Jacked Up
Series: Bowen Boys #4
Genre: Erotic, Contemporary Romance
Author: Elle Aycart
Release Date: March 8, 2016
Since James Bowen married Elle Cooper’s sister, tall dark and handsome Jack Copeland has become a permanent fixture in Elle’s life. A silent, rather annoying fixture, with his arrogant aloofness and my-way-or-the-highway attitude rubbing her the wrong way. So she does what any self-respecting woman would: aggravate the wits out of him.
Party girl Elle Cooper is everything covert operative Jack Copeland doesn’t want in a woman. Outspoken, sassy. A smartass. Too bad when he closes his eyes, all his mind conjures up is her. To everyone else, he comes off as intimidating and unapproachable. Everyone except Elle. So he does what any self-respecting man would: stay the hell away from her. But when Elle gets herself in deep trouble, all of Jack’s protective instincts kick in, and keeping his distance is no longer an option.
Elle’s already complicated life takes a downturn, and she’s given two choices: go to jail or stick with Jack.
With Jack and Elle in such close proximity, sparks are flying all over the damn place and it’s only a matter of time before they ignite. The only question is, who will kill Elle first? The vicious drug cartel hunting her or Jack?
I say when we are done and we are not. Not by a long shot. You’ve been taunting me for months. Years, pet. Now that you got my undivided attention, you can’t say you don’t want it. You can’t back down. I won’t allow it. You’ve been asking for it. For me. This is what you get: me. I’ll tie you down and fuck you so thoroughly you will be limp by the time I’m done with you.
Do you like broody, protective uber alphas who prefer monosyllabic conversations unless they’re in bed and letting their inner caveman do the talking? Do you like sassy as hell heroines that give as good as they get and have more zingers than an episode of SNL? Do you like a sizzling hot sexual chemistry that brews even hotter with a slow burn sort of pace the author sets? Do you like your erotica written perfectly balanced with an addicting sort of story and a dash of suspense thrown in? Well lucky day! Because do I have the book for you!
“Which tone?”
“The obey-me-or-else tone, the one that demands servitude. Doing things on command is not a skill I’ve acquired or have any interest in acquiring.”
If you’ve read the previous books in this series, then you’ll remember Elle Cooper, Tate Cooper’s sister and now James Bowen’s sister-in-law? If you haven’t, no worries, because you can easily read this book as a standalone and not be even slightly lost. Jack Copeland is James’s shadowy and grumpy friend that now has a tie to Elle that he’s not too happy about. The woman infuriates him almost as much as she turns him on. And Elle absolutely loves to tease Jack to within an inch of his sanity.
Judging by his language and social skills, the missing link between humans and monkeys.
“A friend of my brother-in-law.”
Elle is exactly the kind of woman Jack doesn’t want; fun-loving, slightly flighty party girl that doesn’t take much in her life seriously…unless you take aggravating him as a thing, because she does that real well. But beneath the zingers, insults and barbs they throw each other’s way, there’s such a heavy undercurrent of lust, that you find yourself squeezing your legs together until that final big boom you know is coming and these two will finally CUMbust.
“But I do.”
“You can’t take me on. I like my woman tied up. Ball-gagged. Blindfolded. Plug up their asses. Pussy spread open for me to fuck it however I want. If I take the gag off, it’s to fuck their mouths.”
Jack does an upstanding job avoiding all things Elle, until the day where Elle lands in life threatening trouble and Jack is determined to protect her at all costs. He’ll do his job and walk away afterwards, but Elle is determined to make him lose all reason and patience in the process.
“Well, I hope your ninja training includes holding your breath for long periods. Or let me ask at the counter, they might have an iron lung somewhere. Either way you said your dick is not in charge here, so order it back to its cave and don’t waste my time.”
I gobbled up this book with a pervy sort of glee I haven’t felt in a long while. I loved these two together. Nothing beats a good hate/love scenario for me, and boy do these two serve that up on a silver platter. You can’t help but love Elle even if she lands herself in scenarios where you’ll want to throttle her. Jack is everything I love in an alpha; broody, slightly crass, protective, and a dirty, dirty man in bed.
The sexual chemistry between them was so hot, it practically crackled on the pages. I appreciated the slow burn approach the author took and not throwing them into bed together right away. I love a good sexual tension and this book certainly had that.
