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Blush
In the same pulse-pounding style as Maya Banks and Kresley Cole, New York Times bestselling author Cherry Adair delivers a sizzling erotic romance about a sexy billionaire who’s on the run—and the hit-man-turned-handyman who’s supposed to kill her.
Sex with a stranger. Learn to drive. Learn to cook. Learn to pole dance. Sex under the stars. Buy a truck. These are just a few of the things on Amelia Wentworth’s bucket list, but as the CEO and face of a multi-billion-dollar cosmetic empire, she’s never quite found the time to do them.
Until, after a series of accidents, Amelia discovers that someone wants her dead. But who? And why? She has no time for questions as she changes her name to Mia, buys a secluded fixer-upper near the Louisiana bayou where no one will recognize her, and starts checking things off her bucket list like there’s no tomorrow—which there might not be.
Meanwhile, Cruz Barcelona is a hit man who’s promised himself this will be his last job. Then he’ll take the money and move to a warm, sunny place where he doesn’t have to hide anymore. But when Cruz goes undercover to Mia’s ramshackle house, he starts to realize there’s far more to this poor-little-rich-girl than he thought—and he starts to fall for her. Which is going to make his job a whole lot harder…
Sex with a stranger. Learn to drive. Learn to cook. Learn to pole dance. Sex under the stars. Buy a truck. These are just a few of the things on Amelia Wentworth’s bucket list, but as the CEO and face of a multi-billion-dollar cosmetic empire, she’s never quite found the time to do them.
Until, after a series of accidents, Amelia discovers that someone wants her dead. But who? And why? She has no time for questions as she changes her name to Mia, buys a secluded fixer-upper near the Louisiana bayou where no one will recognize her, and starts checking things off her bucket list like there’s no tomorrow—which there might not be.
Meanwhile, Cruz Barcelona is a hit man who’s promised himself this will be his last job. Then he’ll take the money and move to a warm, sunny place where he doesn’t have to hide anymore. But when Cruz goes undercover to Mia’s ramshackle house, he starts to realize there’s far more to this poor-little-rich-girl than he thought—and he starts to fall for her. Which is going to make his job a whole lot harder…
387 pages, Paperback
First published April 7, 2015
39 people are currently reading
710 people want to read
About the author
Cherry Adair
77 books1,468 followersAlways an adventurer in life as well as writing, New York Times best-selling author Cherry Adair moved halfway across the globe from Cape Town, South Africa to the United States in her early years to become a interior designer. Now a resident of the Pacific Northwest she shares the award- winning adventures of her fictional T-FLAC counter terrorism operatives with her readers.
Cherry settled in beautiful San Francisco, where she started what eventually became a thriving interior design business. "I loved being a designer because it was varied and creative, and I enjoyed working with the public." A voracious reader when she was able to carve out the time, Cherry found her brain crowded with characters and stories of her own. "Eventually," she says, "the stories demanded to be told."
When asked why she chooses to write romantic action adventure, she says, "Who says you can’t have adventure and a great love life? Of course if you’re talking about an adventurous love life, that’s another thing altogether. I write romantic suspense coupled heart-pounding adventure because I like to entertain, and nothing keeps readers happier than a rollercoaster read, followed by a happy ending."
Popular on the workshop circuit, Cherry gives lively classes on writing and the writing life. Pulling no punches when asked how to become a published writer, Cherry insists, "Sit your butt in the chair and write. There's no magic to it. Writing is hard work. It isn't for sissies or whiners."
Cherry loves to spend time at home. A corner desk keeps her focused on writing, but the windows behind her, with a panoramic view of the front gardens, are always calling her to come outside and play. Her office has nine-foot ceilings, a fireplace, a television and built-in bookcases that will house approximately 3,500 paperback books.
"What can I say? My keeper shelf has been breeding in the middle of the night, rather like drycleaners' wire clothes hangers.”
Cherry settled in beautiful San Francisco, where she started what eventually became a thriving interior design business. "I loved being a designer because it was varied and creative, and I enjoyed working with the public." A voracious reader when she was able to carve out the time, Cherry found her brain crowded with characters and stories of her own. "Eventually," she says, "the stories demanded to be told."
When asked why she chooses to write romantic action adventure, she says, "Who says you can’t have adventure and a great love life? Of course if you’re talking about an adventurous love life, that’s another thing altogether. I write romantic suspense coupled heart-pounding adventure because I like to entertain, and nothing keeps readers happier than a rollercoaster read, followed by a happy ending."
Popular on the workshop circuit, Cherry gives lively classes on writing and the writing life. Pulling no punches when asked how to become a published writer, Cherry insists, "Sit your butt in the chair and write. There's no magic to it. Writing is hard work. It isn't for sissies or whiners."
Cherry loves to spend time at home. A corner desk keeps her focused on writing, but the windows behind her, with a panoramic view of the front gardens, are always calling her to come outside and play. Her office has nine-foot ceilings, a fireplace, a television and built-in bookcases that will house approximately 3,500 paperback books.
"What can I say? My keeper shelf has been breeding in the middle of the night, rather like drycleaners' wire clothes hangers.”
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 148 reviews
April 17, 2015
Almost a DNF...ended up being a skimmer. The premise was strong, but I felt like the characters had the potential to be so much more than they ended up being. The heroine is a powerful woman, rich and confident and beautiful. The hero a badass hit man with the libido of a fifteen year old boy. Great couple for a romance. But I ended up feeling like the author just tried to write something that she though readers would want, not what she wanted to write. And it ended up feeling kind of forced and faked, and in turn, this romance was hard to believe and kind of boring.
Advance copy provided by Edelweisss for review
Advance copy provided by Edelweisss for review
April 17, 2015
3 Stars
I liked the premise of the story. Amelia Wentworth owns a multimillion dollar cosmetics company named Blush, but she goes into hiding because someone is trying to kill her.
Cruz Barcelona is a hitman with a "good heart", meaning he'll only kill the person if they deserve to die. After spending time with Amelia undercover, Cruz starts to fall in love with her and each day goes by it becomes harder to do the job.
This book started off really good, but I pretty much skimmed the last half of it. There is a lot of inner dialogue and many of the same things were repeated constantly. The way the couple is brought together is definitely a fantasy. No woman running from a killer will invite a stranger into her home, but if you're willing to overlook that and the long inner dialogue then you may enjoy this book.
*ARC graciously provided for an honest review*
I liked the premise of the story. Amelia Wentworth owns a multimillion dollar cosmetics company named Blush, but she goes into hiding because someone is trying to kill her.
Cruz Barcelona is a hitman with a "good heart", meaning he'll only kill the person if they deserve to die. After spending time with Amelia undercover, Cruz starts to fall in love with her and each day goes by it becomes harder to do the job.
This book started off really good, but I pretty much skimmed the last half of it. There is a lot of inner dialogue and many of the same things were repeated constantly. The way the couple is brought together is definitely a fantasy. No woman running from a killer will invite a stranger into her home, but if you're willing to overlook that and the long inner dialogue then you may enjoy this book.
*ARC graciously provided for an honest review*
April 15, 2015
More Than 3 Stars * * *
This was a curious look and see read.
It mentioned Hitman...love them...
Mentioned High Powered Woman hiding from attempts on her life...
And the Bucket list... mundane... and sexual...so I clicked to see what it was all about.
It started off strong with the mistaken identity of the Hitman for a paid hook up for our gal. She is so use to being in control, she refuses to allow the guy to even talk to her and just "do" her. This, of course, leaves our man to make a choice...play the game or knock her off. He is not sure if this wack-a-doo really deserves offing...because he does have standards... he will only kill the most vile... so he decides to put off the hit and take over the seduction.
The best part of this tale was all of the seduction, banter and chemistry between them. It delivered when those things were happening. Big Time.
This was a very promising start and the characters each had distinctive personalities which for the most part worked. The first half was engrossing and kept me very interested. The second part kind of slowed up and took awhile to get where it needed to be.
Over all I liked it and was glad I fed my curiosity.
A gifted copy was provided by NetGalley for an honest review.
For more Reviews, Free E-books and Giveaways
This was a curious look and see read.
It mentioned Hitman...love them...
Mentioned High Powered Woman hiding from attempts on her life...
And the Bucket list... mundane... and sexual...so I clicked to see what it was all about.
It started off strong with the mistaken identity of the Hitman for a paid hook up for our gal. She is so use to being in control, she refuses to allow the guy to even talk to her and just "do" her. This, of course, leaves our man to make a choice...play the game or knock her off. He is not sure if this wack-a-doo really deserves offing...because he does have standards... he will only kill the most vile... so he decides to put off the hit and take over the seduction.
The best part of this tale was all of the seduction, banter and chemistry between them. It delivered when those things were happening. Big Time.
This was a very promising start and the characters each had distinctive personalities which for the most part worked. The first half was engrossing and kept me very interested. The second part kind of slowed up and took awhile to get where it needed to be.
Over all I liked it and was glad I fed my curiosity.
A gifted copy was provided by NetGalley for an honest review.
For more Reviews, Free E-books and Giveaways
November 15, 2015
12/11 - Nenia Campbell was right, this is preposterous. This is her review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..., which most likely is better able to explain the ridiculousness of this book than I ever could.
I've already got a number of pages marked as worth discussing in this review, and that's not counting the ones from the first 40 pages that I didn't bother to mark because they were just small things and didn't seem worth the effort.
On page 51
'An easel held a blank canvas, and beside it all a tall table covered with a dish towel and a pretty blue glass vase held an assortment of high-pigment Lukas paint tubes and dozens of Kolinsky sable brushes in various sizes. None of them used. All of them, as he well knew, top-of-the-line.'
Umm, how does he 'well know'? Was there an explanation about his painting prowess that I missed? Or does he simply 'know' they're 'top-of-the-line' because she's rich and would, of course, buy the best?
On page 53
'She should be 'barricade' in a safe room, not attempting to fix him the most important meal of the day, 'dressed', with deceptive innocence.'
A couple of queries regarding that sentence. First, 'barricaded' instead of 'barricade'. Second, I'm confused by the word 'dressed' in this context. Is Adair saying Mia's dressed in a 'deceptively innocent' way? Or would Cruz rather she wasn't dressed at all? I have no idea.
