And that's what Dominic Reed was to me. A devastating consequence.
It seemed harmless when we met. He needed a nanny, and I needed a job. Badly. I was the only thing keeping food on the table and lights on in our not-so-happily-ever-after house. Dad had split, and Mom was always blitzed out to forget he was gone, and I was all my little sister had left.
I thought working for Dominic Reed would be easy.
I thought wrong.
It was the exact opposite of easy. It was impossible, in fact, when he was my boss and I was his employee, and fate decided it didn't care about professionalism or boundaries.
It didn't care that I was ten years younger. It didn't care that I'd built the entire foundation of my adult life on the fact that love was poison and men were the devil.
And it certainly didn't care about the wedding band around Dominic's finger either.
No matter how off limits he was to me or how wild and rebellious I was to him, our chemistry was heroin, and it demanded our submission despite how hard we scrambled to stop it.
And I needed to stop it, because it wasn't just my heart in jeopardy if I fell in love with Dominic Reed.
Where should I start this? First of all, I didn't know much about this book, I liked the cover and I said why not. Well, now I kinda wish that I had read some reviews at least. The beginning was promising but after some chapters, it happens something that usually is a turn-off for me and makes me abandon a book I didn't abandon it because I liked the hero, and I was curious about where the story was heading. OK, the book starts with Kat, a twenty-year-old girl who recently lost her job. She must take care of her five-year-old sister and because of that, she accepts a babysitting job with a wealthy family. There she meets Dominic, the father of the child who she must take care of and who is also married. I think that for now, everybody must realize where the story is heading. Let's talk about why I give this book only 1,5 stars since I liked the story. Well, it was because of Kat. I never meet a heroine that is so annoying and selfish and childish. She was supposed to be a mature character since she takes care of her sister for three years in a row, but no, she makes some questionable decisions and acts like a spoiled brat who throws a tantrum if she doesn't get what she wants. For someone who says that she loves her sister the most and would do anything for her, I think that she should appreciate her job better. From her first job, she was fired because, again, she acted like a brat, and her attitude is the same in her new job. I get it, she is only twenty, almost twenty-one but still, she is an adult now and after everything she went through, she should be more mature, or at least, she should appreciate that someone took a chance on her despite her attitude. For someone who says constantly how much she loves her sister, her actions don't prove it. On the contrary, it shows how she doesn't care about her. She doesn't make any effort to keep her job and even if she knows that Dominic is married, she can't stop flirting with him. Because of Dominic, I decided to give 1,5 stars instead of one. He was a great character and an honorable man, and I still don't understand how he could have feelings for Kat. He is trying to do the right thing and he doesn't have an easy job since Kat always throws a tantrum if someone tries to ask her something to do for her safety. I would love to have some chapters from his point of view but unfortunately, the entire book is told from the heroine's point of view... We got some drama too and some action which in my opinion was unnecessary but I guess since it is not a stand-alone book, more angst is better, or in this case, maybe not. Kat continues to make some very dumb decisions, but I wasn't surprised at this point, but I still had some facepalms when she did certain things like: The book ends with a cliffhanger which is also the heroine's fault, just saying... To be honest, I don't know if after that I want to read the second book, maybe after some time, and after I calm down and forget how annoying Kat was, I will give it a chance but is a big maybe. I'm a little curious about how the story will go on but I don't know if I can resist another book just from Kat's point of view if she continues to act as she did in this book.
You say I’m in my head all the time, but it’s you,” he croaked. “You are in my fucking head all day long.”
Confession time, I've been eyeing this one for a while, but the mixed reviews made me put it off. Boy am I glad I finally took the plunge and read it because I am OBSESSED.
I love a good forbidden romance, and this one simply ticked all the boxes for me. Kat has had it rough, with a junky mother and a young sister, she's been forced to grow up fast and hard. She struggles to make ends meet, so when she's fired from her current job and hears of a nanny interview, she goes...even if she knows she has no qualifications outside of being great with kids.
