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Love in Xxchange #7
A Bit of You
Billy’s been the bouncy, perky, somewhat slutty drink server at The Xxchange since it opened, and frankly, he’s tired of those labels, but it will take the love of FBI agent Liam Stone to give Billy the strength he needs to become the man he’s always wanted to be. Billy’s used to everyone looking at him and seeing a perpetually perky, goofy twink. Inside he knows he isn’t those things, or not only those things, at least. He isn’t sure how to get anyone to see past that. He isn’t sure if he can stop acting the part, either. It’s always been easier to let people see what they expect to see. But lately he’s been thinking, and he’s not at all sure the easy way is the right way. Liam Stone came to The Xxchange to blow off a little steam. An FBI agent working on the kidnapping case of one James Stratton, Liam figures he’ll head back to Dallas as soon as he can shake the dust off his heels. Then he sees Billy and Karma slaps Liam on the ass. How many times has he scoffed at the idea of love at first sight, thought people who said it happened to them were full of cow patties? A lot, and now he’s been hit between the eyes with something he can’t quite explain, except it all has to do with Billy. Now if he can protect the man from a sadistic jerk and help Billy come to terms with his past, maybe they can have the happy ending they’ve both always wanted.
198 pages, Paperback
First published December 26, 2011
7 people are currently reading
152 people want to read
About the author
Bailey Bradford
191 books552 followersA few things about me...
I am a married mom of four who spends most of the day writing, either on stories or at the blog. I love to write as much as I love to read. I am generally quiet and laid back, choosing to let things slide off me rather than stick and irritate me.
And it's really hard trying to think of descriptives for myself, so I'll just let y'all e-mail me or comment at the blog if there's something specific you'd like to know, and spare you from reading a boring bio:D
I am a married mom of four who spends most of the day writing, either on stories or at the blog. I love to write as much as I love to read. I am generally quiet and laid back, choosing to let things slide off me rather than stick and irritate me.
And it's really hard trying to think of descriptives for myself, so I'll just let y'all e-mail me or comment at the blog if there's something specific you'd like to know, and spare you from reading a boring bio:D
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 24, 2022
Ever since I first met Billy I have been dying for Bailey to tell his story. Here, in book seven of the author's wonderful 'Love in Xxchange' series, Billy's story gets told. The wonderful thing about it is that in Xavier's story, I was already given plenty of glimpses at Billy and Liam, but now, the full story behind it all gets told. And, I couldn't wait! I know, I know, Bailey, you said Billy was tired of being seen as bouncy and that he has so much more to offer, and, he does. But, in my mind, Billy will always be the bouncy, endlessly happy twink who caught the heart of an FBI agent.
"Billy had the carefree, happy, ding-a-ling act down so pat even he bought it most of the time." Aww. Billy was one of the easiest characters, I've ever encountered, to love. It was instantaneous from the moment he bounced into the Xxchange and opened his mouth. He had a tough life until Xavier took him in when he was fifteen, and he could be moody or surly, but, instead, he's happy almost all the time. He can be a little quirky, and he's definitely lonely as he's never had a boyfriend, just guys who only wanted a one-off with him. So, when Liam, the seriously hot FBI agent, drops at his feet, literally, Billy isn't one hundred percent sure of what to do. For you see, sex is easy, everything else just confuses Billy.
Karma sure is a…, well, I'm not going to say that, but Liam was sure paying the price for scoffing at stories of people falling in love with a glance. Because, he took one, long, look into Billy's eyes and, pretty much, that was it. Liam is in town to interview Chase regarding the psycho wealthy man from Montana who caused all kinds of problems and tried to murder some people, before killing himself. So, the last thing Liam expected to find was Billy. But, find him he did, and now that he has, Liam is going to do everything in his power to keep him. It almost broke Liam's heart, and mine, at how little Billy values himself and how he can't understand what Liam is doing with him and why he's even bothering.
When Billy finally confronts his fears and tells Liam about his verbally abusive childhood and the men who physically abused him, Liam is determined to locate them and bring them to justice. With the help of colleagues in the FBI sexual assault unit, Liam is able to track these pedophiles down and have charges brought against them. I love seeing those sickos get what's coming to them, even if it's only in a story!
This was the sweetest and most romantic book of the whole series, in my opinion. Liam was amazing, so tender and loving with Billy, it about broke my heart, and watching Billy begin to resolve some of his insecurities just made me very happy. I loved seeing Billy get his happy ever after and now that Bailey Bradford has lulled me into sweetness and light, I'm looking forward to James's story which will definitely have drama and angst. Thank you, Bailey!
NOTE: This book was provided by Total-E-Bound for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.
