That's how much I loved this story. With that being said it pains to me say I didn't have the same reaction with Lost In Between. The book started out good and I liked where it was going. The whole be my pretend girlfriend angle was right up my alley. Once I got into the 50% mark I honestly couldn't connect to the story anymore. There was no character development, no connection and the book was mainly a lot of sex with little plot. I was expecting way more depth in this story and really didn't get any. Towards the end we get a curveball thrown in that honestly had me scratching my head. Even though this book didn't work for me it could be a hit for you!
*an arc was given for an honest review*
For more reviews check me out at: http://www.shellysbookcorner.com
*an arc was given for an honest review*
For more reviews check me out at: http://www.shellysbookcorner.com
vanessaaaa's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
lisamh68's review against another edition
5.0
I am enjoying this story.. Big twist at the very end.. Not sure what is going to happen. The past has met the future, will something happen there? Will Shaw and Willow have a chance for a real future? Have the next book ready to read ;)
the_sassy_bookworm's review against another edition
4.0
Shaw Mercer needs a girlfriend. A fake one. One to be at his beck and call for the next 4 months.
Willow Blackwell needs money. A lot of money. Her mother is sick and the bills are starting to pile up.
When Shaw offers Willow a cool quarter million for four months of her time, the offer is too good for Willow to pass up. But this is just business and business is what it will stay. That is until lines start to blur and feelings Willow swore she wouldn't develop start to creep in.
Now the waters are muddy and with a ghost from her past stirring up trouble, things are about to get even more complex for this couple.
After reading the little excerpt for this book in the Alphas & Fairytales Anthology last year to say I was excited for this one would be an understatement! And although I did end up liking it overall it just didn't QUITE live up to the high expectations I had.
It started out strong for sure, but then from around 30% in I found myself starting to get bored. The dancing around each other thing these two were doing was wearing thin. Not to mention, nothing of consequence was really happening. That said, it did pick up around the 60% mark and it managed to capture my attention once again.
It was a very well-written and very readable book. Nicely paced and with some interesting side characters (NOAH = YUM). Both Shaw and Willow were likable main characters. The sex scenes were hot (though after reading the little excerpt previously I was expecting something WAY hotter than we got). There is even a little bit of mystery injected at the end and I am looking forward to seeing how that plays out. I'm also unsure how REID is going to fit into all this.
Like I said above, I enjoyed it for the most part. I think it was a tad bit on the long side and could have been tightened up plot wise. That said, I am still looking forward to what this author has in store for Shaw and Willow in the next book. So two thumbs up from yours truly.
michellesantiago's review against another edition
3.0
Originally posted on Undeniably Book Nerdy:
After reading and loving KL Kreig's Black Swan Affair, I was very much looking forward to reading Lost In Between. I'm always down for a romance with a Pretty Woman vibe so I went into Lost In Between with admittedly higher expectations than I usually would have. While I liked Lost In Between it didn't quite live up to my expectations. It's still an okay read though, especially if you like your romances with a large side of alpha males.
Willow Blackwell is a romance audio book narrator by day, and a rich men's arm candy by night--she's sort of like a prostitute without the sex. She hates being an arm candy, but she needed the extra cash to take care of her mom who is suffering from Alzheimer's. One day she gets rear ended by this super cocky, arrogant guy, but they had an immediate sexual connection.
This super arrogant guy is Shaw Mercer. He is a rich businessman and playboy. He and his best friend/business partner Noah are in a habit of picking up women to have threesomes with (fyi, there were zero threesomes in this book). But, Shaw's dad is planning to run for city mayor and his campaign manager suggested that Shaw clean up his act and get a girlfriend. They are also hoping Shaw's love life will divert the media from looking into his younger siblings' personal lives, and because Shaw loves his family and will do anything for them, he agrees. Instead of choosing one of his marriage-minded ex-girlfriends to be his fake girlfriend during his dad's campaign, Noah suggested Shaw hire this girl he recently met, which will save Shaw from a messy break-up and the possibility of marriage in the end.
