RAW BY SIMONE SOWOOD -ARC REVIEW

Some people can’t be fixed.

The paparazzi are hounding me about a sex scandal and I have to get away.

So I run.

Not just from them, from everything.

My car breaks down and I end up walking straight into a peach of a bare ass.

The fucking luck of ending up in the middle of a boudoir photo shoot.

Elsie’s bent over, ass in the air and ripe for picking.

Insisting she’s not the kind of girl who normally does this sort of thing.

A thousand things I want to do to her flash through my mind.

Being my salvation isn’t one of them but that’s what she turns out to be.

A green eyed beauty who belongs to me.

Mine.

Hope for the first time in my life.

But she’s hiding something.

And it ruins our future.

Author’s note: I wrote this for my husband, but you can read it too.

*** A steamy STANDALONE contemporary romance with a sizzling hot alpha. No cliffhanger, no cheating, and a guaranteed happily-ever-after.***

Instalove is fun, if it works.  And, in this one, it worked.  I enjoyed the meet cute with Xander and Elsie, and I believed their attraction.  Did I totally believe all of the things that happened and all of the events that unfolded?  No, I didn't.

But, that isn't the point of books by Simone Sowood.  You know you are going to enjoy the book, and that there will be instalove, and that the sex will be hot, and that there might be some things that stretch belief...but that it does work, that you like the characters and you enjoy the story.

There were a couple of serious undertones to the book, and they worked...they gave it some depth and also a direction outside of the relationship.  I liked that element of it.

I enjoyed this title overall, and I recommend it.

DESIRE BY SIMONE SOWOOD - ARC REVIEW

Sometimes fate lands on your lap...

Leo:

A stunning woman approaches me in my hotel lobby.
She's dressed for sin. And I'm a sinner.
I brush past her and, the next thing I know, she flings herself across me in the backseat of my cab.
I didn’t want an escort tonight, but the look of her lying in my lap is impossible to resist.
Except she's not what I thought. They never are.
Young. Beautiful. Innocent. I can't get her out of my head.
She's not to be trusted. But one night in my bed won't do any harm.

Grace:

Leo is way hotter than I’d anticipated when my boss dressed me up and sent me out to lure him into saving our company.
Sure, he’s arrogant and rude but the air around us is electric. Unable to resist, I wear the red dress and give him my virginity.
It’s just one time but there’s something more between us, something real, I’m sure of it.
Until I end up pregnant and Leo disappears off the face of the earth.

Leo and Grace are an insta-love story...sort of.  They meet, they go their separate ways, they meet again and then go their separate ways again...but this time, he is out of touch and she finds out she is pregnant (this is all in the blurb, so not a spoiler).  So, the attraction is instant, but not really acted on until later, but, not for lack of trying on their part.

There is a lot here already.  Throw in that he thinks she is an escort, her family is nothing but drama, her employer is going under and has no issues pimping her out to the (hopefully) highest bidder, Leo's drama with his brother and wanting to sell the company, and Grace's stress about her job.  So, the plot is busy and at times it does jump a bit from point to point, which keeps it moving.

This book was busy and, while this meant that it moved quickly, I felt a little like the relationship with Grace and Leo took a little bit of a backseat to the myriad other things that were going on it the story.

I did enjoy it overall.  I liked the characters and this was a fun, lighter read.  I do recommend this title.

CARNAL BY SIMONE SOWOOD-ARC REVIEW

I don’t know what made me go to him that night.
Steel, the pierced drifter with the neck tattoo.
Mostly I wanted to hurt my reputation.
He could take my virginity and I’d go home, ruined.
I never thought he’d say no.

*** A steamy STANDALONE contemporary romance with a sizzling hot alpha. No cliffhanger, no cheating, and a guaranteed happily-ever-after. Please note Carnal was originally published as Carny, and has been re-edited.***

I liked this book overall.  I didn't actually read it the first time, as I was not sure how I felt about the idea of the hero being part of a traveling carnival.  I have no idea why, but this wasn't something that had a lot of appeal for me.  But, when it appeared the 2nd time, I thought I would give it a shot.

I am glad I did.

I liked Emily and Steel.  I liked their relationship.  While there was definitely insta-love, I also liked the idea that they were pulled from one another before they had a chance to fully pursue the idea of a relationship and what it might mean.  I think, at least for me, when a choice is taken from me, the appeal of the thing I lost becomes much stronger, so that part worked for me.