On page 65
'Mia put her hands behind her, then realised it was the gesture of a three-year-old...'
Why is putting your hands behind your back the gesture of a three-year-old? I think it's a perfect way of making sure you don't get in the way of someone else's cooking (I sure it also works when you need to keep your hands off the hot guy doing the cooking). To be continued...
Later - This is so not the book to use words like 'verisimilitude' and 'propinquity'. I even had to look 'propinquity' up. I guess that's a plus because I learnt a new word, but using such extraordinarily complex (and hard to pronounce) words when it would have been far easier to simply write 'truth' and 'proximity', smacks of an author forcing a reader to admit to their large vocabulary and high intelligence. I'm not impressed by Adair's vocabulary, I'm just irritated by what I see as her shoving it down my throat. To be continued...
Later - So much bad! I think this might actually be getting worse.
On page 97
'Her choppy hair tumbled around her head, parting erotically on her neck.'
What the hell does an erotic hair parting look like?! What a stupid description!
On page 98
'He smelled of fresh air, virile male, and soap.'
God! How does a virile male's smell differ from a non-virile male? Now I can't decide which description is more ridiculous.
On page 101
'The negligee she'd bought from a racy online catalogue was an absolutely plain tube. No ruffles, no embellishments. Just a simple, stretchy, sheer black sleeveless column clinging to every curve and valley, from throat to ankle.'
I don't get the logistics of this negligee. A page and a half after this description Cruz 'moves between her legs', if the negligee is a tube that clings to every curve and valley from throat to ankle I can't see how he can do that while she's still wearing it. It would be too tight (it would probably also be too tight for walking, but she's not actually described as attempting to do that so I won't mention that impossibility) for her to successfully separate her legs without the negligee having been raised above her waist, which clearly hadn't happened as Cruz is described as kissing her through the material. It actually sounds like good exercise for your thighs, like a reverse Thighmaster - wrap your legs in a giant elastic band and then try to open them against the resistance of the material.
On page 106
'Fully clothed, he knelt in the V of her legs.'
That's funny since on page 101 we've already read
'Smile wicked, he straightened and pulled his T-shirt over his head.'
It's the amazing reappearing t-shirt!
On page 109 I decided it was time to start skimming after I read that he'd choked her out while they were having sex, but it was okay because
...he'd known exactly how much pressure to exert on her carotid. More would've killed her. He'd pressed...less. Last-moment decision. She hadn't been hurt.'
Really? It's well documented that a lack of oxygen to the brain is likely to cause, at the very least, a severe headache when she wakes up. That's if she wakes up, because only a few extra seconds could make the difference between knocking her out and causing permanent damage.
Amazingly I might be finding Cruz's internal monologue more annoying than Ana's. All he seems to say/think is "Can't have more sex with the mark. Have to kill her, in a few days if not sooner. Ooh, I could have killed her just then, but I didn't because I'm so attracted to her, but I can't have sex with her again because I have to kill her. Oopsy daisy, had sex with her again. No more sex frommm......now!", and repeat that over and OVER again. Sooo irritating. The only reason I'm even bothering to keep skimming is that I want to know how he got her profile so wrong and who hired him. To be continued...
15/11 - I've just realised how much I've written on this book, it's not worth a review this long, so this final update will be as short as I can make it while still making my opinion clear. I'm giving this 1.5 stars, rounded down for GR. This wasn't as bad as some of the rubbish Kindle freebies I've gotten from Amazon, that's why it gets an extra half star. There are so many problems with this book, compounded by the fact that it was written by what I consider a pretty popular and well-known romance author who has been writing for many years now. These mistakes were newbie mistakes, but Adair is not a newbie. The plot was not believable, the editing was half a step above 'woeful', both characters were annoying in their own way, and the end was very rushed and tied up way too easily. I can't believe this has such a high rating on GR. Is it just because of all the sex? Yes, it was frequent and creative, but that's not enough to keep a story going. Romance as a genre could be considered a type of fantasy, but there has to be some realism, some believability that these two people would behave the way they do. This book could have an associated drinking game that involves drinking every time she should be dead, the winner would be the one who makes it to the end of the book without losing consciousness.
I've already got a number of pages marked as worth discussing in this review, and that's not counting the ones from the first 40 pages that I didn't bother to mark because they were just small things and didn't seem worth the effort.
On page 51
'An easel held a blank canvas, and beside it all a tall table covered with a dish towel and a pretty blue glass vase held an assortment of high-pigment Lukas paint tubes and dozens of Kolinsky sable brushes in various sizes. None of them used. All of them, as he well knew, top-of-the-line.'
Umm, how does he 'well know'? Was there an explanation about his painting prowess that I missed? Or does he simply 'know' they're 'top-of-the-line' because she's rich and would, of course, buy the best?
On page 53
'She should be 'barricade' in a safe room, not attempting to fix him the most important meal of the day, 'dressed', with deceptive innocence.'
A couple of queries regarding that sentence. First, 'barricaded' instead of 'barricade'. Second, I'm confused by the word 'dressed' in this context. Is Adair saying Mia's dressed in a 'deceptively innocent' way? Or would Cruz rather she wasn't dressed at all? I have no idea.
On page 65
'Mia put her hands behind her, then realised it was the gesture of a three-year-old...'
Why is putting your hands behind your back the gesture of a three-year-old? I think it's a perfect way of making sure you don't get in the way of someone else's cooking (I sure it also works when you need to keep your hands off the hot guy doing the cooking). To be continued...
Later - This is so not the book to use words like 'verisimilitude' and 'propinquity'. I even had to look 'propinquity' up. I guess that's a plus because I learnt a new word, but using such extraordinarily complex (and hard to pronounce) words when it would have been far easier to simply write 'truth' and 'proximity', smacks of an author forcing a reader to admit to their large vocabulary and high intelligence. I'm not impressed by Adair's vocabulary, I'm just irritated by what I see as her shoving it down my throat. To be continued...
Later - So much bad! I think this might actually be getting worse.
On page 97
'Her choppy hair tumbled around her head, parting erotically on her neck.'
What the hell does an erotic hair parting look like?! What a stupid description!
On page 98
'He smelled of fresh air, virile male, and soap.'
God! How does a virile male's smell differ from a non-virile male? Now I can't decide which description is more ridiculous.
On page 101
'The negligee she'd bought from a racy online catalogue was an absolutely plain tube. No ruffles, no embellishments. Just a simple, stretchy, sheer black sleeveless column clinging to every curve and valley, from throat to ankle.'
I don't get the logistics of this negligee. A page and a half after this description Cruz 'moves between her legs', if the negligee is a tube that clings to every curve and valley from throat to ankle I can't see how he can do that while she's still wearing it. It would be too tight (it would probably also be too tight for walking, but she's not actually described as attempting to do that so I won't mention that impossibility) for her to successfully separate her legs without the negligee having been raised above her waist, which clearly hadn't happened as Cruz is described as kissing her through the material. It actually sounds like good exercise for your thighs, like a reverse Thighmaster - wrap your legs in a giant elastic band and then try to open them against the resistance of the material.
On page 106
'Fully clothed, he knelt in the V of her legs.'
That's funny since on page 101 we've already read
'Smile wicked, he straightened and pulled his T-shirt over his head.'
It's the amazing reappearing t-shirt!
On page 109 I decided it was time to start skimming after I read that he'd choked her out while they were having sex, but it was okay because
...he'd known exactly how much pressure to exert on her carotid. More would've killed her. He'd pressed...less. Last-moment decision. She hadn't been hurt.'
Really? It's well documented that a lack of oxygen to the brain is likely to cause, at the very least, a severe headache when she wakes up. That's if she wakes up, because only a few extra seconds could make the difference between knocking her out and causing permanent damage.
Amazingly I might be finding Cruz's internal monologue more annoying than Ana's. All he seems to say/think is "Can't have more sex with the mark. Have to kill her, in a few days if not sooner. Ooh, I could have killed her just then, but I didn't because I'm so attracted to her, but I can't have sex with her again because I have to kill her. Oopsy daisy, had sex with her again. No more sex frommm......now!", and repeat that over and OVER again. Sooo irritating. The only reason I'm even bothering to keep skimming is that I want to know how he got her profile so wrong and who hired him. To be continued...
15/11 - I've just realised how much I've written on this book, it's not worth a review this long, so this final update will be as short as I can make it while still making my opinion clear. I'm giving this 1.5 stars, rounded down for GR. This wasn't as bad as some of the rubbish Kindle freebies I've gotten from Amazon, that's why it gets an extra half star. There are so many problems with this book, compounded by the fact that it was written by what I consider a pretty popular and well-known romance author who has been writing for many years now. These mistakes were newbie mistakes, but Adair is not a newbie. The plot was not believable, the editing was half a step above 'woeful', both characters were annoying in their own way, and the end was very rushed and tied up way too easily. I can't believe this has such a high rating on GR. Is it just because of all the sex? Yes, it was frequent and creative, but that's not enough to keep a story going. Romance as a genre could be considered a type of fantasy, but there has to be some realism, some believability that these two people would behave the way they do. This book could have an associated drinking game that involves drinking every time she should be dead, the winner would be the one who makes it to the end of the book without losing consciousness.
May 14, 2015
DNF @ 26%
No. No. No.
1) The insta-lust. Oh here we go again.
2) I don't care for these characters because I know that no woman with survival instincts would let a stranger into her house and finger-fuck her no matter how hot he is. Did your mama not warn you about serial killers? I half-wished he would kill her already so she could go to heaven and ponder over her idiocy.
3) The mystery of why someone wants the MC dead is boring and I couldn't keep myself interested when all she thought about was sex. "Oh, whatever-the-hell-his-name-is is eye-fucking me. Let me forget about my haters— I mean— my death attempts. He obviously isn't out to kill me."
4) If you can't keep me engrossed in the beginning, I can't bother to give you any more of my time. I just can't.
I don't apologize for the recent use of LOTR gifs because how can I not.
ARC was given via Netgalley an exchange for a review.
No. No. No.
1) The insta-lust. Oh here we go again.