Shaw, although skeptical, agrees. The girl Noah had in mind to be Shaw's paid fake girlfriend, of course, was Willow. As soon as Shaw found out that the girl who gave him a permanent boner since he rear ended her will be playing his fake girlfriend he was determined to get her into his bed. Although Willow is permanently wet whenever Shaw was around, she wanted things strictly professional. She had a feeling that if she sleeps with Shaw and let's him get close, he'll break her. She can't afford to let anyone close because she's dealing with a lot of stuff in her personal life and had skeletons in her closet she does not want getting out.
Of course, despite Willow's determination to keep Shaw at arm's length and not end up in his bed, that's exactly where she ended up in. The author definitely knows how to turn up the steam factor because this book was a scorcher! The sexytimes are extremely HOT!
I also liked that Lost In Between is set in the city of Seattle, which was personally a refreshing change from all the NYC-set books I've been reading. Don't get me wrong, I love my NYC books, but it's also nice to "see" another city.
I found the writing to be very readable, and I liked that the story was told in first person dual perspective. I enjoyed knowing what Willow and Shaw were thinking--I didn't prefer one POV over the other. The beginning was a little slow, but necessary as Willow and Shaw's situations and backstories were established. After that, the pacing was pretty steady all the way to the revelation of the big twist in the end and then it ended kinda abruptly. I actually didn't mind the cliffhanger ending because I was ready for the book to finish already--this was a long book at 420 pages.
My biggest issue with this book were the two main characters--Shaw more than Willow. I never really connected with either of them. I sympathized a bit with Willow's situation, but I never felt for her or really rooted for her. She kind of reminded me of Bella Swan in that all of the other characters were drawn to her and fawned over her, but I never understood why. I guess she's supposed to be charismatic, but that never shown through on the page. Her character never felt special to me.
As for Shaw, my biggest issue with him was his irrational jealously. Every time Willow spoke to another man, he gets super jealous and, even though he acknowledges that he's being crazy jealous, violent threats toward these men still flash through his thoughts. Irrational jealously is not sexy. I never warmed to Shaw's character. The only thing I liked about him was how he'd do anything for his troubled youngest sister Annabelle, and how protective he was of her. But, besides that, I found the other men, like his best friend Noah and Willow's ex-boyfriend Reid, more interesting. I found myself wanting to read about them rather than Shaw.
Another thing that made me side-eye this book was the looong passages the author included in this book from her other books (and one from another author). Like I mentioned, Willow is an audiobook narrator so we had a few scenes where she was narrating a book, and included in these scenes are these unnecessary pages-long excerpts of what she was narrating, which I thought was a bit of a shameless self-promotion on the author's part of her other books. **shrugs**
So, while I didn't enjoy Lost In Between as much as I did the author's previous book Black Swan Affair, I did like it well enough. I'm definitely intrigued to read the second book in the series to see how Willow and Shaw work things out after the twist in the end. If you like the Pretty Woman trope, a whole lot of alpha in your book boyfriend, and enjoy some panty-melting sexytimes, I suggest looking into Lost In Between.
After reading and loving KL Kreig's Black Swan Affair, I was very much looking forward to reading Lost In Between. I'm always down for a romance with a Pretty Woman vibe so I went into Lost In Between with admittedly higher expectations than I usually would have. While I liked Lost In Between it didn't quite live up to my expectations. It's still an okay read though, especially if you like your romances with a large side of alpha males.
Willow Blackwell is a romance audio book narrator by day, and a rich men's arm candy by night--she's sort of like a prostitute without the sex. She hates being an arm candy, but she needed the extra cash to take care of her mom who is suffering from Alzheimer's. One day she gets rear ended by this super cocky, arrogant guy, but they had an immediate sexual connection.
