Rush by Maya Banks

Rush (Breathless, #1)
Grade-C
Hotness Level-Inferno
Kink Level-High Kink
Series-Breathless #1
Reviewed by Kay

Gabe Hamilton is a very wealthy business man who even conducts his love life like a business. With signed contracts and everything. He has lusted after his best friend’s sister for a loooong time. She has always been forbidden fruit for a variety of different reasons, his best friend would kill him, she’s 14 years his junior and his preferences in the bedroom.

Mia Crestwell is not as innocent as Gabe thinks she is. She was raised by her brother after their parents’ deaths, so they have a very close relationship. She has wanted Gabe for as long as she can remember and she finally got her chance and ran with it.

Gabe asks Mia for a relationship that she has to sign a contract for. I understood why he thought that was necessary but ewww! How utterly unromantic. He may have fought his feelings for her but as the  reader, we can see he loves her. So to treat her the way he does in this book was ridiculous. I never warmed to him as the hero or them as a couple. She was a bit too timid for me and he was an ass. Totally without a chance for redemption for me. When he tries to let other men touch her…OMG!
Ass! I love Maya Banks books, all contemporaries and historicals. I liked parts of the book and will continue the series even though I have issues with this one.

Eyes Wide Open by Raine Miller

Eyes Wide Open  (The Blackstone Affair, #3)
Grade-C
Hotness Level-Inferno
Kink Level-Mild
Series-The Blackstone Affair #3
Reviewed by Kay

This novel continues the saga of Ethan Blackstone, a security mogul and Brynne Bennett, a model and art student. They have a very passionate love affair going on. This installment picks up right where the last one left off. There’s still her stalker that’s on the loose and creeping closer and closer. After a near attack, they flee the city and try to figure out the best course of action to deal with him. When they are gone they gain knowledge of something else that could change their relationship.

I really don’t want to say too much since this novel is very much anticipated by many people. I will say that there’s a lot of gratuitous sex. The story itself seems to be the filler which I don’t really care for. The sex is descriptive and hot, but too much, even for me. I had kind of hoped she’d stop with this book but I saw on another review site that there’s a part four at least.

I didn’t hate but I sure didn’t love it either. It is worth reading if you’re fully vested in the series though.

Claim Me by J. Kenner

Claim Me (Stark Trilogy, #2)
Grade-C
Hotness Level-Inferno
Kink Level-Low
Series-Stark Trilogy #2
Reviewed by Kay

Let me start by saying that I have never the first book in this trilogy. I was given the book as an ARC to read and review.

Damien Stark is a financial wizard. Very handsome, wealthy and of course scarred. In the first novel of this series, he and Nikki Fairchild agree to an arrangement. He will pay her one million dollars if she is his for an agreed upon amount of time. She is his to do with what he wants, sexual or otherwise.

At the start of this novel, their arrangement is over but not the feelings that have grown between them. They face struggles from their pasts and basically his inability to fully trust. I never fully connected with these characters but I feel that’s because I never read the first book. I liked the writing style and it was easy to read but I just never really cared about them as characters. I think had I read the first book I might have liked this more.