lauren blakely – Zakiya N. Jamal

Book Review: The Sexy One

Posted on February 2, 2017February 7, 2017 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Book Reviews, Books to Buy

Synopsis:

Let me count the ways why falling into forbidden love is not my wisest move…
1. She works with me every single day.
Did I mention she’s gorgeous, sweet, kind and smart?
2. She works in my home.
Playing with my five-year-old daughter. Teaching my little girl. Cooking for my princess. Which means…
3. She’s the nanny.
And that makes her completely off-limits…But it doesn’t stop me from wanting her. All of her.
*****
The other nannies in this city don’t call him The Sexy One for nothing. My boss, the amazingly wonderful single father to the girl I take care of every day is ridiculously hot, like movie star levels with those arms, and those eyes, and that body. Not to mention, the way he dotes on his little girl melts me all over. But what really makes my knees weak are the times when his gaze lingers on me. In secret. When no one else is around.

I can’t risk my job for a chance at something more…can I? But I don’t know how to resist him much longer either…

Purchase From:

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

Review

I love Lauren Blakely’s books because they’re such quick reads and I almost always fall in love with the characters. The Sexy One was no different. I was first introduced to Simon in Mister O, and I was more than happy to see him again, this time with his own love interest, Abby. First of all, not only is this man crazy attractive but he’s also an amazing dad to his daughter, Hayden. Of course I fell for him instantly, as did Abby. Unfortunately, Abby’s his nanny.

Although this is of course a stereotypical romance, instead of shying away from it Blakely fully embraces it. Both Simon and Abby are aware of the cliché that is their relationship and Simon even makes a Ben Affleck reference, which I thought was fantastic. Plus, I’m a sucker for forbidden romance stories and this was one was especially great because technically they weren’t really doing anything wrong. They’re both legal adults and they’re both single. The only problem was that Simon was paying Abby and for me that was an easy fix.

However, because this is a novel, their relationship had it’s complications but that just made the story more fun and interesting, which is why I loved it. Also, did I mention how swoon-worthy Simon is because he really, truly is. More than that though I liked that Abby and Simon actually had a connection. Yes, their relationship was steamy, but there was also a realness there. It was there in the way Abby taught Simon French for his business deal and how excited Simon was to text Abby about the eagles. Yeah, there’s eagles and they’re cute and you should read the book so you can fully understand the relevance of the eagles.

All in all, Blakely knocked it out of the park with this novel. I laughed, I swooned, and I couldn’t put it down. Definitely check it out if you haven’t already.

Stars:

Favorite Line:

Simon doesn’t fill a void. He makes my life richer.

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Book Review: Full Package

Posted on January 17, 2017January 16, 2017 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Book Reviews, Books to Buy

Synopsis:

I’ve been told I have quite a gift.

Hey, I don’t just mean in my pants. I’ve got a big brain too, and a huge heart of gold. And I like to use all my gifts to the fullest, the package included. Life is smooth sailing….

Until I find myself stuck between a rock and a sexy roommate, which makes for one very hard…place.

Because scoring an apartment in this city is harder than finding true love. So even if I have to shack up with my buddy’s smoking hot and incredibly amazing little sister, a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.

I can resist Josie. I’m disciplined, I’m focused, and I keep my hands to myself, even in the mere five-hundred square feet we share. Until the one night she insists on sliding under the covers with me. It’ll help her sleep after what happened that day, she says.

Spoiler–neither one of us sleeps.

Did I mention she’s also one of my best friends? That she’s brilliant, beautiful and a total firecracker? Guess that makes her the full package too.

What’s a man stuck in a hard place to do?

Purchase From:

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

Review

Lauren Blakely has done it again. I swooned so hard reading this book and it was great seeing so many characters from her other books appear in this novel. Even though Full Package is definitely a standalone it’s kind of in this series that begins with Big Rock, in case you want to start at the beginning.