"Billy had the carefree, happy, ding-a-ling act down so pat even he bought it most of the time." Aww. Billy was one of the easiest characters, I've ever encountered, to love. It was instantaneous from the moment he bounced into the Xxchange and opened his mouth. He had a tough life until Xavier took him in when he was fifteen, and he could be moody or surly, but, instead, he's happy almost all the time. He can be a little quirky, and he's definitely lonely as he's never had a boyfriend, just guys who only wanted a one-off with him. So, when Liam, the seriously hot FBI agent, drops at his feet, literally, Billy isn't one hundred percent sure of what to do. For you see, sex is easy, everything else just confuses Billy.
Karma sure is a…, well, I'm not going to say that, but Liam was sure paying the price for scoffing at stories of people falling in love with a glance. Because, he took one, long, look into Billy's eyes and, pretty much, that was it. Liam is in town to interview Chase regarding the psycho wealthy man from Montana who caused all kinds of problems and tried to murder some people, before killing himself. So, the last thing Liam expected to find was Billy. But, find him he did, and now that he has, Liam is going to do everything in his power to keep him. It almost broke Liam's heart, and mine, at how little Billy values himself and how he can't understand what Liam is doing with him and why he's even bothering.
When Billy finally confronts his fears and tells Liam about his verbally abusive childhood and the men who physically abused him, Liam is determined to locate them and bring them to justice. With the help of colleagues in the FBI sexual assault unit, Liam is able to track these pedophiles down and have charges brought against them. I love seeing those sickos get what's coming to them, even if it's only in a story!
This was the sweetest and most romantic book of the whole series, in my opinion. Liam was amazing, so tender and loving with Billy, it about broke my heart, and watching Billy begin to resolve some of his insecurities just made me very happy. I loved seeing Billy get his happy ever after and now that Bailey Bradford has lulled me into sweetness and light, I'm looking forward to James's story which will definitely have drama and angst. Thank you, Bailey!
NOTE: This book was provided by Total-E-Bound for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.
April 5, 2012
Sweet story, a bit of insta love, and so many leaking hardons......
But Billy deserves his HEA having suffered such a childhood and Liam is pretty much perfect, so for a feel good read heavy on the sex, this is a good book.
But Billy deserves his HEA having suffered such a childhood and Liam is pretty much perfect, so for a feel good read heavy on the sex, this is a good book.
November 27, 2014
2014 Re-read:
Much sweeter and somewhat different from what I expected. (Even though I’d read this before.)
Billy turned out to be thoroughly likeable, and while I took a long while to warm up to Liam, eventually he won me over, too.
As a matter of fact, I only have one real complaint here.
The number Billy gave on how often he’d had anal sex before does not add up for me.
Oh well. I do tend to get hung up on incongruities like these, but in the greater picture it does not really matter.
Surprisingly sweet book, when all is said and done. It even managed to describe a lot of the same events as the previous book without making the retelling of those bits feel entirely redundant. Even better though, it further ratcheted up interest in James’ upcoming story.
2012 Review:
Oh boy, let’s see.
This wasn’t awful; I guess I just want less sex and more story. Okay, in this case the story felt very pedestrian, offering just a sweet romance of the love-at-first-sight type. Things happened pretty fast and there was no big stumbling block, just a seemingly slow yet actually fast building of trust.
And the sex started gently and turned rough in the more extreme end of the spectrum.
Billy was cute; Liam was genuinely nice and pretty much issue-free. Even Billy’s traumatic past (man, these things are just a given by now) seemed less horrific than… Okay, it was pretty bad and I am still not certain how .
Also, suddenly James’ counterpart for the next book got younger by a good ten years? Okay… Whatever works, I guess.
I gotta say, I am not as thrilled with these books as I thought I’d be. In my memory this author had more… content, I suppose. Maybe it’s just a development? We’ll see. I am still interested in reading the next one. :3
And this wasn’t bad.
Much sweeter and somewhat different from what I expected. (Even though I’d read this before.)
Billy turned out to be thoroughly likeable, and while I took a long while to warm up to Liam, eventually he won me over, too.
As a matter of fact, I only have one real complaint here.
The number Billy gave on how often he’d had anal sex before does not add up for me.
Oh well. I do tend to get hung up on incongruities like these, but in the greater picture it does not really matter.
Surprisingly sweet book, when all is said and done. It even managed to describe a lot of the same events as the previous book without making the retelling of those bits feel entirely redundant. Even better though, it further ratcheted up interest in James’ upcoming story.
2012 Review:
Oh boy, let’s see.
This wasn’t awful; I guess I just want less sex and more story. Okay, in this case the story felt very pedestrian, offering just a sweet romance of the love-at-first-sight type. Things happened pretty fast and there was no big stumbling block, just a seemingly slow yet actually fast building of trust.
And the sex started gently and turned rough in the more extreme end of the spectrum.