2) I don't care for these characters because I know that no woman with survival instincts would let a stranger into her house and finger-fuck her no matter how hot he is. Did your mama not warn you about serial killers? I half-wished he would kill her already so she could go to heaven and ponder over her idiocy.
3) The mystery of why someone wants the MC dead is boring and I couldn't keep myself interested when all she thought about was sex. "Oh, whatever-the-hell-his-name-is is eye-fucking me. Let me forget about my haters— I mean— my death attempts. He obviously isn't out to kill me."
4) If you can't keep me engrossed in the beginning, I can't bother to give you any more of my time. I just can't.
I don't apologize for the recent use of LOTR gifs because how can I not.
ARC was given via Netgalley an exchange for a review.
April 13, 2015
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Blush by Cherry Adair
PLOT: 4
CHARACTERS: 5
COVER: 4
OVERALL RATING: 4
Blush by Cherry Adair is fast-paced, full of passion and was really an overall amazing book.
The book centers around Amelia Wentworth a CEO of her own company and just the overall woman I would love to emulate. She's fierce inside and outside her business and she has a caring nature that does not necessarily go with someone who's business-minded but she still made it work. After a series of accidents, she learned that someone was trying to kill her so changed her name to Mia and bought a fixer-upper in Louisiana to hide from whoever wants her dead.
That didn't exactly turn out according to her plan because Cruz Barcelona, a professional hit man has found her after a day of her hiding in Louisiana. But she doesn't know that Cruz is hired to kill her.
So when I first read the synopsis of this book on Netgalley I was a little bit hesitant on reading this because I thought that I knew what would happen already and this is just something that I would never like. I took the plunge and decided to request this book and I was not disappointed.
Amelia was a really great character because she was hilarious and her innocence with the normal things in life was really endearing. I loved how she was very sweet but when it comes to her business, she never lets anyone push her around. Cruz was a hitman that has a heart.
He only kills people who he feels really deserved to die. So when his gut told him that something was wrong with her new target, he decided to look at the situation more "thoroughly" before he decides if he should kill Amelia or not. But what he wasn't expecting was to have feelings for her.
The story was amazing and I love how the relationship between Mia/Amelia and Cruz was not always full of sex. The love they had for each other was shown more through the little things that they do which was very endearing. Overall Blush was really a book that made me laugh and cry and all the other emotions in between.
received digital edition from publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
Blush by Cherry Adair
PLOT: 4
CHARACTERS: 5
COVER: 4
OVERALL RATING: 4
Blush by Cherry Adair is fast-paced, full of passion and was really an overall amazing book.
The book centers around Amelia Wentworth a CEO of her own company and just the overall woman I would love to emulate. She's fierce inside and outside her business and she has a caring nature that does not necessarily go with someone who's business-minded but she still made it work. After a series of accidents, she learned that someone was trying to kill her so changed her name to Mia and bought a fixer-upper in Louisiana to hide from whoever wants her dead.
That didn't exactly turn out according to her plan because Cruz Barcelona, a professional hit man has found her after a day of her hiding in Louisiana. But she doesn't know that Cruz is hired to kill her.
So when I first read the synopsis of this book on Netgalley I was a little bit hesitant on reading this because I thought that I knew what would happen already and this is just something that I would never like. I took the plunge and decided to request this book and I was not disappointed.
Amelia was a really great character because she was hilarious and her innocence with the normal things in life was really endearing. I loved how she was very sweet but when it comes to her business, she never lets anyone push her around. Cruz was a hitman that has a heart.
He only kills people who he feels really deserved to die. So when his gut told him that something was wrong with her new target, he decided to look at the situation more "thoroughly" before he decides if he should kill Amelia or not. But what he wasn't expecting was to have feelings for her.
The story was amazing and I love how the relationship between Mia/Amelia and Cruz was not always full of sex. The love they had for each other was shown more through the little things that they do which was very endearing. Overall Blush was really a book that made me laugh and cry and all the other emotions in between.
received digital edition from publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
February 26, 2016
ARC Review, 4.5 stars.
Originally posted at: Love Affair with an E-Reader
What an unexpected surprise! I’ve liked Cherry Adair’s books in the past, but this one surpassed my expectations. I really enjoyed these characters. They made me laugh and they made me pant. I especially like Cruz Barcelona. He’s a premier assassin hired to kill heiress and CEO Amelia Wentworth. After an almost comical, yet off-the-charts steamy first encounter, he decides to investigate her further before completing his assignment. He is dark, dangerous, possessive, protective with a sense of humor. And major bonus: he’s a first rate HANDYMAN! Something about a man and his tools…. (In my head I’m visualizing the Diet Coke commercial with the hunky construction guy taking a Diet Coke break.)
The sexual tension between the two characters is not only taut, but also rich. The pheromones virtually ooze off the pages. From the circumstances surrounding their first encounter to the last, this story is exciting and feels almost experiential.
The story is erotica with a strong, suspenseful storyline. Who is behind the assassination attempts on Amelia? What will Cruz ultimately do with Amelia? Will he kill her? Will he let her live? Will he let her go? I also appreciated the side storyline involving a domestic violence victim and her son. It added a great dimension to the larger storyline.
My one small critique is that the mystery seems to resolve itself too quickly and off the pages. Neither Amelia nor Cruz had much to do with the actual investigation and the resolution felt just a little anti-climatic.
Having said that, I loved the ending. Just right with a cherry on top.
IN A NUTSHELL:
I could read this book again and probably will. Yes! I highly recommend this book for fun and sexual frolicking.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Originally posted at: Love Affair with an E-Reader
What an unexpected surprise! I’ve liked Cherry Adair’s books in the past, but this one surpassed my expectations. I really enjoyed these characters. They made me laugh and they made me pant. I especially like Cruz Barcelona. He’s a premier assassin hired to kill heiress and CEO Amelia Wentworth. After an almost comical, yet off-the-charts steamy first encounter, he decides to investigate her further before completing his assignment. He is dark, dangerous, possessive, protective with a sense of humor. And major bonus: he’s a first rate HANDYMAN! Something about a man and his tools…. (In my head I’m visualizing the Diet Coke commercial with the hunky construction guy taking a Diet Coke break.)
The sexual tension between the two characters is not only taut, but also rich. The pheromones virtually ooze off the pages. From the circumstances surrounding their first encounter to the last, this story is exciting and feels almost experiential.
The story is erotica with a strong, suspenseful storyline. Who is behind the assassination attempts on Amelia? What will Cruz ultimately do with Amelia? Will he kill her? Will he let her live? Will he let her go? I also appreciated the side storyline involving a domestic violence victim and her son. It added a great dimension to the larger storyline.
My one small critique is that the mystery seems to resolve itself too quickly and off the pages. Neither Amelia nor Cruz had much to do with the actual investigation and the resolution felt just a little anti-climatic.
Having said that, I loved the ending. Just right with a cherry on top.
IN A NUTSHELL:
I could read this book again and probably will. Yes! I highly recommend this book for fun and sexual frolicking.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
June 2, 2015
If you want lots and lots of sex with your romance and can ignore a plot that doesn't make much sense, go for Blush.
The heroine is in hiding because someone is trying to kill her and yet he has no bodyguards, have employed people without doing background checks, and fucked a man (who turned out to be the hired assassin) whom she's mistaken for the escort she hired via the internet. Btw, the real escort never turned up and no follow through as to his whereabouts. That was the first plot hole amongst many.
Naturally they fell in love. She got pissed off but not bad enough because once he saved her life, all is well and the slate is clean. So I guess it doesn't bother her that her dude was plotting to kill her at one point and got 7.5M for it? Or how about the fact that he assassinated several "bad" people in the past? Wouldn't that be bad for her stocks? Supposedly our heroine is a smart business woman but none of these convenient devices makes sense to me.
I don't mind smut, but at least make it smart. I nitpick because I'm under the impression that Blush is romantic suspense therefore the conflict & resolution should be believable. This is too fanciful to be realistic for me I'm afraid. I think I have better luck with Adair's PNR romances.
The heroine is in hiding because someone is trying to kill her and yet he has no bodyguards, have employed people without doing background checks, and fucked a man (who turned out to be the hired assassin) whom she's mistaken for the escort she hired via the internet. Btw, the real escort never turned up and no follow through as to his whereabouts. That was the first plot hole amongst many.
Naturally they fell in love. She got pissed off but not bad enough because once he saved her life, all is well and the slate is clean. So I guess it doesn't bother her that her dude was plotting to kill her at one point and got 7.5M for it? Or how about the fact that he assassinated several "bad" people in the past? Wouldn't that be bad for her stocks? Supposedly our heroine is a smart business woman but none of these convenient devices makes sense to me.
I don't mind smut, but at least make it smart. I nitpick because I'm under the impression that Blush is romantic suspense therefore the conflict & resolution should be believable. This is too fanciful to be realistic for me I'm afraid. I think I have better luck with Adair's PNR romances.
May 23, 2015
Oh my, it hurts to say that this time around Cherry Adair just didn't live up to expectations. Still a good read but disappointing. She has given me some of the best romantic suspense reads ever in the past.
Here, I just didn't feel the power of her previous books. Repetition seemed to run wild in this book. I felt the number of sex scenes were over the top and just filler. It was lacking in the solid detailed storytelling. No doubt that Adair can definitely write the heat well, and she always has a solid suspense-packed story to tell. I found the same to be true here -- it just was too much of one and not enough of the other. Sometimes less is more and this was the case. I thought the characters deserved much more solid material than they got.
There is one thing that commanded my respect though, and that is Adair's first-rate vocabulary. She uses such a range of different words and phrases that send me running for the dictionary with each new release. Blush was an exceptional example.
I wish I could say that I loved this book. I hate that it was a disappointment. But I'm still glad I read this latest from a long-time favorite author.
Here, I just didn't feel the power of her previous books. Repetition seemed to run wild in this book. I felt the number of sex scenes were over the top and just filler. It was lacking in the solid detailed storytelling. No doubt that Adair can definitely write the heat well, and she always has a solid suspense-packed story to tell. I found the same to be true here -- it just was too much of one and not enough of the other. Sometimes less is more and this was the case. I thought the characters deserved much more solid material than they got.