This is when Kat meets Dominic, father to the young girl she's interviewing to nanny for. Dominic is quiet intensity, unbelievably gorgeous, and married...even if his wife is a royal CUNT. Now before you all start clutching your pearls, I did not consider this book to be cheating. Granted, I'm a reader that doesn't mind cheating in her books in the least, so take that how you will. But the way that their relationship progresses is unique and not your cliche forbidden bag. Dominic is stuck in a loveless unhappy marriage and he fights his attraction to Kat until the bitter end.
Kat is an absolute spitfire and I loved her so much. She's full of sass and is a warrior through and through.
The angst of the attraction between them had me in an absolute chokehold. My own quibble is that it did feel a bit stretched out in places and could have likely been shorter and not lost nothing in the story. But I was so completely caught up in the story and romance that I didn't even mind all that much.
She's so unbelievably immature that I just can't deal with her. For someone who just turned 21 and has been a mom to her sister, you think she would of acted her age or older. She knows someone's after her and that she could potentially put everyone in danger including herself and she still chooses to go out to party !! She has zero character development. None. I'm so disappointed.
Not as exciting as the summary made it out to be. Slow burn. Very very very slow. The heroine definitely acted worse than any 20 yr old ever. The book was boring in some parts that I couldn’t wait for it to end. Read at your own risk.
Overall Opinion: This was unfortunate. I’m unlike a lot of readers and like these type of non-traditional romances. I like the messy characters and I like the messy relationships. I find that they often are the stories that make me feel, but sadly, that wasn’t the case here. I liked it at first. I was even tolerant of the excessive inner dialogue that eventually became repetitive and overdone. It just became too much (or too little 🙈). I didn’t like that we didn’t get the H’s POV. It was way too long to have just the h. It also felt like nothing was happening. I actually decided to still read this knowing it was a trilogy (which hasn’t been all that successful for a while), but after reading the first book and the spoilers for the next book , I don’t think I’ll continue on. Too bad too, because this had the makings for a pretty fun series.
Brief Summary of the Storyline: This is Kat and Dominic’s story. Kat is let go from her job that she holds to support her little sister and herself when her friend tells her about a potential nanny job. Dominic and his wife married young and they have a toxic marriage and he knows right away that Kat will be adding trouble when she gets hired to care for his daughter. Kat and Dominic dance around their attraction, but after more time spent together feelings get developed. There is also a killer that might be targeting Kat. There is some heavy baggage they have to work through, some big life changes, and some sexy times…and this ends with two other books to finish off their story.
Point Of View (POV): This was told in Kat’s POV.
Overall Pace of Story: Slow. This was way too long. And this is coming from a reader that feels like books need to be at least 300 pages to even consider! I skimmed some inner dialogue towards the end.
Instalove: No, they take a while to develop stronger feelings. Instalust? Yes.
H (Hero) rating: 3.5 stars. Dominic. I thought he was a little better than just alright. He was pretty sweet with the h and his daughter, but also a dominant alpha when he needed to be.
h (heroine) rating: 3 stars. Kat. I liked her but then she would do something obnoxious that bugged me, so I’m going with a middle of the road rating.
Sadness level: Low, no tissues needed
Push/Pull: Yes
Heat level: Good. They have some good tension, chemistry, and a few scenes -- but not so much it takes away from the story.
Descriptive sex: Yes
OW (Other Woman)/OM (Other Man) drama:Yes
Sex scene with OW or OM: No
Cheating: Yes
Separation: They aren’t together for me to consider it a separation
Possible Triggers: Yes
Closure: This ends in a cliffhanger with two more books in the series.
Safety: This is probably Not Safe for most safety gang readers
Listen I really don’t know how I feel about this book. Like I enjoyed Kat and her banter, but oh my god when it came to her outlook on love I started to get unbelievably irritated. I understood the trauma from her childhood, but if I had to read the work “sickness” one more time I was going to absolutely lose my mind. I almost dnf’d just because of that.
