FOREVER YOURS BY ADDISON FOX-REVIEW

Addison Fox's Forever Yours is fun, flirty, and sure to set off plenty of fireworks in readers’ hearts.

Detective Cade Rossi has spent the majority of his life oblivious to Jasmine Shane. She’s always been his little sister’s best friend, but after coming to her rescue one night, Cade is starting to see the woman behind the lawyerly suits.

Since childhood, Jasmine has harbored an embarrassing crush on Cade. She’s seen him work his way through nearly every eligible bachelorette in Park Heights, Brooklyn, and Jasmine’s given up hope of them ever having a chance together.

But summer is the perfect time for a fling, and as Cade and Jasmine grow closer, what starts out as an innocent flirtation could turn into so much more…

I really liked the sound of this book, and I thought it had a lot of potential.

Unfortunately, it fell short for me and I ended up not really invested in the story. 

I liked Cade and Jasmine, and I liked the idea of them finally getting together.  But, I thought the amount of time she had been pining for him (and the fact that all sorts of other people know how she feels but somehow he doesn't) just didn't work.

You find out at the beginning that Jasmine has loved Cade for 20 years.  And, he is clueless that she feels this way and is also dealing with the idea that he has feelings for her.  I wanted more exploration of this and, as this was a novella, it was already short on words to do this...but instead of going with this angle, the author decided there needed to be a catalyst to move them to being a couple...and this really messed up the authenticity of the story as well as the pacing.

I wanted to like this one, to really engage with the story, but I just didn't.  I also thought the details of them being together, the would it work questions, were glossed over because now they were both in love.  And, as this was a friends to lovers that also had an interracial element to it, and both of those were essentially ignored.  Which was a disappointment.

I wanted more from this title than I received.

I do not recommend this title.

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LACLAIRE NIGHTS BY DORI LAVELLE-REVIEW

Some marriages last a week, a month, or a year. Others last a lifetime. Mine ends on my wedding night, ten hours after the exchange of rings.

Our marriage vows shatter when Dustin Cardwell, the man I saved myself for, looks me in the eye and tells me I failed between the sheets.

Our marriage ends before the ink dries, before the scent of my bouquet fades, before the candles in our honeymoon suite burn out.

Three months later, I'm divorced and working as a massage therapist on the LaClaire Cruise Ship, headed for the Caribbean. I'm desperate to get away, to lick my wounds in private. I'm not looking to be another man's disappointment.

Until Bryant LaClaire invades my space and makes my panties melt. The moment our eyes meet, he makes it clear I'm his girl of the moment.

Drawing me in with his charm and good looks, he promises to repair my sexual self-esteem while satisfying his own needs. A few LaClaire nights is all he can give. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s an offer my body can’t resist.

But when my heart lures me into the heart and world of a man who carries a devastating secret, I know I’m in danger of returning home with more pain than I'd left with.

LaClaire Nights is a steamy full-length, standalone novel with a happy ending. 

The idea of this book was a lot stronger than the execution.

I liked the idea of a heroine who was saving herself for the wedding, that it was important to her.  I thought Grace had a lot of potential to be a different and refreshing heroine, and that it was going to be interesting to see Grace and Bryant together.

That said, I thought the characters were all over the place.  She goes from saving herself, to being humiliated on her wedding night, to divorced 3 months later, to willing to have premarital sex with someone else, to having a baby while not married.  I get it that things happen to change who you are, but not this much.

Bryant was never real to me.  He checked all of the "expected" boxes but was lacking in substance.  There was an effort to make him seem like he had more depth with the brother story-line, but this fell flat for me as well.

The mother and Dustin, Grace's ex, were over the top.  The mother was not interested, at all, in knowing what happened to destroy her daughter's marriage...she just kept saying she should have stayed with the man she married.  And, Dustin, apparently married her just so he could have sex with a virgin.  because, when you are in a strongly Christian small town, this is the only option you have.  Or something. 

But, somehow, in order to redeem Grace, Dustin had to be a criminal and her mother had to find this out...then, and only then, was it ok that she divorced him.  This bugged the heck out of me.  Add in the unbalanced characters and the rather choppy dialog and you have a book that had a lot of potential.

Unfortunately, I am not able to recommend this title.

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