There is one thing that commanded my respect though, and that is Adair's first-rate vocabulary. She uses such a range of different words and phrases that send me running for the dictionary with each new release. Blush was an exceptional example.
I wish I could say that I loved this book. I hate that it was a disappointment. But I'm still glad I read this latest from a long-time favorite author.
March 23, 2015
This book started off with a bang and overall I enjoyed it. The story was different (hitman falls for hit) and I loved that most of it took place on the bayou in Louisiana. Mia was a great character- strong and determined but balanced well with feminine and adventurous. Cruz started off very manly but that dwindled a little bit for me by the end.
My biggest problem with the book was the balance between action/dialogue/inner dialogue. There was way too much inner dialogue for my tastes. Both Mia and Cruz would spend pages in their heads questioning each others motivations. I caught myself skipping A LOT to get back to something that interested me and helped move along the storyline.
Overall it was a good book.
My biggest problem with the book was the balance between action/dialogue/inner dialogue. There was way too much inner dialogue for my tastes. Both Mia and Cruz would spend pages in their heads questioning each others motivations. I caught myself skipping A LOT to get back to something that interested me and helped move along the storyline.
Overall it was a good book.
April 15, 2015
Blush by Cherry Adair is a 2015 Gallery books publication. I was provided a copy of this book as an X0Xpert - the official Street Team of XOXO After Dark, in exchange for an honest review.
One thing about Cherry Adair, she really has a fantastic imagination. This book was full of surprises and is a little bit outside the box. I really like stories that have dark humor and wit, so this one grabbed my attention right away. This book is filled with twist and turns that had me shaking my head and laughing at the same time.
Amelia Wentworth, aka Mia Hayward, is the CEO of Blush Cosmetics. She has moved away from San Francisco to Podunk, Louisiana, to hide out after it became abundantly clear someone desperately wants her dead. This turn of events has Mia working through a rather amusing bucket list which includes learning how to drive, pole dancing, and maybe the most dangerous of all, SWAS – Sex with a stranger.
So, when Cruz Barcelona shows up at her rundown plantation home she invites him in for some hot sex on the kitchen counter. What she doesn't know is Cruz is actually a trained assassin hired to kill her. But, something feels off to Cruz, so he doesn't kill her right away even though she is responsible for the deaths of innocent children, her money sponsoring an illegal sex ring, and cruel work conditions in Chinese sweatshops. In his mind someone like Mia deserves to die, and Cruz considers himself an avenging angel of sorts.
But before he can figure out what is really going on with Mia, Cruz is in neck deep with Mia and the situation with her hired help. The longer he waits the harder it is to do the job he was hired to do. Of course, if isn't getting the job done, someone else will be happy to step up. So now instead of trying to kill Mia, Cruz is trying to save her life.
Cruz has a pretty big heart for a hardened killer and Mia's character is delightful. She lives life large, really cares about other people, is smart, business savvy, but is also a lot of fun. She and Cruz make a pretty good team, even if they are little bit of an oddball couple.
I wasn't sure about someone falling in love with a hired hit man, and centering a story around their romance, but while this story is dark in a way, it's presented with a lighter tone, making it ,more comical than anything. Sometimes it was even close to being a screwball comedy because the bad guys just can't seem to hit their intended target.
For those of you who have read this author's work previously, you know she writes steamy romantic suspense and paranormal romance. This one is maybe just a little hotter than what you are used to, bordering of erotic. I thought the added heat worked in this situation because Mia was trying to break out of her 'plain vanilla' routine and try new things, plus she kept Cruz so preoccupied he couldn't go his job.
I have to say I really enjoyed this book. It was thrilling, action packed, super sexy, witty, and romantic, but also quirky and unpredictable which is something I always welcome. 4.5 rounded to 5
One thing about Cherry Adair, she really has a fantastic imagination. This book was full of surprises and is a little bit outside the box. I really like stories that have dark humor and wit, so this one grabbed my attention right away. This book is filled with twist and turns that had me shaking my head and laughing at the same time.
Amelia Wentworth, aka Mia Hayward, is the CEO of Blush Cosmetics. She has moved away from San Francisco to Podunk, Louisiana, to hide out after it became abundantly clear someone desperately wants her dead. This turn of events has Mia working through a rather amusing bucket list which includes learning how to drive, pole dancing, and maybe the most dangerous of all, SWAS – Sex with a stranger.
So, when Cruz Barcelona shows up at her rundown plantation home she invites him in for some hot sex on the kitchen counter. What she doesn't know is Cruz is actually a trained assassin hired to kill her. But, something feels off to Cruz, so he doesn't kill her right away even though she is responsible for the deaths of innocent children, her money sponsoring an illegal sex ring, and cruel work conditions in Chinese sweatshops. In his mind someone like Mia deserves to die, and Cruz considers himself an avenging angel of sorts.
But before he can figure out what is really going on with Mia, Cruz is in neck deep with Mia and the situation with her hired help. The longer he waits the harder it is to do the job he was hired to do. Of course, if isn't getting the job done, someone else will be happy to step up. So now instead of trying to kill Mia, Cruz is trying to save her life.
Cruz has a pretty big heart for a hardened killer and Mia's character is delightful. She lives life large, really cares about other people, is smart, business savvy, but is also a lot of fun. She and Cruz make a pretty good team, even if they are little bit of an oddball couple.
I wasn't sure about someone falling in love with a hired hit man, and centering a story around their romance, but while this story is dark in a way, it's presented with a lighter tone, making it ,more comical than anything. Sometimes it was even close to being a screwball comedy because the bad guys just can't seem to hit their intended target.
For those of you who have read this author's work previously, you know she writes steamy romantic suspense and paranormal romance. This one is maybe just a little hotter than what you are used to, bordering of erotic. I thought the added heat worked in this situation because Mia was trying to break out of her 'plain vanilla' routine and try new things, plus she kept Cruz so preoccupied he couldn't go his job.
I have to say I really enjoyed this book. It was thrilling, action packed, super sexy, witty, and romantic, but also quirky and unpredictable which is something I always welcome. 4.5 rounded to 5
April 9, 2015
ARC provided by the Publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This is an interesting combination of genre. It is definitely romantic-suspense, my preferred genre, bit it is also definitely of the erotic romance genre also. Cherry Adair writes a good romantic-suspense and has written many of them I have greatly enjoyed. She can write a hot love scene. In Blush she literally makes the pages steam. The suspense element is just great. You do not have a clue as to who or even why the heroine is in danger. It is a great plot. I guess we have a new genre, erotic-suspense. I kinda like this genre.
Amelia Wellington-Wentworth, the CEO of Blush, a cosmetics company, has been forced to run for her life after several attempts to kill her failed. She has landed is a small bayou town in Louisiana in a run down mansion she bought for cash over the internet and a new name. Mia has had a lot of time to reflect on everything she hasn't done in her life and has a list. SWAS is on the list and a stranger appears at her door and fulfills that fantasy, quite well.
Cruz Barcelona is her stranger, he is also a hit man sent to kill her. Cruz is the best and he always completes his assignments. He is also a man with a strong moral code. He only accepts those assignments where the target is pure evil and deserves to die. He does research to insure that this is the case. From his first encounter with Mia he suspects that everything is not as he was told.
This is an interesting combination of genre. It is definitely romantic-suspense, my preferred genre, bit it is also definitely of the erotic romance genre also. Cherry Adair writes a good romantic-suspense and has written many of them I have greatly enjoyed. She can write a hot love scene. In Blush she literally makes the pages steam. The suspense element is just great. You do not have a clue as to who or even why the heroine is in danger. It is a great plot. I guess we have a new genre, erotic-suspense. I kinda like this genre.
Amelia Wellington-Wentworth, the CEO of Blush, a cosmetics company, has been forced to run for her life after several attempts to kill her failed. She has landed is a small bayou town in Louisiana in a run down mansion she bought for cash over the internet and a new name. Mia has had a lot of time to reflect on everything she hasn't done in her life and has a list. SWAS is on the list and a stranger appears at her door and fulfills that fantasy, quite well.
Cruz Barcelona is her stranger, he is also a hit man sent to kill her. Cruz is the best and he always completes his assignments. He is also a man with a strong moral code. He only accepts those assignments where the target is pure evil and deserves to die. He does research to insure that this is the case. From his first encounter with Mia he suspects that everything is not as he was told.
March 29, 2015
4.5 stars for this sexy and suspenseful romance. Cruz is a hitman with a conscience. He only does hits on people who deserve it. When someone takes out a hit on cosmetic CEO Amelia, Cruz is given information on what an awful person she is. The only problem is, when he shows up to her hiding spot in Louisiana, he gets the feeling he wasn't given accurate information on Amelia. This book starts out HOT and just gets better from there. I loved Amelia and Cruz. This was very sexy and also really suspenseful - a very enjoyable story.
**ARC provided in exchange for an honest review**
**ARC provided in exchange for an honest review**
May 25, 2015
4 stars...different and fresh with a favorite setting of mine that made me comfortable for the story as it played out. Characters were well-developed with believable motivations. The love scenes were Cherry--Adair-Hot. If you love tough alpha males and lead female characters who can take care of themselves, this is for you!
March 22, 2015
I was lucky enough to receive an advance reader copy (ARC) of this book through Netgalley. This is the first book that I have read by Cherry Adair, as she writes a great deal in the romantic suspense genre which I have neglected horribly as a romance reader. I heard her speak at the 2014 Romantic Times Booklovers Convention, and she is hilarious and very knowledgeable. I had an amazing quote all picked out for this review, but as it is an advance copy I cannot post the quote just yet. Quoting aside, Blush is definitely the type of book that hooks a reader on the genre and author.
Amelia Wentworth is on the run after multiple attempts on her life. It is definitely hard to go from CEO of a cosmetics giant to roughing it in the Louisiana backwoods, but she is willing to bide her time until everything gets sorted out and she can return to familiar territory. If the clock is ticking, Amelia has a few things that she needs to check off her bucket list before she kicks the bucket. Some people never get to experience everyday things that people take for granted, like cooking. Setting aside the more mundane tasks, though…what could be more exciting than sex in public? Sex with a stranger? As Amelia furiously attempts to pare down her list, death comes knocking in the form of a hot handyman.
