Wicked Lies
Series: Men Of Summer #2
Genre: Erotic Romance, Suspense
Author: Lora Leigh
Release Date: September 1, 2015
Jazz has never been known as a good boy.
A good drinker. A good partier. A damned good builder, and a hell of a good liar. Those are all descriptions that come to mind when the citizens of Loudon, Tennessee think of the tall, muscular, laughter-filled charmer they know as Jazz. And Jazz will admit to all of them: he likes to play; he likes to tease. And a little white lie surely never hurt anyone.
Until the sexy, too-shy kindergarten teacher, Annie. Annie sets fire to his lusts as well as to his heart. But Annie has a past he wasn’t aware of. A past that will draw Jazz into the heart of a conflict he had never expected to face. His little Annie is under the protection of the United States Marshal Service for her testimony that has a high profile, very wealthy businessman facing death by lethal injection. A man that will stop at nothing to see her dead.
Now, Jazz has to pull in some serious favors, just as he finds himself fighting not just an overprotective Marshal that he believed was the new school principal, but also a woman determined to save the charming liar that has never been serious. One that has never faced reality. A man that has always sworn himself a bachelor. A man that now is telling the most wicked lies of his life to steal the heart of the woman that has stolen his soul.
God help him, he’d never wanted anyone…anything…like he wanted this woman.
Here’s the thing, you’re pretty much know exactly what you’re going to get with a Lora Leigh novel. No deviation. Lather, rinse and repeat, all her books follow practically the same formula. But there’s just something about her alphas; those crazy possessive and jealous, dirty talking and revenues heroes that just do it for me and keeps me coming back for more. Even if the story falls flat, I still enjoy the read for that reason alone. She’s my go-to when I need a good dose of uber alphas. Plus considering she was the very first erotic romance I had ever read, I suppose I have a a little nostalgia with her romances. Yes the formula is always the same; uber alpha and a sassy heroine that fights her obvious attraction to him at every corner, but in the case here…it worked for me.
Wicked Lies is book two in her Men of Summer series but it can easily be read as a standalone. I read book one years ago and remember a sum all of nothing and had no problem following the story here. Though I had a little trouble getting into the book in the first 25%, it did flow very well after that.
Jazz has never had trouble getting any woman he wanted, but a ghost from his past that he never recovered from prevents him from giving any part of his heart along the way. So why does the town’s new kindergarten teacher tempt him beyond reason?
Annie is back in the town she grew up in for answers. Hiding her identity from everyone, she’s determined to find those answers once and for all, even if she knows how dangerous it is for her to be back. The one man that she knows she should stay away from is also the man that’s determined to get her in his bed.
As far as the romance in Wicked Lies; that was absolutely sizzling hot. I loved the back and forth between the H/h and the chemistry between them was absolutely smoking. Jazz was every bit the uber alpha that I’ve come to expect from Leigh and Annie was definitely not the shy little mouse that she’s described as in the synopsis. Unfortunately I found the suspense part of the story to be fairly week. The biggest aspect of that being Annie’s past.
Annie grew up in the town she’s back in and left when she was 16. Now she’s back 10 years later and the only thing that she uses to disguise herself is different hair color and colored contact lenses and NO ONE recognizes her? Not her brothers? Not the friends she grew up with? Oh but when they see her without the lenses, they recognize her right away because she has extremely distinctive green eyes. Seriously?
That was just so weak, I couldn’t wrap my head around that, especially in a romantic suspense. I don’t usually have trouble suspending my disbelief slightly, but this was just laughable.
As for the rest, it was an enjoyable and super sexy read. I got what I expected; no more, no less, and I’m not even a little sorry. I’ll definitely be reading the next book in the series although I saw that it’s not the character I had hoped it’ll be, so hopefully she’ll be getting a book soon as well. If you’re looking for a incredibly erotic romantic suspense with an uber possessive alpha and a heroine that brings him to his knees, well you can’t really go wrong with this one.