In places, I found the writing to be a little more dramatic than always works for me, but this is the author's style.  She writes the grand stories, the dramatic ones, in which the characters all react to things in a big way.  So, while this is not always a favorite of mine, I know this going into the book and I did not change the rating as a result of this.

That said, I thought Emily adjusted to the new life a little easily, but she was young and in the first stages of a new love, so I also thought that was realistic.  Sort of.  Although going from a Burberry dress to a trailer without AC and not really complaining was a bit of a stretch and I thought there was a lot of story there that was not really addressed.

I did think the whole thing with where he was from was a little much, and I thought it was not really a necessary thing...that there was enough going on for them, enough drama, that this was an addition that was not necessary for the story and that it took away from other points in the story that would have been better served to be a little more developed.

Overall, I did enjoy this, and it is exactly what is advertised, a fun, quick, hot read.

I recommend this title.

PIERCE ME BY SIMONE SOWOOD-REVIEW

She's never had an O. I'm going to make up for that.

When Eloise walks into my tattoo parlor, she thinks she knows what she’s after - a piercing to help take her where no man can.

But I don’t want to help her the way she thinks.

I had a crush on her all the way through grade school.

The last time I saw her was seventh grade, when my life was falling apart.

Now she has the same cute pony tail as always but the rest of her grown up body makes me hard just looking at it.

I’ll give her a piercing alright, and it will be the deepest one of her life.
Never had an O, welcome to Oh My God!

 

So, this was fun.

And, it is exactly what you are expecting, but in a good way.  I enjoy erotic romance, and this one definitely delivers.  The fun, at least in my opinion, of a good erotic romance is that the sex, and the situations, are both hot and vaguely dirty.

Nailed it.

The idea that their first meeting is when Eloise makes an appointment in Gabe's tattoo shop to have her clit pierced.  She wants to have orgasms and better sex.  Well, she gets her wish...albeit in a slightly different way than she was anticipating.

But, that is the fun of the erotic romance, the meet-cute being a little more sexual than the regular romance.  And, this is more toward the romantic side of erotic.  I am not even sure the author would call this title "erotic" but rather a 5 in heat level.  Either way, it is hot.

I liked Gabe and Eloise.  I am not how I felt about the secret that he had, or really the thing he didn't tell her about why he wasn't interested in spending time with her family.  I think the issue I had was mainly in the pacing of it, as I thought the resolution came awfully quickly.  Yes, there was some new info that he received that could have resulted in him changing his opinion on the situation, but it was too fast for me to totally be able to buy it.  I think, and I seem to be saying this a lot lately, that the reveal happened too late in the story for me to fully be able to believe the HEA ending.  Will they get there?  Yes.  Is it going to be right away?  No, I think there is more work that needs to be done.

That said, the epilogue and the ending of the book are a year in the future, so it works overall, I think I would have liked to see more of them dealing with it together than we got.  If that makes sense.

But, overall, I did enjoy this book and I do recommend it.

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AROUSAL BY SIMONE SOWOOD-ARC REVIEW

Fake Girlfriend, Real Arousal

A woman I’ve never seen before just told her father I’m her boyfriend.
I walked into the restaurant to grab dinner between important meetings and there she was, red cheeked and fury in her electric blue eyes.
I figure I’ll help her out with whatever she has going on with her father, so I kiss her.
If she wants to be what’s on my menu, that’s fine by me.
As she melts into my arms, the taste of her lips and the fire in her eyes hits me in the gut.
She’s mine.
This might be a game to her, but I’m playing for real. And trust me when I say I never lose.
I’m going to use my vast wealth and power to get her exactly where I want her.
Who knows, I might even tell her who I really am.

I am not sure what I thought this was going to be about, but it definitely went a different way than I expected...unfortunately, I didn't totally believe the storyline and I thought it was a little contrived in places.  

And, it is difficult to say why without giving away the plot of the story, which is not something I want to do here.

So, what I am going to say is that Ms. Sowood has become an author I look forward to reading.  I am not actually sure how I ended up on her ARC team (I think there was a Tweet?) but I can say I have never considered leaving.

Even though this wasn't the perfect read for me, I still enjoyed it overall.  I do recommend it, and if she is a new author to you, there is no reason you can't start with this book.

I am guessing most will like this more than I did (which happens to me all the time) and, like I mentioned, I am looking forward to the next one.

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