Hitman Cruz Barcelona has decided that the hit on Amelia will be his last job before retirement. Cruz has a reputation in the business for being highly efficient, timely, and prides himself on targeting only those he deems deserving of death. The problems start the minute he sees Amelia, posing as Mia Hayward, dancing like no one is watching in a ramshackle home on the edge of the bayou. Is this for real? While evidence against her may be overwhelming, Cruz decides to do a little more research before doing the deed, but getting closer may soften his resolve to close the deal.
This story was super steamy, and the author does not play around, jumping straight into the action. The characters are adorable, and Cherry Adair manages to introduce several conflicts with very satisfying resolutions. I am definitely not heavy into the cosmetics industry, but the terminology was basic enough for me to follow without going overboard. I am fascinated with the way this author writes and was especially pleased to learn two new words (how much of a book nerd am I, really?) while reading this book. Mad props across the board for Blush.
Ruckie
You can find the author on her website, Facebook, or Twitter!
http://www.cherryadair.com/Home.html
https://www.facebook.com/CherryAdairA...
https://twitter.com/CherryAdair
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or my website too!
http://www.romancereviewsbyruckie.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ruckasaurusrex
https://twitter.com/reviewsbyruckie
Amelia Wentworth is on the run after multiple attempts on her life. It is definitely hard to go from CEO of a cosmetics giant to roughing it in the Louisiana backwoods, but she is willing to bide her time until everything gets sorted out and she can return to familiar territory. If the clock is ticking, Amelia has a few things that she needs to check off her bucket list before she kicks the bucket. Some people never get to experience everyday things that people take for granted, like cooking. Setting aside the more mundane tasks, though…what could be more exciting than sex in public? Sex with a stranger? As Amelia furiously attempts to pare down her list, death comes knocking in the form of a hot handyman.
Hitman Cruz Barcelona has decided that the hit on Amelia will be his last job before retirement. Cruz has a reputation in the business for being highly efficient, timely, and prides himself on targeting only those he deems deserving of death. The problems start the minute he sees Amelia, posing as Mia Hayward, dancing like no one is watching in a ramshackle home on the edge of the bayou. Is this for real? While evidence against her may be overwhelming, Cruz decides to do a little more research before doing the deed, but getting closer may soften his resolve to close the deal.
This story was super steamy, and the author does not play around, jumping straight into the action. The characters are adorable, and Cherry Adair manages to introduce several conflicts with very satisfying resolutions. I am definitely not heavy into the cosmetics industry, but the terminology was basic enough for me to follow without going overboard. I am fascinated with the way this author writes and was especially pleased to learn two new words (how much of a book nerd am I, really?) while reading this book. Mad props across the board for Blush.
Ruckie
You can find the author on her website, Facebook, or Twitter!
http://www.cherryadair.com/Home.html
https://www.facebook.com/CherryAdairA...
https://twitter.com/CherryAdair
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or my website too!
http://www.romancereviewsbyruckie.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ruckasaurusrex
https://twitter.com/reviewsbyruckie
April 11, 2015
Amelia Wentworth, realizing her life was threatened after numerous "accidents", procures a fake identity as Mia Hayward. She hides away in Luosianan as she awaits the issue to be resolved.
Mia opens the door to a stranger who she assumes is the man she hired only to be corrected much later of the misunderstanding. Cruz is the man, actually hired to help her renovate her house which is in a deplorable state. She and Cruz acquaint the self with one another and soon Mia begins to really trust him,
"Things are seldom as they appear."
Cruz Barcelona is a contracted killer hired to kill Amelia. He doles out justice to those who he deems worthy and Amelia, he had decided, deserved to be executed. Alas, this changes after he catches glimpse of her and grows dubious of her involvement in wrongdoing. He decides to re-assure himself by carrying out an investigation. The times spent with Amelia makes it even more difficult to do the job he was contracted to do.
Mia is a sweet, charming lady while Cruz is definitely a hot alpha. Their banter is fun to read and I loved the way their relationship developed. It was a bit slow paced but there were definite moments I did NOT expect. it was great.
May 14, 2015
Hot,smart romance about a woman falling for her assassin who ends up becoming her protector.
I liked the h wish there were more written like her - she has a libido, which was not just newly woken by the H, she was kickass, she didn't need a man to solve her problems, she was loyal, smart and she risked herself to save her mans life! Plus she was fun and willing to explore life and not afraid to go after what she wanted. No wonder the H was so crazy about her!!
The H was also not bad, an assassin with a conscience, he had many facets and the h really saw him. H is a guy who's lived life and this is his last job before he retires, but he realises theres something fishy so he delays and ends up falling for the h.
The mystery was also well done; the author has done her research on mergers and acquisitions and how the markets operate. I didn't guess the villain till the end and I liked how the h's judgement in her cousin was validated. Usually authors have the h betrayed by some one she trusts blindly, which just makes me think the h is not very smart, so glad that was not the case here:)
Steamy, fun and clever romance and thriller - 4 stars!!
I liked the h wish there were more written like her - she has a libido, which was not just newly woken by the H, she was kickass, she didn't need a man to solve her problems, she was loyal, smart and she risked herself to save her mans life! Plus she was fun and willing to explore life and not afraid to go after what she wanted. No wonder the H was so crazy about her!!
The H was also not bad, an assassin with a conscience, he had many facets and the h really saw him. H is a guy who's lived life and this is his last job before he retires, but he realises theres something fishy so he delays and ends up falling for the h.
The mystery was also well done; the author has done her research on mergers and acquisitions and how the markets operate. I didn't guess the villain till the end and I liked how the h's judgement in her cousin was validated. Usually authors have the h betrayed by some one she trusts blindly, which just makes me think the h is not very smart, so glad that was not the case here:)
Steamy, fun and clever romance and thriller - 4 stars!!
March 22, 2015
While I really loved this latest book from Cherry Adair, I have to admit it seemed a bit odd that a woman who is in hiding after multiple attempts have been made on her life would have opened up her home to a drifter handyman. Or that she would have had sex with said handyman immediately after opening the door to him. Then again Mia wanted to be able to cross off Sex with a Stranger on her to-do list. Despite this minor detail, I really enjoyed watching a relationship form with two people who were both hiding their true identities. Mia a billionaire CEO in hiding and Cruz, one of the hit men that has been hired to kill her. Talk about some serious issues to work out! This was a fun romantic suspense that I would definitely recommend. Unlike many of Adair's other books, this is a stand-alone novel.
April 15, 2015
A bit boring but it's passable..
February 3, 2022
What happens when an experienced hit-man falls for the women he's been hired to kill...? 💥💘
Hunky Cruz shows up at the house cosmetics queen Amelia/Mia is renovating. His job is to kill her via a calculated accident. She thinks he's the male escort she's hired to scratch one item off her 'list'. Good thing he's great at house renovation as well. Cruz is looking forward to retiring to to his oceanfront home in Brazil, except something seems 'off' about the information he has on wealthy business owner Mia and he decides to stall the hit for a few days. She seems the opposite of the horrific and calculating women mentioned in his file. (Cruz only kills bad people - that's why he's really a good guy). 😄
Mia is living under an assumed name and in hiding, after several assassination attempts. Cruz can't resist her and that creates a slight...problem, as she can't resist him either. The book is set in the Louisiana bayou and is quite atmospheric with the heat, insects, animals and storms that enclose lots of scenes. This romantic suspense is chock full of drama, action, fun and steamy sex scenes. The back story ramps up in the second half. It's well written escapism and I enjoyed it. 4.5 stars.
Hunky Cruz shows up at the house cosmetics queen Amelia/Mia is renovating. His job is to kill her via a calculated accident. She thinks he's the male escort she's hired to scratch one item off her 'list'. Good thing he's great at house renovation as well. Cruz is looking forward to retiring to to his oceanfront home in Brazil, except something seems 'off' about the information he has on wealthy business owner Mia and he decides to stall the hit for a few days. She seems the opposite of the horrific and calculating women mentioned in his file. (Cruz only kills bad people - that's why he's really a good guy). 😄
Mia is living under an assumed name and in hiding, after several assassination attempts. Cruz can't resist her and that creates a slight...problem, as she can't resist him either. The book is set in the Louisiana bayou and is quite atmospheric with the heat, insects, animals and storms that enclose lots of scenes. This romantic suspense is chock full of drama, action, fun and steamy sex scenes. The back story ramps up in the second half. It's well written escapism and I enjoyed it. 4.5 stars.
June 27, 2019
I've picked this book up a couple of times and didn't want to return it again without reading to repeat the cycle.
A Hitman conflicted about his hit to simmer into a romance. Granted, I've not read many a romance novel but this seemed flimsy plot wise and I felt it could've been filled in more with the framework and less on the "steamy moments" between our protagonists.
A Hitman conflicted about his hit to simmer into a romance. Granted, I've not read many a romance novel but this seemed flimsy plot wise and I felt it could've been filled in more with the framework and less on the "steamy moments" between our protagonists.
January 25, 2018
Great romantic suspense read. This book is quite the deviation from the normal Cherry Adair I have read before, but I enjoyed it very much. Hitman and billionaire CEO. Nice!
April 8, 2015
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting! April 7, 2015
By sgalley
Format:Kindle Edition
“Her death tonight would be clean. Uncomplicated. A tragic, unfortunate accident. He was being paid a king’s ransom to ensure that it appeared that way.”
Ah, Amelia Wellington-Wentworth, aka Mia Hayward and Cruz Barcelona…a beautiful, yet twisted love story. I admit that after reading the description of this book that I was hesitant to read it. It kind of made me cringe just a little. I’m glad I read it. Amelia Wentworth is CEO of a thriving cosmetics company, Blush. Her life is hectic. She has a lot of responsibility riding on her shoulders. After a series of “accidents”, she finds that someone is out to kill her. Why? She goes to great lengths to change her identity and go undercover until this mystery can be solved. She takes on a different persona and moves to a VERY remote ramshackle house in the Louisiana Bayou country. No one will ever find her there.