Oh then I found out that there are 3 other books after I finished reading it. No thank you, I just don’t think I can do it. I read the reviews on the other books to get a brief understanding about what they are about and I’m just not into it.
Also the whole wife thing, really annoyed me. I get that she was a not a good person, but it still rubbed me the wrong way.
I received this as an ARC copy for my honest review.I love the characters and their progress within the book. I fell in love with the characters. I loved the relationship with Dom and Kat . They both took everything in strides as bumps came in their paths. The connection she has with her sister is amazing, she has to take on the mom role and the sister and does it with grace. If I could, I would give this book more than 5 ⭐. Once I started reading, I knew that I was hooked and wanted to read more.
Kat has had a hard life caring for her younger sister and addict mother. She loses her job and ends up taking a nannying position. Turns out her boss Dominic is one hell of a hot cop who seems to have issues of his own, namely his rocky marriage. Kat’s past has left her with trust issues and uses anger as her first response to most emotions but Dominic can’t seem to stay away from her and vice versa.
”Why didn’t you say I’d catch you if you fell?” “Why would I say that?” “I think most people would. Most people would trust that whoever they were with would catch them.”
Forbidden romance at its best. I loved the back and forth flirting between Kat and Dominic at the beginning of this book. It was fairly slow burn in terms of physicality between the two leads but the tension leading up to it all is indescribable! So much heated chemistry!
”Whatever you do, don’t ask me to spank you.” Face pinching together, I shot him a glance. “Why not?” Dominic shook his head, brows heavy and eyes hardened to charcoal. “Because I just might do it.”
DNF 60% What is wrong with me lately? I keep DNFing books. Am I getting bad recs? I don’t think this book is bad but I just can’t stand him cheating. Once a cheater always a cheater is my motto and I can’t stand it. Yeah his wife sucks… so what? For all we know he’s been super terrible to her over the years and she gave up emotionally and physically on him for the grater good of staying together for their daughter. Idk I just can’t say he’s a great book bf when he can’t even just dump his wife. It’s awful. Believe me, id know. I completely blame him for cheating, but when there is a wife AND a kid involved the FMC should know better than to fuck with him. I’m almost 2/3 of the way through and he’s still just cheating.
1/5 on spice. 1/5 on kink. 1/5 on tears. Ow/om this far into a story is not my vibe.
I REALLY wanted to love this book as I fell in love with Alexandria's Dancing with Sin (go read it if you haven't already) but unfortunately I couldn't really get into this one.
I think the main thing for me was that Kat was extremely annoying, foul mouthed and bratty and i just couldn't understand their attraction. Personally, I didn't find the character's relationship realistic.
The book is solely in Kat's POV and there is a lot of internal monologue and i found myself skimming towards the end.
Unfortunately, I don't think the cliff hanger is enough to entice me to read the next book.
It's been a while since I disliked a book as much as Unlawful Temptations and that should say something because I read a lot of not so great books LOL
When Kat starts a new nannying job, she is immediately attracted to the father of the family, Dominic. While he is still married, he also feels himself drawn to Kat and has this urge to protect her. He's a cop and has seen his fair share of bad things and trouble just seems to follow Kat wherever she goes.
I picked this book after seeing it on BookTook, they talked about the scene where Dominic busts the party Kat's at, and I was intrigued. Unfortunately for me, that scene was not how I thought it would be because the book is very different from what I hoped for.
First off, I did know that there is this forbidden love aspect between Kat and Dominic BUT Dominic is married and while Kat obviously gets over that very fast, I could not. I hate that he cheated on his wife and did not seem too torn up about it. Yes, he asks for a divorce and says so many times how unhappy he has been, but why hasn't he left then?! I would never want to be with a guy like Dominic. Kat is not much better, and throws herself at Dominic before she even knows that he was going to get a divorce. She is crude and immature.. supposedly she takes care of her little sister, well I wouldn't trust this woman with my goldfish. This whole book was a huge yick for me, and I just skimmed it at the end because I wanted it to be over.
