Naked (The Blackstone Affair #1) by: Raine Miller

I started reading Naked by Raine Miller, because I was looking for something a little different from my usual. Just kidding... I like my usual pretty well… thank you very much! Anywho, this book was a pleasant surprise and had a little of everything within its 115 or so pages as it introduced its readers to the Blackstone Series. Its main characters experienced tragedies in their pasts that forever changed their lives, but set them up, to be in the right places, at the right times to find each other regardless of how sketchy the circumstances may appear.

Brynne Bennett is an American girl living in London, England as the city is a buzz for the upcoming 2012 Olympic Games. She is graduate student who has an assistantship restoring paintings and is a model of the artistic persuasion. Conversely, that Ethan Blackstone, Mrs. Miller did a brilliant job describing this man. I mean, the way she described him through the words scattered on paper was just plain ole everyday hotness. He was probably one of the realest “rich book boyfriend’s” I’ve been privy to read about who was also ex-Special Forces, a former P.O.W., and owns a highly successful security firm with connections with the Royal Family and anybody that is somebody.

Billionaire by: Juliette Jones

I was provided this book as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review so here it goes…

No ma’am. No ham. No spam. I could not finish this book. I stopped just before chapter four. See, I get the whole sexual awakening and all that yaddah yaddah, but this book reads like a train wreck, you want to turn away but you are still hoping for the best. Initially, I told myself that the entire beginning of the book was inside of the main character’s Lila’s head. Like a daydream or fantasy of sorts and that she would awaken from it and be sitting in the lobby waiting to be interviewed by the story’s ‘hero’, Alexander Wolfe.

Rock Bottom by: R. K. Lilley

Sweet-baby- jesus –in-a-manger -take-the-wheel!!! This book has just given me new life that I didn’t even know I needed.  In this installment of Tristan and Danika’s story, all H-E-Double Hockey Sticks breaks loose. Tristan’s music career is on the rise and so is his love for Danika. Oh, and so is his use of any illegal substance he can get his hands on when he and Danika are apart. Danika is aware of Tristan’s descent into the abyss and is faced with making some very tough decisions.

To say that these two were up against all odds in this novel would be a gross understatement of the… like… for for-e-ver. But in the end they made it…well Tristan at least made it out physically in one piece, while Danika made it through with enough baggage to carry her for many years to come. I honestly felt a lost at the end of this emotionally charged book. I wanted to know more. I wanted it to go on. I wanted the old Tristan and Danika back. Instead, I was left having known a gorgeous guy named Tristan and a beautiful girl named Danika that are now just two ships passing in the night. 

Moving on… I can hardly wait until March 11^th because R.K. Lilley will continue the story of these star crossed lovers with the third installment entitled Lovely Trigger. If this book is as good as Bad Things and better than Rock Bottom, then I am going to need to take a mental health day to get my life together, get my head back in the game, and process all the emotions this book will take me through.  Job well done Mrs. Lilley...Job well done!!!

Bad Things by: R.K. Lilley

WOW!!! I did not see this one coming. This novel was just plain ole everyday GOOD!!!

I was introduced to Tristan and Danika in the Up In The Air series and this, the first installment of their own story left me breathless. The beginning of their love affair was so normal and cute. Tristan was far from a billionaire. He is just a gorgeous bad boy with many talents that included singing, cooking, magic, and MAGIC (if you know what I mean). While Danika, is a college student who works for an awesomely supportive family as their nanny.

Nearly every character introduced is so well developed and interact seamlessly in this surprisingly, awesome story. R.K. Lilley is so clever with her writing style that you get so entranced in the love story that is developing with Tristan and Danika that you fail to see the small clues that indicate that alcohol and women aren’t Tristan’s only vices. She deals with substance abuse from a shockingly real perspective as many may have endured when dealing with a loved one’s dependency on drugs and/or alcohol.

Both characters have dark pasts that lead them to become dependent on one another to fill their empty voids…the raw needs that they both have learned to mask from the outside world and even themselves. All in all I absolutely loved this novel!!! It had its ups, downs, and upside downs just in the first book. I can’t wait to tell you about Book Two entitled Rock Bottom.