Enter Cruz Barcelona. Highly paid assassin…or should we say, murderer. The caveat: he only will kill those who deserve it and have been “above the law”. He thoroughly investigates his “hits” to be 100% certain that they should die. He never fails, and he is being paid a HUGE amount of money to kill Amelia Wentworth.
Though Cruz has a frightening and rough persona, he is drop-dead gorgeous, and underneath it all, not a bad man. We also have to wonder about Mia’s situation…maybe she is better off being removed from the situation she found herself in. Maybe it was a rescue…of sorts. She got to do things that in her ordinary life she would never have done…bake cookies, go shopping at Walmart, have sex with a stranger…
Cherry Adair is a very talented author. Her characters are real – you feel them. You are in the story all the way, from beginning to end. It was a raw, steamy, sexy, haunting and a powerful romantic roller coaster ride. I LOVED the riveting story of Mia and Cruz. I consider this one a “must read.” You won’t be sorry, and you won’t forget it. I highly recommend!
*An advance reading copy was generously provided by the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
April 8, 2015
Kitty's review posted on Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews
Cherry Adair brought romantic suspense to a new level with “Blush”. She brought you into the life of the rich and famous as it's falling apart around them … she makes you see just what it feels like to be stalked and terrorized for an unknown reason. Then, she gives you a hit-man that can melt your heart and your panties all at the same time.
Cruz Barcelona, or whatever name he happens to be going by, has a knack for punishing those that need to be punished. It's instinct and he doesn't take a “hit” without all the facts. You have to have done something really bad against humanity for him to take on the job. He knows there is something off with the contract on Amelia. He just can't put his finger on it. When he goes to do the job, he just can't. He has to find out more about this woman, he has to find out if his information is correct, he has to protect her until the end when he'll just disappear from her life.
Amelia “Mia” Wentworth, or whatever name she happens to be going by, can't understand why there is a contract out on her life. Is it the buyout that she has been planning or something else? There is no way for her to know or tell since she has been keeping it quiet. Only three people know what's going on inside the walls of Blush and she can't imagine that one of them would be the one trying to have her killed.
As the story unfolds and we watch Amelia become Mia and Cruz fall in love with her, as the secondary story unfolds and you see what kind of people they really are, you are even wondering why anyone would want her dead. You are also wondering why Cruz Barcelona is a hit-man. But, when the truth comes out and Cruz watches Mia take a bullet to the head, his whole world stops and finally admits to loving her. But, is it Mia or someone else that died in his arms?
Blush was intriguing, suspenseful, fun, sexy and a fantastic read. Cherry Adair brought me into the story drooling over Cruz Barcelona and I didn't stop until the end. Even when it was over and the real Cruz came out, I was drooling and wishing it was me that he was protecting.
Review copy provided for an honest review.
Cherry Adair brought romantic suspense to a new level with “Blush”. She brought you into the life of the rich and famous as it's falling apart around them … she makes you see just what it feels like to be stalked and terrorized for an unknown reason. Then, she gives you a hit-man that can melt your heart and your panties all at the same time.
Cruz Barcelona, or whatever name he happens to be going by, has a knack for punishing those that need to be punished. It's instinct and he doesn't take a “hit” without all the facts. You have to have done something really bad against humanity for him to take on the job. He knows there is something off with the contract on Amelia. He just can't put his finger on it. When he goes to do the job, he just can't. He has to find out more about this woman, he has to find out if his information is correct, he has to protect her until the end when he'll just disappear from her life.
Amelia “Mia” Wentworth, or whatever name she happens to be going by, can't understand why there is a contract out on her life. Is it the buyout that she has been planning or something else? There is no way for her to know or tell since she has been keeping it quiet. Only three people know what's going on inside the walls of Blush and she can't imagine that one of them would be the one trying to have her killed.
As the story unfolds and we watch Amelia become Mia and Cruz fall in love with her, as the secondary story unfolds and you see what kind of people they really are, you are even wondering why anyone would want her dead. You are also wondering why Cruz Barcelona is a hit-man. But, when the truth comes out and Cruz watches Mia take a bullet to the head, his whole world stops and finally admits to loving her. But, is it Mia or someone else that died in his arms?
Blush was intriguing, suspenseful, fun, sexy and a fantastic read. Cherry Adair brought me into the story drooling over Cruz Barcelona and I didn't stop until the end. Even when it was over and the real Cruz came out, I was drooling and wishing it was me that he was protecting.
Review copy provided for an honest review.
April 8, 2015
My Review:
Wow, I absolutely bow down to the greatness that is Cherry Adair and the writing that she did with this book. This absolutely has to be one of the most unlikely pairings in romance to date.
Cruz is a hitman. He's on his final job before retirement. This means that he's been a professional hitman for a long, long time. This is NOT his first kill and he has no worries about what he does for a living. Because the people he kills are NOT nice people...the world is a better place without them. No apologies there.
And that brings us to Mia. She's the CEO of Blush, a multi-billion dollar cosmetics company that doesn't care about anything besides making more money...no matter who has to die or suffer along the way for that to happen. In fact just a few weeks before the book takes place, there's a fire at the Chinese plant where they are unapologetically working small children as slave labor. Over 300 of those kids died. She's not a nice person.
That's where the book begins and as the reader, I was fascinated to see how Cherry Adair could possibly make this work. BUT she does and she does it so incredibly well. Wow. I fell in love with these characters. They both have incredibly rich back-stories that simply made me melt for them. And chemistry...which is truly where it all begins. Mia is a girl who learned very early to control everything. Cruz doesn't let her control anything since he's a bit of a control freak too. But that made their sex scenes where they pushed and pulled at each other's ability to resist absolutely sexy and gorgeous.
Their love story is amazing and complicated, but it's all brought on by a mystery. Who is trying to kill Mia and why? What is really going on and who can she trust? She doesn't have any idea who Cruz really is. It's a great, action-packed, sexy suspense ride. I've always enjoyed Cherry Adair's books, but this one was so different and so much MORE than I've come to expect from her. I'm bowled over and am so happy that I got to read this one. I highly recommend it!
I received a complimentary copy of this book in return for an honest review.
Wow, I absolutely bow down to the greatness that is Cherry Adair and the writing that she did with this book. This absolutely has to be one of the most unlikely pairings in romance to date.
Cruz is a hitman. He's on his final job before retirement. This means that he's been a professional hitman for a long, long time. This is NOT his first kill and he has no worries about what he does for a living. Because the people he kills are NOT nice people...the world is a better place without them. No apologies there.
And that brings us to Mia. She's the CEO of Blush, a multi-billion dollar cosmetics company that doesn't care about anything besides making more money...no matter who has to die or suffer along the way for that to happen. In fact just a few weeks before the book takes place, there's a fire at the Chinese plant where they are unapologetically working small children as slave labor. Over 300 of those kids died. She's not a nice person.
That's where the book begins and as the reader, I was fascinated to see how Cherry Adair could possibly make this work. BUT she does and she does it so incredibly well. Wow. I fell in love with these characters. They both have incredibly rich back-stories that simply made me melt for them. And chemistry...which is truly where it all begins. Mia is a girl who learned very early to control everything. Cruz doesn't let her control anything since he's a bit of a control freak too. But that made their sex scenes where they pushed and pulled at each other's ability to resist absolutely sexy and gorgeous.
Their love story is amazing and complicated, but it's all brought on by a mystery. Who is trying to kill Mia and why? What is really going on and who can she trust? She doesn't have any idea who Cruz really is. It's a great, action-packed, sexy suspense ride. I've always enjoyed Cherry Adair's books, but this one was so different and so much MORE than I've come to expect from her. I'm bowled over and am so happy that I got to read this one. I highly recommend it!
I received a complimentary copy of this book in return for an honest review.
April 14, 2015
I have read several Cherry Adair books and found them quite enjoyable so when I saw this on Netgalley I requested it and was granted an ARC. Thank you Netgalley for giving me this novel for an honest review.
Cherry Adair writes romantic suspense usually with a touch of light humour and this one was no different. Her characters are always very likable and easily relatable. Cruz our hero is a hard man with a hint of darkness surrounding him. Amelia the heroine was conflicted she was a woman who was used to being in control just to have everything in her life uncontrollable.
Although the story was enjoyable I did have a few issues. It did seem wierd that a woman who is in hiding because she has had multiple attempts on her life would be as welcoming to a drifter handyman just to cross this off her bucket list...I mean REALLY? I usually like when the POV changes from heroine to hero because it lets me get into their heads however when you add the inner dialogue and there was A LOT of inner dialogue I found it slowed the story down and my attention drifted away from the book. I also much point out...and I have been seeing this in a lot of books recently there was a lot of the same things repeated constantly...ok ok we got it already! Finally, the mystery seemed to resolve itself fast..and not a lot of it was actually completed in the pages of the book but off page. Also neither of the main characters had much to do with the actual investigation.
On the plus side, the chemistry between the characters was off the charts making this as much an erotic romance as a it is a suspense romance. The sex scenes were HAWT! The plot did have a few interesting twists..and the concept was original. Did I mention the sex?? *grin* Raw, dirty and HAWT..no condoms though.
I'm giving this one a 3 star rating it was an ok read for me...and I'm sure many of you will love it because it is steamy. I tend to be a bit more particular with suspense stories so a lot of my criticism may not affect your enjoyement of the story.
Cherry Adair writes romantic suspense usually with a touch of light humour and this one was no different. Her characters are always very likable and easily relatable. Cruz our hero is a hard man with a hint of darkness surrounding him. Amelia the heroine was conflicted she was a woman who was used to being in control just to have everything in her life uncontrollable.
Although the story was enjoyable I did have a few issues. It did seem wierd that a woman who is in hiding because she has had multiple attempts on her life would be as welcoming to a drifter handyman just to cross this off her bucket list...I mean REALLY? I usually like when the POV changes from heroine to hero because it lets me get into their heads however when you add the inner dialogue and there was A LOT of inner dialogue I found it slowed the story down and my attention drifted away from the book. I also much point out...and I have been seeing this in a lot of books recently there was a lot of the same things repeated constantly...ok ok we got it already! Finally, the mystery seemed to resolve itself fast..and not a lot of it was actually completed in the pages of the book but off page. Also neither of the main characters had much to do with the actual investigation.