This series is one of the most emotionally charged and heartbreaking series I have ever read. Our girl, Kat, is one flawed and traumatised woman, trying desperately to keep her life together while also raising her little sister. I love that she’s so imperfect. Her reactions to situations aren’t fuelled by rationale but by fear and survival instincts, which is so well depicted by the lovely author. I think the beauty of her character is how flawed she is. It’s realistic. Unless anyone has walked a day in that life, it’s impossible to determine how one would respond to certain situations.
Dominic, our main man. He’s beautiful and stable and everything she needs but doesn’t think she deserves. The series delves deeper into emotional connections and twin flames and soul mates and all of it is nail biting and there’s so much anticipation and chemistry and the smut was excellent but there’s SO MUCH more to this trilogy. It was outstanding. Hats off to Alexandria. What a talented woman.
Can you say heart-pounding?! These characters are intense, and live up to every lightning and thunder metaphor laced within the pages. Kat runs hot and Dom runs cold and it's such a rollercoaster experiencing their journey alongside them. And the steeeaammmm, seriously! If you want a well-crafted story that will keep you addicted until the last page (and BEYOND, you can bet I am following for the next one!), with lots of angst and tension and high spice, then you need to read this book right. Now.
Dominic is the most swoon-worthy mmc I’ve met this Year! Handsome ✔️ Nurturing ✔️ Intuitive✔️ Emotionally mature ✔️ Great conversationalist ✔️ Protective✔️
4.5 stars ✨ “Being weak for you isn't a weakness. It's a privilege”
I absolutely enjoyed this book! After finishing Dancing with the Sin, which I enjoyed so much, I was still not over the forbidden cheating romance with an actual plot and good characters. This is about the unexpected romance between Kat, the nanny, and Dominic, the married man. It sounds cliché but this was actually a good book.
Katerina - Kat - . I liked her. She was bold, sassy, confident af, and had a big heart. And, she also was someone you wanted to throw a shoe at her lol, I swear I’m still side-eyeing a lot - freaking lot- of the decisions lol. But aside from that, she was quite someone that keeps you entrained because I absolutely had no idea what she would do next lol.
Dominic - Sr. or Mr. Reed - phew! This man I swear can step on me and I would say please do it again. Our detective was 🤌🏻 I liked him a lot. Loved how slowly he started to free himself, allowing him to enjoy and let go. He has the patience of a saint and tries to do things without affecting others, even if that means putting others' happiness over his. I have to be honest, he was my favourite character and if it wasn't for him I wouldn't really like or even finish this book. I swoon a lot of the shit this man did.
The pace of the book was good! I had my good dose of tension, delicious tension I have to say. The banter flirt between Kat and Dominic was really good as well! Steamy scenes were 🤌🏻 because this man can do it like he low key likes to be called Sr.
The side characters were good as well! I absolutely loved Maya (H's daughter) she was so cute and a good matchmaker lol. Layla and Ryan's were unexpected but sooo hot! I would really like to read more about them in the next book
Safe info
ow/om: H is married and h's has a boyfriend (more like a fbuddy). It's shown that H and his wife are not on good terms and since this is h's POV it's uncertain if he and his wife are intimate. However, h and his boyfriend still are (there is one scene, after meeting H, where h was having sex with her boyfriend but was thinking of H)
Summary Kat is a 20 year old girl who gets fired from her grocery store job. She has an addict mother and a 5 year old sister who she cares for. Being a high school dropout, her job choices are incredibly limited, until a nanny job conveniently falls in her lap. While interviewing for the job she meets Dominic (the father) and immediately has an intense attraction to him. One big problem, he’s married and his wife is a raging bitch. As Kat and Dominic spend more time together their “heroin chemistry” gets harder to ignore and they continue to blur the lines of an appropriate relationship.