In this novel, the story follows Chase who needs a place to crash. Enter his best friend, Josie, who’s roommate is moving out. Although Chase believes he’s successfully compartmentalized his feelings so that living with Josie will be piece of cake, that’s of course not the case.

Although this book is very predictable, it’s still very funny and I liked that although this novel is told in Chase’s POV we also get Josie’s POV in the form of her recipes, which was a really cute touch. I also really liked the chemistry between Josie and Chase. They were very cute together and I liked their inside jokes about Swedish Fish and Lyle Lyle (read the book and you’ll understand).

All in all, I thought this was a great read filled with just the right amount of erotica and romance. It’s also a quick read (it only took me a day to read), which is also nice. I’m going to be taking a step backwards in this quasi-series and read The Sexy One soon and I’m very excited to read another book by Blakely.

If you haven’t given Blakely’s writing a chance yet I highly recommend her but only if you’re 18 years or older. This one ain’t for the kids. If you have read this book let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Stars:

Favorite Line:

“I want Swedish Fish with you all the time.”

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Book Review: Caught Up in Us

Posted on November 10, 2016November 9, 2016 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Book Reviews, Books to Borrow

Synopsis:

A second chance at first love… Five years ago, Kat Harper fell into a dizzying summer romance with her brother’s best friend Bryan. It was a mad, crazy love full of kisses all through the night — but he broke her heart and she had to move on. Five years later, Kat is finishing her graduate degree and building her business as a jewelry designer, when Bryan, head of his own successful company, walks back into her life. Bryan has been assigned to Kat as her new business mentor and the rules are clear. No hanky panky permitted. Kat can handle that because she’s totally over him… right? Except, he still makes her laugh, and he remembers all the things she likes. Not to mention that he’s even more handsome now than he was then. Then there’s the spark between them — the simply undeniable chemistry, and the tender ways he shows he still cares for her. Can they resist each other the second time around or will first love trump all?

Purchase From:

Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Book Depository

Review

Typically I love Lauren Blakely’s writing but this book just didn’t do it for me. The novel is told in the first person point of view and it’s Kat’s point of view. Unfortunately I didn’t like Kat. I found her to be annoying. However, I did like Bryan and the romance between him and Kat was swoonworthy so that made this book okay for me but I didn’t love it.

What drove me crazy was Kat’s attempt at trying to pretend she still didn’t have feelings for Bryan and the lengths she want to try to pretend those feelings weren’t there. On the one hand I tried to me empathetic. I know what it’s like to like someone and not want to but hearing Kat’s thoughts about it drove me crazy. Just get over it already! Or tell him how you really feel. Just do something! It was so frustrating.

Still, even though I didn’t love this novel it was a quick, romantic read. It took me only a day to get through and there were some very steamy scenes that were fun to read. Besides that though I wasn’t all that interested in this novel and won’t be reading the other books in this series.

Stars:

Favorite Line:

“He was a movie kiss, he was the name above the title. He was the one you wanted the heroine to wind up with so badly that your heart ached for her when they weren’t together, then soared when they finally were.”

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Book Review: After This Night

Posted on June 23, 2016 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Book Reviews, Books to Buy

Synopsis:

Their world was passion, pleasure and secrets.

Far too many secrets. But Clay Nichols can’t get Julia Bell out of his mind. He’s so drawn to her, and to the nights they shared, that he can’t focus on work or business. Only her. And she’s pissing him off with her hot and cold act. She has her reasons though–she’s trying to stay one step ahead of the trouble that’s been chasing her for months now, thanks to the criminal world her ex dragged her into. If only she can get out of this mess, then maybe she can invite the man who ignites her back in her life, so she can have him–heart, mind and body.

He won’t take less than all of her, and the full truth too. When he runs into her again at her sister’s wedding, they have a second chance but she’ll have to let him all the way in. And they’ll learn just how much more there is to the intense sexual chemistry they share, and whether love can carry them well past the danger of her past and into a new future, after this night…

Purchase From:

Amazon, Goodreads

Review

As promised here’s my review of the second book in Lauren Blakely’s Seductive Nights series. I bought After This Night immediately after I finished Night After Night because I absolutely needed to know what happened next. If you don’t want to be spoiled for Night After Night stop reading here!