Billy was cute; Liam was genuinely nice and pretty much issue-free. Even Billy’s traumatic past (man, these things are just a given by now) seemed less horrific than… Okay, it was pretty bad and I am still not certain how .
Also, suddenly James’ counterpart for the next book got younger by a good ten years? Okay… Whatever works, I guess.
I gotta say, I am not as thrilled with these books as I thought I’d be. In my memory this author had more… content, I suppose. Maybe it’s just a development? We’ll see. I am still interested in reading the next one. :3
And this wasn’t bad.
April 22, 2012
You do not have to have read the other books in this series to read this one. I bought it because I'm a sucker for the homeless (or formerly homeless in this case) waif and the guy who looks past that. The story itself was pretty typical and I knew that going in. Billy is the bouncy twink with a reputation, Liam the more serious FBI agent and it's love at first sight. However Liam lives in Dallas not wherever Billy is. When they are together they are naked most of the time, and I did like that it turns the twink/alpha male on its head a bit when it comes to light that Liam likes it rough and being submissive. There were a few sub-plots that showed Liam's work that I didn't really get the point of. Just to prove how rough Liam's job was? Maybe if I'd read the other books?
Anyway, the story itself was enjoyable enough, but I'm marking it down a star for the editing problems. I'm not blaming the author for this entirely, although as someone who has been published, I know I have the ultimate say when they send you the galley proof. I can easily overlook the odd missed word or mispelling. It happens. But this was excessive. Several time I noticed words with no space between them. Getting was spelled geting, twice the past tense of to spin was used as span. He picked him up and span him around. And instead of the news lightening his expression, the news lighting his expression. I don't often complain about this stuff because in the grand scheme shit happens and I can live with it, but it was so excessive and pulled me out of the story so many times (had to reread because I wasn't sure what it was trying to say until I figured out the word was wrong), that I nearly gave up. I'll say the last 50 pages were fine so I finished, but I have read quite a few books by this publisher and never seen one this poorly edited. Although no one else noticed it in the other reviews, so maybe it's just me, but span? geting? No. Spellcheck should have picked up geting, that's not even a word. At least span is a word which spellcheck wouldn't grab. Anyway, rant done. If you can let those things float over you, it's a decent if stereotypical story, but there were just too many for me to ignore this time.
Anyway, the story itself was enjoyable enough, but I'm marking it down a star for the editing problems. I'm not blaming the author for this entirely, although as someone who has been published, I know I have the ultimate say when they send you the galley proof. I can easily overlook the odd missed word or mispelling. It happens. But this was excessive. Several time I noticed words with no space between them. Getting was spelled geting, twice the past tense of to spin was used as span. He picked him up and span him around. And instead of the news lightening his expression, the news lighting his expression. I don't often complain about this stuff because in the grand scheme shit happens and I can live with it, but it was so excessive and pulled me out of the story so many times (had to reread because I wasn't sure what it was trying to say until I figured out the word was wrong), that I nearly gave up. I'll say the last 50 pages were fine so I finished, but I have read quite a few books by this publisher and never seen one this poorly edited. Although no one else noticed it in the other reviews, so maybe it's just me, but span? geting? No. Spellcheck should have picked up geting, that's not even a word. At least span is a word which spellcheck wouldn't grab. Anyway, rant done. If you can let those things float over you, it's a decent if stereotypical story, but there were just too many for me to ignore this time.
March 14, 2016
I thought I couldn't like any of these couples better than Max & Bo, I was wrong. Liam & Billy are so wonderful. I'm not sure I believe in love a first sight, but neither did Liam. What I loved the most was how Billy kept his naturally bubbly & enthusiastic nature no matter what life dealt him and how Liam saw through the facade he maintained for the rest of the world to the beautiful, sweet, loving man who just needed to be believed in and loved.
My biggest disappointment with this series so far is that the storyline that is going on throughout the series seems to sometimes get sacrificed in favor of frequent sex scenes. While I am not adverse to hot steamy sex, I also enjoy a strong storyline and this series has a potentially very strong storyline begging to be exploited.
My biggest disappointment with this series so far is that the storyline that is going on throughout the series seems to sometimes get sacrificed in favor of frequent sex scenes. While I am not adverse to hot steamy sex, I also enjoy a strong storyline and this series has a potentially very strong storyline begging to be exploited.
December 30, 2011
If you've read the previous book you've pretty much read this one too. It was almost the same but from Liam and Billy's point of view.
October 10, 2014
2,5 stars
February 21, 2016
Cute story. I really liked Billy and the growth he showed in the book.
June 14, 2012
I loved Billy and Liam's story. Can't wait to read the next book in the series.
May 21, 2012
3.5 rounded up to 4
May 15, 2012
4 Hearts
Review to follow
Review to follow
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews