Hide and Seek

Games #2

by Alyssa Brooks

Another sexy tale from a sultry new voice in erotic romance. Confident, freewheeling Maxim Cox has been thinking lately that something's been missing in his life. Then he sees his old college crush facing scandal in a tabloid and figures it out; it's Elisa Cross, the one who got away. Now he'll do anything it takes to have Elisa, in every way. To escape the scandal, Elisa has sworn off men and holed herself up in a cabin miles from anywhere. So when Maxim appears at her door in the middle of a snowstorm, she can't believe it. She swore she'd never give in to his devilish good looks, but the raging storm and her raging desires make him impossible to refuse. But Elisa's determined to keep the upper hand-and arranges a game of Hide and Seek. And if Maxim can play by her rules and find her, he can have her-all of her.

Genres: Erotica, Romance, Erotic Romance, Fiction

304 pages, ebook

First published December 4, 2007

About the author

Author of fun, flirty and contemporary erotic romance and erotica, Alyssa Brooks currently writes for several publishers including Ellora's Cave. She resides in Amish country, Pennsylvania, where every day is a little crazier and the house gets a little messier. Taming her bad-boy husband is a never-ending task, but Alyssa's become a pro at giving him plenty of incentive. Proud mom to a young daughter, two stepsons, and a puppy that has a particular taste for shoes and unrolling toilet paper, Alyssa loves her hectic existence and is ever grateful for her awesome job as an author, where with a little research, she can become anyone, doing anything, and fall in love over and over and over again. The imaginary sex is great too!

Reviews

[Marion · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alyssa ends up as a headline in a tabloid in a compromising position with two guys. She ends up hiding out in a cabin in Aspen.
Max has had a crush on Alyssa since their college days but Alyssa never gave him the time of day. Max always was surrounded by beautiful girls and took what they offered. Seeing Alyssa in the tabloid he tracks her down. Alyssa lets him into the cabin with the condition that she is the queen and he has to do what she wants. He has to sexually satisfy her. Max is confused about the feelings he has for. He puts up with alot of meaness from Alyssa. Any other guy would have told her "bite me". I really could not warm up to either character.

[Rob · Rating 1 out of 5]

Struggled with this one, thought it was ok at first but when the sex came into play...it was like sex between robots. B.O.R.I.N.G I really like to feel the chemistry (romantically & sexually) between the characters, and didn't at all with this one.

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rated 3.5

[Rain · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should have learned by now that I just don’t like anything this woman writes. A hot cover does not make up for a uninteresting plot and unexciting erotic scenes.

I gives Brooks props for having a plot in the first place. Very few erotic authors even attempt it anymore. However, it wasn’t a plot that interested me. Max going after the piece of tail that got away? Eh. Elisa hiding because of some tabloids and ending up getting the man she wanted in high school. Meh…

The erotic scenes would have been good, if they hadn’t all been the same! It was like Brooks copy and pasted the scenes periodically throughout the book. There was no variety.

And I guess I just skipped the part where they fall in love, because when it ended, I was left sitting there asking “When did that happen?” I can’t say it’s the worst I have read, but it could have been a lot better.

[Lissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very graphic - a guilty pleasure.

[Vickipedia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unadulterated erotic fiction. This one's a keeper :)

[BeyondDL · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book as a break from routine and I think I'll leave it at that.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

These types of books aren't really my cup of tea, but it was recommended to me, so I thought I'd give it a try. Meh.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story does have some hot and steamy sex scenes. But honestly, that's about all I enjoyed about it. Elisa and Maxim were lab partners in college and Max was known as the playboy around campus. He wanted to get Elisa into bed for whatever reason (all we know is that he says there was something about her that was different), while Elisa - who had a crush on him - kept him at an arm's length because she didn't want to hurt. The book picks up years later when Elisa's had a little bit of trouble and Max feels like he needs to return to her in order to have her.

The characters were incredibly hard to like, especially Elisa. She still has a crush on Max and wants to know what's it like to sleep with the man, but she begins making him "prove" that he's changed and isn't he playboy that she knew him to be in college. But then she's just flat out annoying and a pain in the ass. Max ends up putting up with a lot of crap from her, pleasuring her over and over without taking release or pleasure for himself (part of her rules) and she continues to make it work for it. While it may have started out as a fun game, and could have remained a fun little game which pleasured both partners, Elisa became unlikable and just outright spoiled in a way. Max puts up with it because he refuses to believe that he's in love with her, though he nearly says it aloud a few times. We learn he has a valid reason to be scared of falling in love, and eventually he comes clean to explains why and we finally feel like there's some kind of connection between the characters.

However, the ending is completely rushed and non-realistic, and the author throws a life threatening problem into the mix which is resolved in like three pages, so it's not really life threatening, and honestly doesn't really add to help move the plot along. I actually stopped reading about halfway through the book and started skimming until I got to the end, because the characters were just flat out annoying and I had no connection to them no matter how hard I tried.

This book had lots of potential, but just didn't do it for me.

[May Mostly Romance · Rating 1 out of 5]

เล่มนี้โรแมนติกกว่าที่คิด แม้ว่าอ่านแล้วจะรู้สึกว่าคู่พระนางน่าจะเลิกกันหลังจากหนังสือจบเรื่องไป ประมาณสามเดือน เพราะแม้ในเรื่องจะบอกว่าทั้งคู่เป็นเพื่อนนักเรียนสมัยมหาวิทยาลัยกันมา และแม็กซิมก็มีใจให้อลิซ่ามานาน แต่แม็กซ์ก็ยังไม่เข้าใจนะว่า ทำไมแม็กซิมถึงเปล่าให้เรื่องของทั้งสองคาราคาซังกันมาตั้งเป็นสิบปี ไม่สะสางให้สิ้นเรื่องว่าจะรักกันไหม จนกระทั่งมีข่าวขึ้นหน้าหนังสือพิมพ์ออกมาแฉว่าอลิซ่าก็ไม่ใช่ผู้หญิงดีเด่ อะไร มั่วผู้ชายก็เท่านั้น

สำหรับคนอ่านที่รักเยื่อบาง แม็กซ์ขออำภัยที่จะบอกว่า ข่าวหนังสือพิมพ์เป็นจริงนะค้า เพียงแต่อลิซ่าหลงผิดทำไปเพราะคิดว่าชายคนนั้นเป็นชายในฝัน และรักเธอ แต่แล้วก็พบกับแม็กซิมอีกครั้งก็เปลี่ยนใจเธอได้

เนื่องจากเรื่องนี้อุดมไปด้วยฉากเซ็กส์ ทำให้การพัฒนาความสัมพันธ์ของตัวละครเพิ่งพาความสัมพันธ์และความรู้สึกที่มี ให้กันในอดีตเป็ฯหลัง ซึ่งสอบตกไปประมาณร้อยกว่าคะแนน

ฉากที่แม็กซิมรู้ตัวว่ารักอลิซ่าก็ไม่เข้าท่า อ่านแล้วนึกว่าลินน์ เกรแฮมแก้ผ้ามาเขียนเอง (ที่ต้องถอดเสื้อเพราะเป็นแนวอีโรไง ถ้าใส่เสื้อจะบิวท์อารมณ์ไม่ขึ้น) น้ำเน่ามาก

ม่ายหวาย เอาไปที่ 53 คะแนน

[IkeaGoddess · Rating 2 out of 5]

The hero is okay and the writting is okay too, but the heroine is annoying to say the least. The story is unlogical and often plain stupid. There were times I had to stop reading for a while, but I struggled my way through, however now that I finished, I consided reading this book a waste of my time.