At the end of book one we saw Clay and Julia go their separate ways. After being confronted by “Skunk”, the security guy, outside of Julia’s apartment, Clay decides he can’t trust Julia without an explanation. Unfortunately, Julia couldn’t trust him enough to give him one. Thus they broke up and Clay went home to New York, leaving Julia behind in San Francisco, seemingly for good. Until they started emailing again. A day later. Talk about lack of self-control.

From there it quickly got more intense and needless to say they don’t stay apart for very long. Even so, Julia still needs to pay back her debt and she’s determined to do it on her own, without Clay’s help.

This book was even better than the first one. I liked that Clay and Julia already knew each other at this point and they seemed more in love than before, which was super cute. Clay made me swoon and I just love his relationship with Julia. Plus, I really loved the use of the emails and phone conversations in this book. They were playful and steamy and added to the romance. This series is a case where the sequel is even better than the first one. Definitely pick this up if you haven’t already.

Stars:

Favorite Line:

“Every woman should be jealous of you because of how I feel for you. “

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Book Review: Night After Night

Posted on June 21, 2016July 12, 2016 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Book Reviews, Books to Buy

Synopsis:

Their world was sex, love, and lies.
He intoxicated her. Commanded. Consumed.
With a dirty mind and a mouth to match, Clay Nichols is everything Julia never knew she wanted and exactly what she cannot have. He walked into her life one night and unlocked pleasure in her that she never knew was possible. Possessing her body, captivating her every thought. Which makes him way too dangerous for Julia to risk her heart, given that she has a price tag on her head. She ran after one mind-blowing week with him, but now he’s back, and determined to make her his own.
No matter the cost.
She was a sexy drug to him. Fiery, unforgettable, and never enough, Julia is an enigma, and Clay isn’t willing to let her go without a fight. But she’s got dark secrets of her own that threaten to destroy any chance of happiness. She’s a wanted woman—the stakes are high, her every move is watched, and yet the lure between them can’t be denied. Can two people burned by love trust again when desire and passion are met by danger at every turn?

Purchase From:

Amazon, Goodreads

Review:

Lauren Blakely has become such a guilty pleasure for me. I saw this book on sale for Kindle and I had to buy it. Then when I finished it I had to buy the sequel. So far I’ve resisted buying the third one but honestly it’s only a matter of time.

The version of the novel that I got thankfully came with the short prequel novella, First Night, that explained Julia and Clay’s first night together. I thought that added a lot to the story and I couldn’t imagine diving into this book without having that context so I definitely recommend reading that first.

This story begins when Clay makes his way to Julia’s bar when he’s in San Francisco for business, at the recommendation of Julia’s sister who he met in New York. One thing leads to another and Clay and Julia end up hooking up before Clay has to go back to New York.

But Julia has a messy past that’s currently affecting her present and she hasn’t told anyone about it and doesn’t plan to. Julia wants to handle her troubles on her own, which is why she keeps them a secret from Clay and tries to keep him at a distance. Unfortunately for Julia, her heart and body don’t want to leave Clay alone and Clay definitely doesn’t want to leave her alone.

However what Clay can’t deal with is secrets and lies. After being burned by an ex Clay hates liars but Julia has to lie to keep her secret. Clay has to decide just how much he’s willing to trust Julia even though she doesn’t trust him.

I loved Julia and Clay’s relationship. It was like a better version of Fifty Shades of Grey. They even had emails just like Anna and Christian did (which was my favorite part of that trilogy). It even seemed like Blakely was throwing a dig at Fifty Shades when Clay told Julia, “I’m not playing out some childhood trauma in the way I like to have sex.” Shade or coincidence? We may never know.