This super arrogant guy is Shaw Mercer. He is a rich businessman and playboy. He and his best friend/business partner Noah are in a habit of picking up women to have threesomes with (fyi, there were zero threesomes in this book). But, Shaw's dad is planning to run for city mayor and his campaign manager suggested that Shaw clean up his act and get a girlfriend. They are also hoping Shaw's love life will divert the media from looking into his younger siblings' personal lives, and because Shaw loves his family and will do anything for them, he agrees. Instead of choosing one of his marriage-minded ex-girlfriends to be his fake girlfriend during his dad's campaign, Noah suggested Shaw hire this girl he recently met, which will save Shaw from a messy break-up and the possibility of marriage in the end.
Shaw, although skeptical, agrees. The girl Noah had in mind to be Shaw's paid fake girlfriend, of course, was Willow. As soon as Shaw found out that the girl who gave him a permanent boner since he rear ended her will be playing his fake girlfriend he was determined to get her into his bed. Although Willow is permanently wet whenever Shaw was around, she wanted things strictly professional. She had a feeling that if she sleeps with Shaw and let's him get close, he'll break her. She can't afford to let anyone close because she's dealing with a lot of stuff in her personal life and had skeletons in her closet she does not want getting out.
Of course, despite Willow's determination to keep Shaw at arm's length and not end up in his bed, that's exactly where she ended up in. The author definitely knows how to turn up the steam factor because this book was a scorcher! The sexytimes are extremely HOT!
I also liked that Lost In Between is set in the city of Seattle, which was personally a refreshing change from all the NYC-set books I've been reading. Don't get me wrong, I love my NYC books, but it's also nice to "see" another city.
I found the writing to be very readable, and I liked that the story was told in first person dual perspective. I enjoyed knowing what Willow and Shaw were thinking--I didn't prefer one POV over the other. The beginning was a little slow, but necessary as Willow and Shaw's situations and backstories were established. After that, the pacing was pretty steady all the way to the revelation of the big twist in the end and then it ended kinda abruptly. I actually didn't mind the cliffhanger ending because I was ready for the book to finish already--this was a long book at 420 pages.
My biggest issue with this book were the two main characters--Shaw more than Willow. I never really connected with either of them. I sympathized a bit with Willow's situation, but I never felt for her or really rooted for her. She kind of reminded me of Bella Swan in that all of the other characters were drawn to her and fawned over her, but I never understood why. I guess she's supposed to be charismatic, but that never shown through on the page. Her character never felt special to me.
As for Shaw, my biggest issue with him was his irrational jealously. Every time Willow spoke to another man, he gets super jealous and, even though he acknowledges that he's being crazy jealous, violent threats toward these men still flash through his thoughts. Irrational jealously is not sexy. I never warmed to Shaw's character. The only thing I liked about him was how he'd do anything for his troubled youngest sister Annabelle, and how protective he was of her. But, besides that, I found the other men, like his best friend Noah and Willow's ex-boyfriend Reid, more interesting. I found myself wanting to read about them rather than Shaw.
Another thing that made me side-eye this book was the looong passages the author included in this book from her other books (and one from another author). Like I mentioned, Willow is an audiobook narrator so we had a few scenes where she was narrating a book, and included in these scenes are these unnecessary pages-long excerpts of what she was narrating, which I thought was a bit of a shameless self-promotion on the author's part of her other books. **shrugs**
So, while I didn't enjoy Lost In Between as much as I did the author's previous book Black Swan Affair, I did like it well enough. I'm definitely intrigued to read the second book in the series to see how Willow and Shaw work things out after the twist in the end. If you like the Pretty Woman trope, a whole lot of alpha in your book boyfriend, and enjoy some panty-melting sexytimes, I suggest looking into Lost In Between.
smootsloot's review against another edition
5.0
One of my top reads of this year
I was so pleasantly surprised by this book! I usually prefer the burn to be pretty quick but the burn was pretty slow in this book but I really enjoyed it it was worth the wait. I wasn't sure what to expect I thought it was going to be like a pretty little romcom but it was so much more than that, I loved the story. I can't wait to read the next book to see how this ends though I'll be sad when it does. If you are looking for a great amount of spice and a beautiful story this is for you!