On the plus side, the chemistry between the characters was off the charts making this as much an erotic romance as a it is a suspense romance. The sex scenes were HAWT! The plot did have a few interesting twists..and the concept was original. Did I mention the sex?? *grin* Raw, dirty and HAWT..no condoms though.
I'm giving this one a 3 star rating it was an ok read for me...and I'm sure many of you will love it because it is steamy. I tend to be a bit more particular with suspense stories so a lot of my criticism may not affect your enjoyement of the story.
August 23, 2017
As I usually do, I'll critique as I go.
I'd like to start off by saying I've read books by this author before, and enjoyed them as far as I can remember, so I thought I knew what I was getting into. Well, I was wrong. Really wrong. I'm not even halfway through, and the book is threatening to go on my did not finish shelf. The only thing from stopping me from chucking the thing against the wall is the fact that I really like my Kobo, and don't want to replace it.
Let's start off with the premise. A hit man for hire with a conscience. On his last job before retiring. Claiming to be doing due diligence, and researching the heroine's background to make sure before he kills her. Then comes out and asks her obscure questions then takes her lies at face value that she's never been to China. Well, duh, of course she's not going to tell him the truth because she's in hiding. Especially when he didn't ask the right questions.
Second, are we really supposed to believe that she was a former face for the self-same beauty products that she's now the CEO for and yet NOBODY recognizes her? Not even a niggling doubt by someone. Please. Give us a little credit. Not to mention she's supposed to be one of the richest women going and featured in magazines as an adult... again, please. SOMEONE, even in this little hick town, would notice. Makeup might be good at transforming people, but it's not THAT good.
Now here the fun part... Mistakes that are so moronic you need to slap your forehead. Let's start with the house. A 2 storey house with a leaky roof... and it's leaking in the kitchen... and since the kitchen is on the main floor, I'd LOVE to see the magic behind how that works, unless there's a swimming pool above it that we haven't been told about. Then let's skip ahead to when she decides to climb the ladder to talk to the hero as he's fixing the roof, and she's, get this, suddenly 40 feet up. Obviously someone hasn't done their homework, because the average storey is 10 feet... do the math. Even if there was an attic (which is entirely possible since this is a 200 year old house), you're still missing a whole lot of footage. And you know what, falling from a the second storey of a house your pretty much be guaranteed to survive unless you landed on your head. Might be a little broken, but not dead.
Still staying with the house thing, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the sheer size of the house given the area that it's apparently located in. I'm just wracking my brains thinking about every type of house I've ever seen that's located in the Bayou, and NOTHING comes even close to what has been described. What's been described is a classic southern plantation house, which most definitely would not be located in the middle of a swamp. And on top of that, I'd really really like to see the logistics of having a house this size in the middle of a swamp, and it's not sunk yet... There's a reason why houses in the bayou are mostly shacks up on piles...
Then we have the hero 'taking out his frustrations' putting up slate shingles... Um, no. Has the author even seen a slate shingle? Hell, I'd question whether the author has even seen slate, period. First off, it's brittle (it's a type of sedimentary rock), and some pieces that are about the same thickness of a slate shingle, you can break with your hands. Hell, look at it the wrong way and it can break. You're not going to be waling away at it with a hammer, because you're gonna be breaking more than you're installing. I don't care how much money the heroine might have, I'm sure she's not going to be wasting it on shit she's gonna be making a garden path with because it's broken to slivers. And on top of that, the author MIGHT want to do a little more digging into what fixing a severely leaking roof entails... Changing the shingles ain't it, I can tell you that much, especially with the amount of water damage that has apparently happened already. (Here's a clue... I'm pretty sure all the plywood under the shingles is probably one big rotted out mess, and the whole roof would have needed to be torn off and replaced... patch job? not gonna cut it here.) And one final addendum here on slate shingles and a damp, rainy place... NOT exactly the best option since they're slippery as shit when wet... so the hero's little action hero move of sliding down the roof to catch her when she nearly fell off the ladder, well, sorry to say, not gonna happen... What would have happened, however, would have been a rather fun trip to the ER for the hero, because he would have slid right off the edge of the roof, because he wouldn't have been able to stop himself, because he sure as shit wasn't tethered to anything (you know, safety harness and all that jazz). Not to mention the ladder itself. A couple pages later we have the hero swing off the roof and stand behind the heroine on the ladder, and he stands 'a couple of rungs beneath her' but still has his chest against her back. Is he 7+ feet tall? No. Ladder rings can be as far as 12" apart as per OHSA regs (most ladders are pretty damn close to this). So at MOST he would be 1 rung lower than her, not several.
Oh and speaking of money, again, I don't care how much money she has, why on earth is she fixing up the house anyhow? Sure, it'll make it more habitable, but she's hiding out... this fixer upper shit is just inviting people into her new world, which is EXACTLY WHAT SHE SHOULDN'T BE DOING... She's running and hiding, and all this nonsense is just making her more visible.
Fast forward a little bit into the book for the next opportunity Cruz has and refuses to take to kill the heroine... a fall down some stairs. A whopping 15 of them, with him in the way... sorry dear, short of Cruz throwing her from the top of the staircase with no obstructions, she ain't gonna die. Again, she'll be broken, but unless she lands squarely on her head, she'll be very much alive.
And finally, let's talk a little about the vocabulary in this book. Most of it is pretty nondescript, the proper words being used in mostly the proper places. But occasionally, it looks like someone sat down with a theaurus and just picked words at random, their meaning be damned. Or in some instances, just the plain wrong word was used because the actual definition is clearly not known. I'm only going to comment on one, because I've skipped over a bunch, and this one was the final straw. The word is fulcrum, and it was used to refer to the heroine's legs when a drunk maniac was trying to pull her out from under a bed. No, just no. Legs can NEVER be a fulcrum. Period. Look it up (well, honestly, you should need to unless you failed remedial grade 3 science)...
Now this beef really takes the cake for idiocy. Picture middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere (so pitch ass dark out because the only light would be from the moon), and the hero can read the name carving on a mausoleum AT 200 FEET... Puh-lease. I can't even with this one.
Didn't even make it out of this chapter before there was another what the actual fuck moment. A couple pages after the last impossibility, we have the hero using his shoulder to brush his hair out of his eyes. What the actual fuck? That's about as probable as him using his tongue to do it. Even if he was a contortionist, it's just plain impossible. I'm just about done with this damn book.
Okay, now I AM officially done with this drek. All 4 hitmen are dead in the graveyard, Mia and Cruz have given their statements to the police, and... nothing. They're free to go about their business, and in less than 20 minutes the 'crime scene' kitchen is cleared so she can clean? AND The police are gone? AND Mia is allowed to return to LA? No, no, and fuck no.
If you're considering reading this book, RUN, not walk, as far away from it as fast as you can. Waste of time.
I'd like to start off by saying I've read books by this author before, and enjoyed them as far as I can remember, so I thought I knew what I was getting into. Well, I was wrong. Really wrong. I'm not even halfway through, and the book is threatening to go on my did not finish shelf. The only thing from stopping me from chucking the thing against the wall is the fact that I really like my Kobo, and don't want to replace it.
Let's start off with the premise. A hit man for hire with a conscience. On his last job before retiring. Claiming to be doing due diligence, and researching the heroine's background to make sure before he kills her. Then comes out and asks her obscure questions then takes her lies at face value that she's never been to China. Well, duh, of course she's not going to tell him the truth because she's in hiding. Especially when he didn't ask the right questions.
Second, are we really supposed to believe that she was a former face for the self-same beauty products that she's now the CEO for and yet NOBODY recognizes her? Not even a niggling doubt by someone. Please. Give us a little credit. Not to mention she's supposed to be one of the richest women going and featured in magazines as an adult... again, please. SOMEONE, even in this little hick town, would notice. Makeup might be good at transforming people, but it's not THAT good.
Now here the fun part... Mistakes that are so moronic you need to slap your forehead. Let's start with the house. A 2 storey house with a leaky roof... and it's leaking in the kitchen... and since the kitchen is on the main floor, I'd LOVE to see the magic behind how that works, unless there's a swimming pool above it that we haven't been told about. Then let's skip ahead to when she decides to climb the ladder to talk to the hero as he's fixing the roof, and she's, get this, suddenly 40 feet up. Obviously someone hasn't done their homework, because the average storey is 10 feet... do the math. Even if there was an attic (which is entirely possible since this is a 200 year old house), you're still missing a whole lot of footage. And you know what, falling from a the second storey of a house your pretty much be guaranteed to survive unless you landed on your head. Might be a little broken, but not dead.
Still staying with the house thing, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the sheer size of the house given the area that it's apparently located in. I'm just wracking my brains thinking about every type of house I've ever seen that's located in the Bayou, and NOTHING comes even close to what has been described. What's been described is a classic southern plantation house, which most definitely would not be located in the middle of a swamp. And on top of that, I'd really really like to see the logistics of having a house this size in the middle of a swamp, and it's not sunk yet... There's a reason why houses in the bayou are mostly shacks up on piles...
Then we have the hero 'taking out his frustrations' putting up slate shingles... Um, no. Has the author even seen a slate shingle? Hell, I'd question whether the author has even seen slate, period. First off, it's brittle (it's a type of sedimentary rock), and some pieces that are about the same thickness of a slate shingle, you can break with your hands. Hell, look at it the wrong way and it can break. You're not going to be waling away at it with a hammer, because you're gonna be breaking more than you're installing. I don't care how much money the heroine might have, I'm sure she's not going to be wasting it on shit she's gonna be making a garden path with because it's broken to slivers. And on top of that, the author MIGHT want to do a little more digging into what fixing a severely leaking roof entails... Changing the shingles ain't it, I can tell you that much, especially with the amount of water damage that has apparently happened already. (Here's a clue... I'm pretty sure all the plywood under the shingles is probably one big rotted out mess, and the whole roof would have needed to be torn off and replaced... patch job? not gonna cut it here.) And one final addendum here on slate shingles and a damp, rainy place... NOT exactly the best option since they're slippery as shit when wet... so the hero's little action hero move of sliding down the roof to catch her when she nearly fell off the ladder, well, sorry to say, not gonna happen... What would have happened, however, would have been a rather fun trip to the ER for the hero, because he would have slid right off the edge of the roof, because he wouldn't have been able to stop himself, because he sure as shit wasn't tethered to anything (you know, safety harness and all that jazz). Not to mention the ladder itself. A couple pages later we have the hero swing off the roof and stand behind the heroine on the ladder, and he stands 'a couple of rungs beneath her' but still has his chest against her back. Is he 7+ feet tall? No. Ladder rings can be as far as 12" apart as per OHSA regs (most ladders are pretty damn close to this). So at MOST he would be 1 rung lower than her, not several.
Oh and speaking of money, again, I don't care how much money she has, why on earth is she fixing up the house anyhow? Sure, it'll make it more habitable, but she's hiding out... this fixer upper shit is just inviting people into her new world, which is EXACTLY WHAT SHE SHOULDN'T BE DOING... She's running and hiding, and all this nonsense is just making her more visible.
Fast forward a little bit into the book for the next opportunity Cruz has and refuses to take to kill the heroine... a fall down some stairs. A whopping 15 of them, with him in the way... sorry dear, short of Cruz throwing her from the top of the staircase with no obstructions, she ain't gonna die. Again, she'll be broken, but unless she lands squarely on her head, she'll be very much alive.
And finally, let's talk a little about the vocabulary in this book. Most of it is pretty nondescript, the proper words being used in mostly the proper places. But occasionally, it looks like someone sat down with a theaurus and just picked words at random, their meaning be damned. Or in some instances, just the plain wrong word was used because the actual definition is clearly not known. I'm only going to comment on one, because I've skipped over a bunch, and this one was the final straw. The word is fulcrum, and it was used to refer to the heroine's legs when a drunk maniac was trying to pull her out from under a bed. No, just no. Legs can NEVER be a fulcrum. Period. Look it up (well, honestly, you should need to unless you failed remedial grade 3 science)...
Now this beef really takes the cake for idiocy. Picture middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere (so pitch ass dark out because the only light would be from the moon), and the hero can read the name carving on a mausoleum AT 200 FEET... Puh-lease. I can't even with this one.
Didn't even make it out of this chapter before there was another what the actual fuck moment. A couple pages after the last impossibility, we have the hero using his shoulder to brush his hair out of his eyes. What the actual fuck? That's about as probable as him using his tongue to do it. Even if he was a contortionist, it's just plain impossible. I'm just about done with this damn book.
Okay, now I AM officially done with this drek. All 4 hitmen are dead in the graveyard, Mia and Cruz have given their statements to the police, and... nothing. They're free to go about their business, and in less than 20 minutes the 'crime scene' kitchen is cleared so she can clean? AND The police are gone? AND Mia is allowed to return to LA? No, no, and fuck no.
If you're considering reading this book, RUN, not walk, as far away from it as fast as you can. Waste of time.
April 19, 2015
Freaking awesome !
Bestselling author Cherry Adair steps into a new genre with Blush and does so with a bang. A hitman and a CEO of a cosmetic’s company how can you go wrong.
As a long term reader of this author, I was excited to see where she would take us with this story that wasn’t based in her usual spies and terrorist world and I was not disappointed. I may have inhaled the book because I didn’t want to put it down.
The storyline moves fast and never goes quite where you think it will. From the moment the main characters Cruz and Mia meet, which leads to a hot kitchen encounter, to the last chapter that manages to squeeze in a surprise or two in it you will be hooked.
Cruz and Mia are combustible together. Who’d have thought that these two would be perfect for each other but they certainly are. They just work. There is one scene in particular between these two that will have you blushing every time you look at eggs. It’s really hot.
While there are lots of sexy times, there are also some tender moments that hit you right in the gut and have you wanting to hug the big bad hitman.
I admit that Cruz has become my new favourite book boyfriend. When you read it you will understand why. He is totally swoon worthy, one hundred percent alpha goodness. Why yes I have a crush on him, how can you tell?
You will also love Mia, she is just a wonderful take no prisoners character. Her “to-do-list” was a favourite of mine. Sex with stranger, tick, learn to drive, tick, cook, tick. But she was grace under fire and I loved that about her.
While I won’t give too much away, I will say that if you are a fan of this genre, the hitman with a heart storyline you are going to love this book. The author has created a world you will love and characters you will fall for.
I am ready for more, do you hear me Cherry Adair. More!!!!
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley.
Bestselling author Cherry Adair steps into a new genre with Blush and does so with a bang. A hitman and a CEO of a cosmetic’s company how can you go wrong.
As a long term reader of this author, I was excited to see where she would take us with this story that wasn’t based in her usual spies and terrorist world and I was not disappointed. I may have inhaled the book because I didn’t want to put it down.
The storyline moves fast and never goes quite where you think it will. From the moment the main characters Cruz and Mia meet, which leads to a hot kitchen encounter, to the last chapter that manages to squeeze in a surprise or two in it you will be hooked.
Cruz and Mia are combustible together. Who’d have thought that these two would be perfect for each other but they certainly are. They just work. There is one scene in particular between these two that will have you blushing every time you look at eggs. It’s really hot.
While there are lots of sexy times, there are also some tender moments that hit you right in the gut and have you wanting to hug the big bad hitman.
I admit that Cruz has become my new favourite book boyfriend. When you read it you will understand why. He is totally swoon worthy, one hundred percent alpha goodness. Why yes I have a crush on him, how can you tell?
You will also love Mia, she is just a wonderful take no prisoners character. Her “to-do-list” was a favourite of mine. Sex with stranger, tick, learn to drive, tick, cook, tick. But she was grace under fire and I loved that about her.
While I won’t give too much away, I will say that if you are a fan of this genre, the hitman with a heart storyline you are going to love this book. The author has created a world you will love and characters you will fall for.
I am ready for more, do you hear me Cherry Adair. More!!!!
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley.
April 10, 2015
I received a copy of this story through NetGalley from the publisher for an honest review. The synopsis of the story immediately intrigued me and I was excited to receive a copy as I planned to buy it anyway. I liked the idea Cruz was a hit man sent to kill her & then come to realize he didn't have the full story. It started off strong, but by the end it didn't really come together for me. I had to suspend disbelief on several points, but the biggest were: her letting a stranger(s) into her home while in hiding as well as him leaving all sorts of dna in her home and being seen with her in a small town. A hot button for me? Unprotected sex. In this case it's slightly mentioned in passing but nothing about them being strangers, stds, or pregnancy. Not cool in 2015.
In addition to liking the idea of the plot (hit man angle), I originally thought the idea surrounding her company was also interesting. Eventually it became too complicated and monopolized too much of the story towards the end. There was very little dialogue and the action lessened so that left a lot of inner dialogue. The end didn't leave me with a satisfied feeling as to who was the ultimate bad guy. You had an idea who it might be out of a select few, but the ultimate culprit felt less emotional. It also felt like there was a lot of potential left out there about Cruz's real identity.
I did like the idea of her going through a to-do list of sorts now that she had time to live in a less isolated world. Overall, I liked the idea and potential of the story, but in the end it didn't quite hit my reading sweet spot.
In addition to liking the idea of the plot (hit man angle), I originally thought the idea surrounding her company was also interesting. Eventually it became too complicated and monopolized too much of the story towards the end. There was very little dialogue and the action lessened so that left a lot of inner dialogue. The end didn't leave me with a satisfied feeling as to who was the ultimate bad guy. You had an idea who it might be out of a select few, but the ultimate culprit felt less emotional. It also felt like there was a lot of potential left out there about Cruz's real identity.
I did like the idea of her going through a to-do list of sorts now that she had time to live in a less isolated world. Overall, I liked the idea and potential of the story, but in the end it didn't quite hit my reading sweet spot.
March 12, 2015
4.5 Cocktails
WOW! This book keeps you on your toes!
Mia and Cruz are two interesting, complicated characters who aren’t at all what they seem to be early on. Watching them and the tug of war they have going in the beginning of the book is entertaining and kept me engaged as the story unfolded.
The situations that Cruz and Mia found themselves in were exciting and pushed the boundaries, but didn’t go over the top. About halfway through, I thought I had figured out who the bad guy was, but I was wrong! I love that I was surprised by the storyline.
I also really liked the fact that Cruz and Mia’s relationship continued to develop as they moved through the situations they needed to deal with. She was definitely the more honest of the two and I did struggle a little bit with how trusting she was of Cruz when she knew so little about him and so many things didn’t make sense, but that was really my only hang up with them. I think one of my favorite aspects of their relationship was the way Cruz’s behavior changed as the story went on; he starts of very harsh and while he is never warm and fuzzy, we do see him soften in ways that make him much more appealing.
Overall, if you are looking for an entertaining, suspense filled book with lots of great sexual chemistry then Blush is definitely one to try.
Reviewed by Elizabeth B for Cocktails and Books
WOW! This book keeps you on your toes!
Mia and Cruz are two interesting, complicated characters who aren’t at all what they seem to be early on. Watching them and the tug of war they have going in the beginning of the book is entertaining and kept me engaged as the story unfolded.
The situations that Cruz and Mia found themselves in were exciting and pushed the boundaries, but didn’t go over the top. About halfway through, I thought I had figured out who the bad guy was, but I was wrong! I love that I was surprised by the storyline.
I also really liked the fact that Cruz and Mia’s relationship continued to develop as they moved through the situations they needed to deal with. She was definitely the more honest of the two and I did struggle a little bit with how trusting she was of Cruz when she knew so little about him and so many things didn’t make sense, but that was really my only hang up with them. I think one of my favorite aspects of their relationship was the way Cruz’s behavior changed as the story went on; he starts of very harsh and while he is never warm and fuzzy, we do see him soften in ways that make him much more appealing.
Overall, if you are looking for an entertaining, suspense filled book with lots of great sexual chemistry then Blush is definitely one to try.
Reviewed by Elizabeth B for Cocktails and Books
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