Clay and Julia were funny and flirty together and although I started skimming the erotic parts (they all start to sound the same to me) it was still pretty steamy. This was definitely a fun, quick read. I finished it all in one day because I couldn’t put it down. So good!

Stars:

Favorite Line:

“If it’s that a drink, no. If purple snow globe is a secret code word for something naughty, I’m game.”

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Book Review: Mister O

Posted on May 3, 2016May 10, 2016 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Book Reviews, Books to Buy

Synopsis from Amazon:

Making a woman feel ‘oh-god-that’s-good’ is the name of the game, and if a man can’t get the job done, he should get the hell out of the bedroom. I’m talking toe-curling, mind-blowing, sheet-grabbing ecstasy. Like I provide every time.

I suppose that makes me a superhero of pleasure, and my mission is to always deliver.

But then I’m thrown for a loop when a certain woman asks me to teach her everything about how to win a man. The only problem? She’s my best friend’s sister, but she’s far too tempting to resist–especially when I learn that sweet, sexy Harper has a dirty mind too and wants to put it to good use. What could possibly go wrong as I give the woman I’ve secretly wanted some no-strings-attached lessons in seduction?

No one will know, even if we send a few dirty sexts. Okay, a few hundred. Or if the zipper on her dress gets stuck. Not on that! Or if she gives me those f*&k-me-eyes on the train in front of her whole family.

The trouble is the more nights I spend with her in bed, the more days I want to spend with her out of bed. And for the first time ever, I’m not only thinking about how to make a woman cry out in pleasure –I’m thinking about how to keep her in my arms for a long time to come.

Looks like the real Adventures of Mister Orgasm have only just begun….

*This book is part of my POPSUGAR 2016 Reading Challenge.*

Erotic romances aren’t my go to reading material but after reading Big Rock I knew I could trust Lauren Blakely’s writing. Plus I loved Harper and Nick in Big Rock and was excited they were getting their own story. If you haven’t read Big Rock you could totally read Mister O as a standalone but I’d recommend reading Big Rock first. It’s really good too.

Nick is a cartoonist that makes a dirty cartoon show that kind of falls along the lines of Family Guy in terms of humor. His favorite activity is pleasuring woman, which is why his best friend’s little sister, Harper, approaches Nick for dating and then sex advice. One thing leads to another and Nick becomes Harper’s teacher in everything that happens in the bedroom. However, as the two spend more time together in bed, Nick finds himself wanting to spend more time with Harper outside of it. Cue romance!

This book was the perfect fun and quick, while admittedly somewhat cliche, book I needed. It was steamy and fast paced and Nick and Harper played off each other really well. I loved their quips and jokes and how they really got each other in this cute way.

Also, I really loved when Blakely put in these little quips about writing that were like little inside jokes between her as the author and us readers. For example, at one point Nick, when comparing what he and Harper are doing to what the love interests in Big Rock did, says, “No, that’d be lame if we did the same thing. That would be like if a romance writer used the same trope in the very next novel.” I thought that was hilarious because obviously that would be exactly what Blakely would be doing but thankfully she did not.

All in all, if you’re looking for a cute, erotic romance novel I highly recommend Mister O. Although there were definitely some scenes I found unrealistic, it was overall fun and playful, and honestly, it’s kind of fun to get sucked into the fantasy. Plus it’s not expensive so why not buy it? I did.

Also, Blakely has a few more books coming out about the supporting characters in this novel. The next one will be about Nick’s brother, Wyatt, and it definitely sounds interesting. I’ll probably try to resist falling into another one of these novels but my willpower is weak. These have definitely become my guilty pleasure reads for sure. Love them!

Borrow or Buy: Buy!

Stars:

Favorite Line:

“I want to look into someone’s eyes and feel like he knows me, gets me, understand me. I want him to see my quirks and accept them, not try to change them. I want to know what that’s like.”

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Book Review: Big Rock

Posted on January 14, 2016January 22, 2016 by Zakiya N. Jamal in Book Reviews, Books to Buy

Synopsis from Amazon:

It’s not just the motion of the ocean, ladies. It’s definitely the SIZE of the boat too.
And I’ve got both firing on all cylinders. In fact, I have ALL the right assets. Looks, brains, my own money, and a big c&$k.