I was so pleasantly surprised by this book! I usually prefer the burn to be pretty quick but the burn was pretty slow in this book but I really enjoyed it it was worth the wait. I wasn't sure what to expect I thought it was going to be like a pretty little romcom but it was so much more than that, I loved the story. I can't wait to read the next book to see how this ends though I'll be sad when it does. If you are looking for a great amount of spice and a beautiful story this is for you!
chroniclesofabookreader's review against another edition
DNF @ 41% - thoughts to post at a later date.
**Received an early copy**
**Received an early copy**
tab2004's review against another edition
3.0
I really enjoy this author's style of writing but I agree with some other reviewers that it was a little too long. At some point I got bored reading all the sex they were having and the same constant push=pull of lack of trust, which I get.
I already got they lusted after each other and sex was amazing- and quite frankly that is my main problem with manwhore books. I keep hearing the sex feels different with them but all I wonder is for how long? If they have never had deep emotional sex before or craved it - why should this feel different for long? Are these type of relationships really going to last long term?
Especially someone like Shaw that has never, ever at 36 been in love. It just reminds me of obsession/lust and obsession/lust is not love. The author writes well so she convinced me he does love her but I always think - what happens in ten years after a couple of kids and the stresses of life? Suddenly threesomes with Noah sound enticing again.
I liked Willow, she was tough, yet not stunted. Yes she ran away a lot, but that doesn't bug me too much in heroines, and Shaw chased after her, which is my own personal preference rather than the other way around. I also like she had a friend questioning her choices as a way to make her think about things more deeply than she usually would. I did hate how she treated Reid and the fact that she never really called Shaw out on his lack of respect for women, no matter what he said. I did like she had good relationships with the other female characters.
The secondary characters were brought to life even if I didn't fully love them. I honestly would rather read a story about Reid finding love than Noah because Noah, like Shaw, is just a user of woman and someone constantly looking for a thrill.
No matter how hard they tried to make him the bad guy, I could feel how deeply Reid loved Willow and I want him to find someone, because I don't doubt his ability to love eternally, the same way I doubt Noah's.
Overall I really enjoyed this book, the writing is great and it is the story of two people falling in love in spite of all their resistance to it.
I already got they lusted after each other and sex was amazing- and quite frankly that is my main problem with manwhore books. I keep hearing the sex feels different with them but all I wonder is for how long? If they have never had deep emotional sex before or craved it - why should this feel different for long? Are these type of relationships really going to last long term?
Especially someone like Shaw that has never, ever at 36 been in love. It just reminds me of obsession/lust and obsession/lust is not love. The author writes well so she convinced me he does love her but I always think - what happens in ten years after a couple of kids and the stresses of life? Suddenly threesomes with Noah sound enticing again.
I liked Willow, she was tough, yet not stunted. Yes she ran away a lot, but that doesn't bug me too much in heroines, and Shaw chased after her, which is my own personal preference rather than the other way around. I also like she had a friend questioning her choices as a way to make her think about things more deeply than she usually would. I did hate how she treated Reid and the fact that she never really called Shaw out on his lack of respect for women, no matter what he said. I did like she had good relationships with the other female characters.
The secondary characters were brought to life even if I didn't fully love them. I honestly would rather read a story about Reid finding love than Noah because Noah, like Shaw, is just a user of woman and someone constantly looking for a thrill.
No matter how hard they tried to make him the bad guy, I could feel how deeply Reid loved Willow and I want him to find someone, because I don't doubt his ability to love eternally, the same way I doubt Noah's.
Overall I really enjoyed this book, the writing is great and it is the story of two people falling in love in spite of all their resistance to it.