Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales
Quick & Dirty: Steamy, hot and emotional novel featuring a couple with a dark past. Prepare yourself for some sizzling ménage scenes.
Opening Sentence: Most of the time temptation climbs into your lap and straddles you, demands you deal with it immediately.
The Review:
Melt Into You is the second novel in the Loving on the Edge series. This series features couples who meet up at The Ranch, a place for people to explore their inner and outer sexuality without the fear of being found out. This novel is so much more than the erotic scenes. The characters undergo a variety of emtions along with a dark past. This past really shapes the heroine of the story into the woman she is today.
Evan Kennedy was 16 when Jace Austin’s family took her in as a foster child. After a year, it is no surprise that Jace and Evan grew close – a little too close. Then one day, Evan disappears. They never forgot about each other but eventually life moves on. Many years later, a chance encounter and a job opportunity find Jace and Evan back in each other’s lives.
Jace owns an adult entertainment store and he is hoping that Evan’s fiancé, a relationship expert, will promote his business. Jace doesn’t realize that Evan is hiding a huge secret about her gay fiancé. After all, who would listen to a gay relationship expert? At least, that’s what he believes so Evan helps him with his façade to the outside world. Meanwhile, Evan is really sexually repressed. She hides it as best she can but it is hard when she hears her fiancé going at it with his boyfriend. They realize it so they offer her a chance to express herself sexually before the wedding with a membership to The Ranch.
At The Ranch, Jace is flabbergasted to see Evan there. Jace immediately goes into Alpha mode wanting Evan for himself, the only problem is, Jace is a part of a team. His roommate Andre joins him for ménage situations because he doesn’t ever want another relationship with a woman. He doesn’t want to lose his heart again. He knows something isn’t quite right about the situation with Evan. He doesn’t believe Evan’s vanilla boyfriend being okay with her sleeping with other men. He can see the sadness inside of her and he vows to win her over.
After a steamy weekend with Jace and Andre, Evan knows it can’t happen again. She has to move on but Jace and Andre won’t let her. Both Jace and Andre have fallen in love with her. They know they have a short window until her wedding to get her to change her mind about getting married.
Deep, dark passions and secrets are revealed about each of the major characters. Some were a little predictable, but it really didn’t diminish the story for me at all. Andre was still a bit of a secret but I really enjoyed his charming character.
Evan had her secrets and problems when she was a kid but instead of letting it take her life, she decided to live and make herself as happy as she could, while making the people who mattered to her happier. She wasn’t really ashamed of her secrets, she just didn’t want to tell them. Jace is the rich kid whose dad hates him, so he constantly does whatever he can to piss off his father, which includes his owning the adult entertainment store.
Melt Into You was a definite emotional sizzler. I really enjoyed their story, the emotional baggage captured my attention so much so that I didn’t want to put this book down until it was over. My only complaint was that I felt this novel wrapped up too quickly but I just found out there is a sequel to Jace, Evan, and Andre’s story and I am really excited to read it. I will definitely be picking up the rest of this series.
Notable Scene:
“You know, you and Jace are way too much alike sometimes.” He shifted forward in the chair. “Come on. Do what you need to do and lock up. I’ll walk you out so you can get home to Daniel.”
“Wait.” She put a hand on his thigh and pushed him down before he could stand up fully. “I’m sorry. I didn’t really mean that. It’s just . . . I can’t be that person. For you or for Jace. In a month, if you have a bad day, I’m not going to be here. We can’t pretend like this is something more than it is.”
“And you can’t go on pretending that it’s not,” he said softly.
She looked down, her eyes stinging. “Won’t change the outcome.”
He slipped a finger beneath her chin, tilting her face toward him. “So be it. But at least be honest when you’re with us. Trust us with the real you. Not some edited version. Do you think you can do that?”
She swallowed hard, the tempting idea sending cold fear through her. “I can try. But this scares the shit out of me.”
His hands cupped her face as he leaned down until his mouth was just a breath away from hers. “Join the club, bella.”
FTC Advisory: Berkley/Penguin provided me with a copy of Melt Into You. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.