Loved by You

Taken by You #3

by M.L. Young

After confessing her deceit to Blake, Penny has no idea what’s going to happen to their relationship. Will he take her back and understand why she lied to him and used him, as he once used her, or will he say goodbye forever and give up on what they had?

As they begin to patch things up, an opportunity to meet Blake’s parents arises, and it’s through that meeting that Penny finds out why Blake is the way he is, and discovers the story of the woman who shaped him into the emotionally distant serial playboy she first met. But can their relationship survive and stay the same after she finds out about his past?

This is the third and final book in a trilogy. The book features alternating points of view by chapter.

Genres: Romance

199 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 16, 2015

About the author

M.L. Young is an author currently living in Illinois. She is the author of The Stipulation Serials. To find out more and to stay up to date on all things related to the books, follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

twitter.com/realmlyoung

facebook.com/realmlyoung

Reviews

[Jess Morgan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Loved by You is a book about a pair of exes who text each other, get back together, have sex, eat, agree to be Facebook official, go to meet one of their parents, talk about one of their other exes, and say the word "love."

That's it. That's the story. Actually, the word "story" is giving it way too much credit. That's the sequence of events.

Today at work I edited a whitepaper about how to securitize a cash allocation with the aim of maintaining liquidity in an institutional investment portfolio. That whitepaper—nay, that sentence—was more interesting than Loved by You.



In our previous installment, Penny and Blake broke up again because of... wait, what was it again?

(checks notes)

Because Penny went into their first reunion planning to take advantage of his regret over their first breakup, but then she changed her mind because she liked him too much, and he kind of had a problem with that even though he also liked her a lot, so they decided to take some time to think things over.

That was the narrative linchpin, people. That.



I mentioned in my Taken by You review that a thing happened to Blake in 2011 to turn him into the control freak he was until he fell deeply in really like with Penny. The thing was his ex-girlfriend cheating on him with his BFF and shitting on his dreams of creating Fuckster. Do we meet said ex-girlfriend or BFF? Guess. Does Blake sharing this with Penny make any difference? Guess. What about the shady guys of whom we had a brief glimpse at the very end of TBY? Fucking guess.



It appears that someone requires a crash course in basic storytelling. While that would be beyond the scope of this review, I can offer a condensed version:

• Don't introduce something dramatic unless it's going to matter later.
• If you have space to fill in your book, use it to develop the dramatic things you introduced.
• Don't use any space for every word of every conversation with every waitress. Unless those conversations are going to matter later.

Yes, there's more of that. And also this:

I splashed some warm water on my face and used my grapefruit face wash, the little chunks in it scrubbing away my dead skin cells.



Well, that's nice. Now tell us about how it took four squares of toilet paper before she was able to scrape all those bits of crusted feces out of her butthole. WHAT'S THAT? THAT'S TOO MUCH INFORMATION AND IT TOTALLY KILLS THE VIBE OF THIS ALLEGEDLY EROTIC ROMANCE? NO FUCKING SHIT!

That line about skin cells was the weirdest part of a chapter devoted to a completely average morning in Penny's life, which progresses as follows:

1. She wakes up.
2. She checks her phone.
3. She drinks some water.
4. She does her hair and makeup.
5. She takes the bus to campus.
6. She texts Blake.
7. She takes an exam for a class she finds boring.
8. She eats a turkey, provolone, and veggie sandwich.

M.L. Young heard every complaint about romantic heroines who were completely blank ciphers so readers could swap themselves into the story with no trouble. And she decided that tactic was not only acceptable, but aspirational.



But you know what does pay off after being planted in the first book? The sex room! Yes, the kinky funtimes are finally, finally back two books later. They use it once in this book, and they have vanilla sex one other time. I tend to just flip through these scenes because they're all alike, but I can tell when we're not getting our money's worth.

But that's not to say there's nothing exciting happening at all. We do get a lengthy description of Penny's passion for garlic-sautéed green beans.

M.L.'s bio on Amazon claims she "has a penchant for telling stories that will fog up your Kindle and leaving you wanting more." Which is true. Only the fog on your Kindle is from excessive yawning, and those stories will leave you wanting a nap.



The Blanked by You trilogy is maddening, simply maddening. I read these books for the lulz, okay? I read them for coffee-related pratfalls and anthropomorphized genitalia. I read them for strikingly inaccurate depictions of Seattle corporate culture and the modern-day American mafia. I read them for solid gold butt plugs and double-ended dildos crafted from rich Corinthian leather. I read them for girls named Penelope or Daisy or Bubbles and guys named Apollo Viscount or Odin Grandpoobah or Osiris Momchao. All I got out of this was a masterclass in literary incompetence and a helpful reminder of how face washes work.

Thanks, M.L. I am bored by you.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

this series started out good but by this book, I just wanted to shoot myself for reading it!

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve finally finished the series and unfortunately it didn’t really change from being wooden. Their characters feel like they should be children in a playground scenario where you want somebody to be a boyfriend or girlfriend. The romance just seems off, although this shows lots of cute moments and what should be really romantic moments, they’re closed off by the fact that each character acts like ‘we’re not even official yet’ it’s a romance, but it doesn’t flow like a traditional love story and that kind of puts me off.

[Ann Sheriff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved the three books. Would highly recommend them.

[WBS-S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written. Nice story. Very tame. Good for general romance readers.

[Stephanie Lloyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good

I liked this book but I didn't love it like the two other in the series, the ending feels left a bit to open for my liking. The star of the book is a bit to snooty for my liking, I know the man's a billionaire but most series like this the girl takes them down to earth a few notches, not in this book, it actually makes, me think she is changing for him. Obviously if you have read the other two you kinda have to finish the series but be warned it does not leave you feeling exhilarated like many other series.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was gifted this advanced review copy in exchange for my honest review.

What a great ending to a wonderful series! I was so worried that love does not conquer all but well . . . read this exciting conclusion to the series and find out how. ML Young is so creative in telling her romantic book stories. This final book is hot, sexy and romantic. If you read carefully you might find a hidden book idea in there. Lol I look forward to more of ML Young's literary works of art.

[Lisa Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was definitely my favorite of the trilogy. It was nice that all the "angst" was finally gone and we got more of their love story. I would have liked to know more about his family background, as his thoughts made it seem like it greatly affected him.
Overall it was a sweet story with a nice HEA. There could have been a lot more character development but it was a fun easy read.

[Barbara Suralik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining romance

A true contemporary romance with well defined likeable characters. I thought the ending was rushed especially with the built up in three books. Overall the series was good.

[Seriniti · Rating 4 out of 5]

very sweet ending. I was hoping nic found someone.

[Suzee · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Meh, not much really happened. She confessed and they get back together, but I didn't see much deceit on either side really.

[Amanda Griffith · Rating 3 out of 5]

A huge let down at the end

Disappointed that this three book collection just ends very suddenly. I would have loved to see what transpires between these two.
It almost felt incomplete at the end