But beyond the super sexy romance and fantastic characters, Jacked Up had a great plot that served to tie everything together flawlessly. The suspense was the perfect touch. It wasn’t so intense that it took away from the romance, but it was the perfect spark to spice things up even further.
Jacked Up was the perfect combination of sizzling hot erotica, romance, and story. If you haven’t read anything by this author yet, you are seriously missing out.
On a side note here’s a particular secondary character that I’m beyond thrilled will be getting a book because I was salivating for his story the entire time.
READ THE REST OF THE SERIES
MORE THAN MEETS THE INK | HEAVY ISSUES | TO THE MAX
Truth be told, I struggled with my rating for this book for days now. I’ve been marinating and marinating over what to rate it. Do I rate it as a part of the Tall, Dark, and Dangerous series which it didn’t seem to fit at all? Or do I rate it as a standalone I felt it should have been? After much deliberation, I’ve decided to go with something in the middle of the two. Because here’s the thing, while I did truly enjoy Brave Enough, I didn’t find it fit the series. Aside from Tag being a hero that was first introduced early in the series, there is really no other connection. The story felt different, the romance felt different, and the entire feel of it was just different.
But while I loved the set up, I had a hard time believing that Josh spent 5 years being celibate because he was “married”. Considering their arrangement, I just couldn’t wrap my mind around that. I connected to Alexia and her reasons, but Josh’s seemed a bit extreme.
If there’s one thing that Lauren Layne knows how to do, it’s to write a swoony, feel-good, and super sexy contemporary romance. Cuff Me just may be my favorite in the series and of course the grumpy Vince is definitely my favorite Moretti brother…so far anyway.
It was a nice change of pace from the typical broody and tortured hero that you normally find in romance these days. After two books of wondering what made Vin tick and made him the man that he is today, I can certainly say I was not left disappointed with the way the author handled it.
Having never read a Melody Grace book before, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started this. All I knew is after reading that blurb and seeing that cover, I couldn’t not read it. Also, have you ever known me to turn down a chance to read a second chance romance? I think not. That’s a damn sin is what it is, because let’s be honest, I do love me some second chance romance. All that angst, it just speaks to me. Heartbreaker was actually quite low on the angst, but it did pack a punch to the feels. It was a wonderful, sweet and sexy story of two characters I fell in love with right away. The pace was steady, the writing was great, the characters endearing, and the romance super steamy. It may have been almost too sweet for my particular tastes, but it just worked for me here. It fit these two characters perfectly. There wasn’t a need for any crazy drama or angst. It worked the way it was and I appreciated it for that.
Eva spiraled after Finn left and spiraled into rock bottom that she’s determined never to repeat. She lost herself along the way, but now she wants to find that girl again. Finn wants a second chance, but can Eva give him her heart again when he shattered it so completely those years ago?
Told in alternating POVs, this was a light yet steamy escape. I loved Finn and Eva together, and I loved that there was no flashbacks necessary to make the reader truly connect with their romance, even the one from their past. The author did a wonderful job explaining where they came from and leading them into the now. There’s no crazy drama, no crazy conflict that takes place, or silly miscommunications. Just two people, healing the wounds of their past, together.
Have you ever read a book that’s supposed to be highly emotional and touching, yet you felt…nothing? Like you knew what you were supposed to feel but it was more mechanically going through the steps of those feelings more so than actually feeling them? No? Well that basically sums up how I felt about this book.
#HappyFeels
I’ve been sitting here for two days trying to put all my convoluted thoughts in words. Did I like this book? I don’t know. Did I DISlike it? I don’t know. I really just have no idea how I feel about the book, the characters, or the story. None. And isn’t that a bitch? The entire story is one mystery hidden behind another, and there’s quite a few things at work here that managed to leave me with more questions than answers now that I finished. Am I curious enough to read the next book to see where the story is going? I AM curious. But it’s more of a “I wish someone else would read it and tell me” sort of curiosity. It’s just that middle of the road book that I really don’t know how I even feel about. But I’ve digressed. Allow me to try to sum-up my thoughts somewhat in a semblance of a spoiler free review here…
I couldn’t understand X’s behavior or decisions. She’s a strong and captivating woman, but at times her naivety was a bit too much. Yes, I understand that since this is all she’s known for over 6 years that mostly rules her actions…but to a point. This is particularly true for the direction the ending of the book took. I was not at all a fan of that particular direction. While I do plan on reading the second book to see what happens, I’m not exactly anxious at a chance to jump into it either.