Book 1 in the MEN OF SUMMER series
Truth be told, I’ve been waffling over my rating for this book for over a week now. While I enjoyed the concept of the book, the secondary characters and I’m certainly hooked on the series itself, I honestly can’t say that I loved this book. I was bored and found myself skimming the majority of the story.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything that grabbed me either…ever. It started out slow and for me the first half felt very dragging. I kept reading in hopes that it’ll pick up soon and perhaps the first 60% is just the build up, but that never happened. I find that NA usually has different types of angst, and being the angst whore that I am, I enjoy it each and every single time. However, as I’ve come to find here, there can also be a boring type of angst.
The rest of the book goes something the lines of this:
I felt no connection to the characters or the plot. I felt like all of it was muted in the constant sex fog. I got to the point where I was skimming most of the sex scenes because honest to god, my vagina hurt for Mariam.
Yeah. No.
Can you get a highly satisfying and enjoyable steamy romance in just a short 120 pages? In the case of this book; also-fucking-lutely. There’s a reason I’ve read practically every book in Lorelei’s backlist and this book is the perfect example why. It’s wonderfully smutty but with a great story and fantastic characters. I love this author’s dirty talking cowboys, and Wynton Grant was utter perfection.
Before I get to my review, let me get a few things out of the way with first.
The first half of the book is very much a slow burn, but it never drags. The angst and emotions truly have you riveted to the pages, it certainly did for me. My heart broke for Ransom and yet in the same breath I wanted to curse him to hell and back for his behavior. It was frustrating, it was maddening, it was disturbingly enrapturing.
I don’t want to give much away about the book because it’s just one of those things you need to experience for yourself. What I can say is I loved the route that Eden took with book and I was shocked as shit about it that I was. See, here’s the thing, I HATE a drawn out story that I think could have ended in one book. Cliffhangers drive me to drink and induce near homicidal thoughts when I finish reading it. Thick Love is part 1 of 2 books, and you know what? It’s best that way. This book was not about the epic love between Aly and Ransom. It was more about Ransom coming to terms with his guilt, healing his heart, and learning to move on. Both these characters have a lot of growing to do still and there’s no way this book would have been the same had it been all crammed into one book.
As much as the bumps on the road to Aly and Ransom’s relationship drove me out of my ever loving mind, it also made me feel. This entire book, everything about it will do one thing, guaranteed; evoke emotion. Whether that be rage, tears, it will make you feel.
I adore all things Lauren Layne, so it was an absolute no brainer decision when I saw she was coming out with a book for one of my favorite tropes; friends to lovers, to dive right in. Lauren is my go-to author whenever I need a light and easy read filled with swoony romance and endearing characters. Blurred Lines certainly fit that and then some. It was the perfect afternoon read. I simply adored Parker and Ben together. I always seem to have a weakness for the manwhores, and Ben definitely hit the spot for that. Their friendship had a solid foundation, which I really appreciated. I loved their banter the most
While the chemistry was definitely present between these two, they spent so much of the book denying and not seeing what was happening between them, that it became difficult even for me to see it. I struggled to see beyond their friendship to the romantic entanglements. Sure they burn up the sheets together, but I just didn’t get that butterflies in the stomach kind of connection. Usually in a friends-to-lovers book, I always sense the undercurrent of romance and sexual chemistry between the couple even when they don’t, but that wasn’t the case here. I can understand given the many years of solid friendship they had how they may fail to see it, but it just lasted too long for my tastes. Perhaps if both of them began to noticed it at least in the middle of the book than towards the end of it? For whatever reason, I just didn’t get that sense of crackling chemistry I usually get with a Lauren Layne novel.
What is it about an MM romance by Barbara Elsborg that just does it for me? Every. Single. Time. I’m pretty sure it’s the perfect combination of incredibly erotic sex scenes with a dry wit, snark, and humor along with some suspense that all adds up to be exactly what I need it to be. If you’ve read 
If you enjoy your MM with two very distinctly ALPHA males, this is not a book that you’ll want to miss. That was quite possibly one of my favorite parts about this. The fact that both the MCs are very much alpha and have a power struggle on who will bottom. Damn but it was delicious. But beyond that, Barbara Elsborg has once again managed to deliver and emotional and erotic story about two very broken people that find strength in each other and heal.