You might think I’m an as%*$le. I sound like one, don’t I? I’m hot as sin, rich as heaven, smart as hell and hung like a horse.
Guess what? You haven’t heard my story before. Sure, I might be a playboy, like the NY gossip rags call me. But I’m the playboy who’s actually a great guy. Which makes me one of a kind.

The only trouble is, my dad needs me to cool it for a bit. With conservative investors in town wanting to buy his flagship Fifth Avenue jewelry store, he needs me not only to zip it up, but to look the part of the committed guy. Fine. I can do this for Dad. After all, I’ve got him to thank for the family jewels. So I ask my best friend and business partner to be my fiancée for the next week. Charlotte’s up for it. She has her own reasons for saying yes to wearing this big rock.

And pretty soon all this playing pretend in public leads to no pretending whatsoever in the bedroom, because she just can’t fake the kind of toe-curling, window-shattering orgasmic cries she makes as I take her to new heights between the sheets.

But I can’t seem to fake that I might be feeling something real for her.

What the hell have I gotten myself into with this…big rock?

After reading a lot of YA, which I love, I decided to step out of my regular reading zone and jump into some erotica. The last romance/erotic novel I read was Fall With Me by Jennifer L. Armentrout in May, so it’s been a while.

I don’t remember how this book crossed my radar but I do remember reading the description and being intrigued. Give me a best friend relationship that turns into something more and I’m automatically hooked.

This book was everything I wanted (and expected) it to be. Lauren Blakely chose to tell this story from the guy’s, Spencer, point of view and I liked that a lot. This is the first erotic novel I read from the guy’s point of view and I liked it. I don’t know if this is true of all guys so I don’t want to say it is but in this case Spencer didn’t spend too much time dissecting what everything meant. He keeps things pretty straight forward and I liked that a lot.

He was attracted to Charlotte, they started hooking up, and then he starts to think maybe they should be more than friends. It’s that simple. Of course he questions whether being more than friends with her is the right thing to do but we don’t get chapters and chapters of him worrying about it, which I appreciated.

Also, I liked Spencer as a person. I think it was a little much that Blakely basically made him into the perfect guy who’s rich, hot, and well mannered, but this is fiction so I went along with it. Besides, it was nice to read about a guy who didn’t need to be fixed or had some crazy, dark secret that his love interest would have to get past in order for them to be together.

Instead, Spencer is just a regular guy who is a bit cocky but besides that is funny, kind, and loves his parents and younger sister, Harper, which I found to be cute and endearing. And I really liked his relationship with Charlotte. They play well off each other and although I think the pacing of the novel was a little fast and I found Charlotte’s quick preposition to be “friends with benefits” with Spencer a little unbelievable, I still enjoyed the novel.

As far as the erotic parts go, they were good and steamy as well. This is probably the best erotic novel I’ve read so far. The erotic scenes weren’t too much and I actually liked the plot too. Plus, Spencer and Charlotte are really cute together. Definitely check out this book if you want to dip your toe in erotic fiction. It’s a good gateway book into the genre.

Also, if you read this and love it there’s a sequel coming out this summer! It’s titled Mister Orgasm, which will make more sense once you read Big Rock (although, let’s be real, it’s already kind of self explanatory). I’ll probably read the next one because I’d like to enter this world again and it stars Spencer’s best friend, Nick, and Spencer’s sister, Harper, and I could already sense the sparks between them in this novel. Plus, the “dating the sister of my best friend” trope is also a favorite of mine.

Borrow or Buy: Buy!

Stars:

Favorite Line:

“My heart trips over itself in a race to get closer to her. Something is happening. Something strange and completely foreign. My heart is speaking a language I don’t understand as it tries to fling itself at Charlotte. Great. Now, that’s two organs I have to do battle with every day.”

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