ARC received by the author in exchange for an honest review.
If you are looking for a quick, steamy read with a strong-willed heroine and a gorgeous sexy-as-sin hero, I definitely recommend that you read this book.
Meet Emily: she has been burnt by her past boyfriend, Adam, and even though it has been a year since she broke it off with him, she is still not ready or willing to jump into a new relationship. However, her strong feelings about this subject become muddled when she meets Julien Belmont when she is out clubbing with her friends one night.
“Foreign men and their accents. Why did we girls have to be such suckers for a beautiful man with an accent?!” (Emily)
Julien is, without a doubt, a man accustomed to getting his way and the minute he lays eyes on Emily, he wants her.
They share a night filled with VERY steamy sex (honestly, my ears got quite red while reading this scene) but when morning comes, Emily is still not sure if she wants to trust Julien with her heart. And then drama ensues: by accident, Emily finds out that Julien is, in fact, married! Yes, married! At this point in time, I was quite ready to throw my Kindle across the room because I did NOT see this coming, at all – but I did not do this, I persevered and read the entire story in one sitting. And I will not tell you more about the actual drama but suffice it to say that there is lots of it.
Emily is a great character: sassy, smart, and as I already mentioned above, she is a very strong woman. I like her “voice” very much, and I could completely relate to her when it came down to her very conflicting feelings towards Julien and her ex-boyfriend, Adam.
And Julien…? Well, he is very alpha in the bedroom, but quite confused about his feelings as well. He does not understand the pull he feels when he is near Emily, and he is quite determined to make her his.
“This woman…she had somehow gotten to me, weakened me and brought out a side of me that I didn’t know existed.” (Julien)
His marriage of convenience to Charlette, their reasons behind it, left me a bit…well, angry, actually. But I love it when books make me feel very strong emotions, whether they be negative or positive ones. So well done, Miss Black!
As this is a novella, this review is rather short – but I do not want to spoil it for you. The story is solid, the dual POVs make me a very happy bookaholic, and one of the major factors as to why I enjoyed the story so much is that I found myself feeling sympathy towards ALL the characters. Even Charlette and Adam have redeeming qualities, and I can honestly say that I have absolutely no idea about what will happen in the next two installments! I love that!
So, to sum up: this is, yes, a story about a sexy billionaire, which we have seen quite a lot of already, but it is so different at the same time; further, the feelings of both Emily and Julien are portrayed in a way that make you believe them; last, the supporting characters all play a very important part in the story as well, and they, too, come across as very believable characters. The author’s writing is very good, and it has a nice flow to it.
Although I would have liked to get to know Emily and Julien better – because this IS the first book in the series – I am confident that I will get my wish granted in the next book, “Coverup”, and I cannot wait to read it.