While recovering from an injury that almost paralyzed him and may not have been quite the accident that everyone else believed it to be. he’s sequesters himself to a house on the lake to go through the physical therapy he needs to finally gain his strength back. The last thing he expects to do is save a random drowning surfer.
Barbara Elsborg has become an auto-buy author for me and this book is a perfect example of why. I only hope that there may be more books in this series, but if I’m being honest, it doesn’t even matter because whatever this woman writes, I’ll read. Without a doubt.
No one, and I mean no one gives male POV quite like Emma Chase. The woman is the queen of male POVs and nothing beats her. While Drew from 
Don’t get me wrong, both Chelsea and Jake are far from perfect and I wanted to shake them for their stupidity more than a few times. But at the same time it just worked. I adored these two together. It wasn’t instant and I loved the burn of their sexual chemistry until they finally ignited together.
Wow. Suffice it to say that I’m drained. This book absolutely gutted me. It was devastating and beautiful all at once and I loved every painful second of it. Worth It is unlike any other book this author’s ever written. It has much darker undertones than the other books in this series, and it’s no light read. It’s gritty, it’s emotional, it’s devastating, made you ugly cry while hugging your kindle sort of read. It’s a beautifully unforgettable second chance romance about two people that didn’t belong, but yet belonged to each other that fate ripped apart in the cruelest of ways, only to bring them back together a little more broken to put their shattered pieces back together six years later. If you don’t recall these characters from previous books, that’s because they weren’t introduced there. Linda Kage managed to flawlessly interweave them, so if you’re wondering why they got a book before Asher, trust me when I tell you that you’ll understand once you read. Both of them have such a profound connection to a few of the previous characters that I never saw coming and definitely loved reading about. This also makes this book an easy standalone, so if you haven’t read the rest of the series, you’d still be able to enjoy this one fully.
There’s enough hints and bits and pieces given about what he’s been through to slowly let the reader connect the buttons, and my hear absolutely broke for Knox. His life was so tragic and when the whole truth of it gets revealed, I flat out sobbed. It was one thing trying to connect the pieces, but when you’re hit with the full picture of what he’d been through, it’s absolutely devastating.
This book was definitely a step away from the rest of the series, but it was amazing in it’s own right. It was emotional and completely unforgettable. It’s a story that will definitely be staying with me for a long long while. It’s just one of those books that truly touches you on a visceral level with the amount of emotions it brings out in you.
There’s also a hell of a teaser in the epilogue for Asher’s book that’s sure to whet your appetite if you’ve been waiting for it like I have. If you’re on the fence about reading this book, I can only tell you that you need to. It may not be a light read, but it’s so worth it. I love a good second chance romance, and this one was just so beautifully tragic and yet wonderful all at once. I simply can’t give you more than that because you need to experience it for yourself. But believe me when I tell you, that that’s what you need to do; experience it.
If I’m being perfectly honest, I was actually hesitant to read this. Last time I read a companion novel, the only thing it managed to do was make me hate the heroine with the fire of the worst kind of venereal disease. Not that I’d know what that felt like, but you catch my drift. What I mean to say, is more often then not you’re getting the same regurgitated novel you already read but in a different POV. Well this wasn’t that at all. Not even a little bit. Not even close. While this is essentially in Jared’s POV it’s a completely different book. So much so, that you can read it as a standalone, which I wouldn’t recommend since you need to see it from Tate’s POV first in 
I fell in love with Penelope Douglas’s storytelling in Bully, and the only thing this book managed to do was completely reaffirm that. Everything and I mean everything that I wanted more clarification and answers on in Bully was addressed here. While I adored that book, I found the reasons that Jared gave Tate for his behavior in it a little…weak. I felt like it had to be something more, something bigger for him to flip that switch and be the way he was with her. Until You delivered those answers in spades. Penelope truly allows the reader inside Jared’s head and you understand him and all his behavior so much more. Plus I loved getting more of him and Madoc and their banter together.