Review Okayyyy where do I even start? I didn’t hate this book right away, I was super intrigued, but the more I read the more I just hated it. Kat is the most unlikable FMC I think I have ever read. Seriously she is horrible. Look, I get she has mommy and daddy issues (who doesn’t, am I right?) but she was just a bitch. Also she just wasn’t that funny? Her dirty jokes just didn’t land with me. *crickets chirping* I guess I can understand why Dominic thought she was so funny because he was married to a literal wet blanket, but it’s a no from me. This book was so exhausting. The back and forth killed me. Every time it seemed like they had a breakthrough in the relationship Kat would run away again. It just got old really fast. It made the book too long. I feel like this could have been 100 pages shorter, and it still would have sucked, but it would have been less painful to read. Can we please stop with these stupid fucking cliff hangers? “And then Layla was gone. THE END” LAME! There has to be a more creative way to end a book. That’s just so lazy. Just a tactic to get you to read the next one, which I absolutely will not be doing. Big ol’ waste of time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I am Kat, she is me. Who doesn't love a strong FMC and an MMC who tells her she doesn't always have to be so strong? SWOOOOON. The chemistry between these two is off the charts from the beginning and it leaves you practically screaming at the page for them to just DO IT ALREADY. The tension, perfection. The raw messages interwoven, seamless. The imagery and storytelling, off the flipping charts! This is the first book that I've read by Alexandria Lee but call me an addict now because I am HOOKED on this girl. If you like forbidden love, a bit of an age gap and tension that hurts oh so good then pick. this. book. up.
I thought this was a standalone 😭💔 kat was mostly annoying in my opinion, like yes she's young and she had a lot of issues but I didn't like her, dom was okay I guess I don't even know how he fell in love with her because girly was just... consistently unbearable. It's a shame I won't know what happened after but it really wasn't good enough to make me get the other book so... maybe another time
I read this book on Wattpad & I CANNOT WAIT to read this newly published version!!! I'm going to buy this whole series. This book had me laughing & bawling my eyes out. Looking forward to rereading this newly published version & experiencing a whirlwind of emotions!
Review – Unlawful Temptations (Star Crossed #1) by Alexandria Lee When I first read Dancing with Sin by Alexandria Lee I knew I had to read more of her work! She is so good at writing a juicy, forbidden story while also maintaining a compelling plot and intriguing characters with a beautiful progression. This story kept me completely captivated, with all the angst, sexual tension, and mystery I could not put it down! Alexandria is one author who needs to be on your radar especially if you are a forbidden lover! . After being fired from her last job Kat is in desperate need of a job and fast. Bills are piling and she needs be able to support not only herself, but her little sister and mother. When her best friend Layla lets her know of a job requiring she become a nanny it’s a no brainer, so after applying she gets a call to come down for an in-person interview and what she wasn’t expecting when knocking on that front door was coming face to face with the man of the house, Dom. He set her body on fire with just one look and she prayed she would not be working for this man, only what Kat soon finds out is that the mystery man at the front door will soon be her boss, her very married boss. . “𝙃𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙢𝙚, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙢𝙚. 𝙃𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙢𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙗𝙖𝙙 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙. 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙠𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙙.“ . Kat is feisty, outgoing, reckless, flirty, and broken. She has this sadness to her that you can’t help being drawn to because she covers it with her brash remarks and recklessness. Dom is sexy and alpha and he sees right through Kat and her lies, see Dom is a cop and he reads people so easily. What he didn’t expect was to also start lying to himself. He knows Kat is a temptation he won’t soon be able to resist especially when she keeps sending him flirty remarks. What happens next turns into a messy, angsty, affair of love and heartbreak and Kat and Dom become obsessed, and with that obsession comes something dark. . 4⭐️ 𝘼𝙍𝘾 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙚𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝙚𝙭𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖𝙣 𝙝𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗠𝗲 𝗢𝗻: Instagram ♡