Frisk Me
Series: New York’s Finest #1
Author: Lauren Layne
Release Date: July 28, 2015
Forever
After a photograph of Luc Moretti saving a tourist hits social media, he instantly becomes New York’s most famous and beloved cop. When a major network decides to run a special on the “American Hero,” Luc’s boss gives him no choice but to cooperate in the name of good exposure for the department. Luc doesn’t mind the celebrity status-what he does mind is the gorgeous brunette journalist who’s been assigned to follow his every move. Especially since she also happens to be the same knockout that rejected him rather publicly the week before.
Ava Sims is a woman who gets what she wants. And what she wants is to be CBC’s lead anchor-but to get there, she’ll need to nail the fluff piece on the playboy cop. Luc Moretti is everything Ava knows to stay away from: a stubborn charmer with a hero-complex. But the more Ava gets to know Luc and his oddball family, the more she realizes that beneath the swagger and the blue uniform is a complex man who makes her heart beat too fast. Soon, Ava’s doing the unthinkable, and falling for the best of New York’s finest …
“Hey, so Cap said the hot reporter would be doing ride-alongs with us. That’ll be cool,” Lopez said.“Seriously? You hate ride-alongs,” Luc said.Lopez held up a finger. “No, I hate the dippy, I-wanna-be-a-cop-someday type of ride-alongs. Those stupid kids are always offering advice when they don’t know shit about shit. But Ms. Sims will be a nice kind of ride-along. Just sitting, observing…looking fine…”Luc withheld the snort. If Lopez thought Ava wouldn’t be offering plenty of unsolicited advice, he had an unpleasant surprise. He doubted mind your own business was in her DNA, not to mention it was a blatant contradiction of her job description.“Hot or not, same rules apply,” Luc said, just to set the record straight. “She can come on the tame ride-alongs. That’s it.”“Shit, and here I was planning to bring her to a shoot-out,” Lopez mused.Luc flung the paperclip back at his partner, nailing him in the forehead. “Hey. So, I need you to be my wingman.”
Lopez rubbed the red spot to the right of his temple with a knowing grin. “Ah, so you do want a piece of Miss Media.”
Yes.
No!
Damn it.
“Let me rephrase,” Luc said, sitting back in his chair. “I need you to be my reverse wingman. Do whatever you need to keep that plastic, nosy diva away from me.”
There was a light tap on his shoulder before a female voice spoke up. “Gonna be hard when this nosy diva is hell-bent on getting all up in your business.”
Whoops.
“Nice job, Wingman,” Luc said with a glare at Lopez, whose grin indicated that he’d definitely seen Ava approaching and had opted not to mention it.
Luc pivoted around in his chair so he faced Ava. Only he was sitting, and she was standing, which put him exactly at eye level with Ava’s slim hips.
Generally speaking, Luc liked a little more curve to his women, but apparently his preferences were shifting, because he couldn’t help his sex-starved brain from thinking that Ava Sims’s hips were the perfect size for his hands to wrap around, his fingers holding her still as he prepared to plunge into her…
The fantasy dissolved into a million pieces when she opened her sassy mouth again.
“You know…” her voice was considering, her finger tapping idly against her lips. “I’d always heard that the whole man-in-uniform thing was supposed to be a turn-on. Guess it’s an acquired taste.”
Whatever they had, it wasn’t typical sexual attraction.
It was something deeper.
Darker.
Whenever I see a new series come out by Lauren Layne, I don’t even bother reading the synopsis before adding. I don’t need to because I already know that the chances are 99.9% that I’ll love it. But I was an extra shot of excited when I read the blurb for this book because…HOT COPS! What? Like you didn’t? Don’t judge me! Although admittedly, I could have done with a different cover *cringes*. I know, I know, don’t judge a book by the cover and all that, and this was certainly a huge case of that. My inner cover cover whore just shut her eyes and dove in hoping against hope that the hero looks nothing like what the cover implied…and he didn’t! (thank jebus)
“You’re bribing an officer of the law? Or just really desperate to spend time with me, Sims?”
“Two questions, Moretti. What EXACTLY is up your ass? And how the hell do we remove it?”
He ran a hand through his hair, answering honestly, because honey was what Morettis did best. “Sexual frustration. As far as how to fix it…”
The hate-to-love trope. *dreamy sigh* Can it ever get old? And when you put Luc and Ava in a room together, sparks certainly fly. These two had instant chemistry from the very first time they traded insults. Three years ago they first met when officer Luc wrote Ava a ticket for illegally parking her news van and it’s been on ever since…the unfinished business between them, that is. Now Ava is back (shoving the ticket from 3 years ago right at his chest and everything), only this time it’s business. After his heroic actions saved a little girl has garnered national attention and followed up with a good samaritan video of him giving his coat to a homeless man sealed the deal, everyone wants a piece of Luc, Ava included. But what she wants him for is an exclusive and it goes against everything Luc stands for to put his life on display. He’s no one’s hero, and the last thing he wants is more attention when he’s still struggling with survivor’s guilt after a job got wrong got his friend and partner killed. Thus begins the hate lust relationship that will make your ovaries so blue, you’ll think you’ll die if these two finally don’t admit to each other what they want and give into the inevitable.
“Sure, I’ll just tape my mouth shut,” she snapped…
For a second, he looked hopeful. “That’s an option?”
Luc was a hero that I fell for right away. He’s just the right amount of tortured but with a dry wit about him that I loved. Coming from a long line of NYPD’s finest, he’s the lowest on the tandem pole it seems. His brothers are detectives and his father is the previous police commissioner. Luc is still suffering survivor’s guilt about the failed rescue that cost his partner his life. His biggest fear is the exclusive that his new boss is forcing him to go along with will allow Ava to dig further than he wants.
My favorite thing about this book was Luc’s relationship with him family and then the icing on the cake was Nonna. This woman quite honestly stole the show.
Neither brother responded, and Anthony very slowly turned his head to look at Luc. “She belongs in a home. One with bars on the window.”
I found myself giggling like a loon at every single scene with her. Everything that came out of her mouth was just absolute gold, I swear.
Luc tipped his head back and looked at the ceiling.
“Try to talk her into it tonight, Luca. Oh, and find out if she’s Catholic, would you? I suppose we can lie about that too, although I don’t know how Jesus would feel about that…”
Ava was a character that try as I might I never quite warmed up to. Considering her intentions throughout the entire book and then finally her actions at the end, it’s no wonder why I felt that way. I’m still not sure how I feel about her, but probably just a step away from tolerating her.
That being said, I did love her and Luc together. Their chemistry was practically crackling with electricity. But don’t let that fool you because there’s no insta-anything in this book. It was a very slow burn that at times left me so frustrated, I didn’t know whether to scream at the ceiling for them to finally do it, or to ice my ovaries. While I can’t say that the story itself was slow paced or dragging, the romance was certainly….worth the wait.
I’ve been thinking on my rating for a few days now. While I disliked some of the decisions Ava made, I still enjoyed this book. I loved the family dynamic and all the secondary characters. I’m absolutely dying for Vincent’s book because oh man, that set up? Delicious sounding. But I’ll certainly make do with the grumpy and broody Anthony in the meantime and without any complaints. I do love me a broody man. Lauren Layne definitely has herself another winner with this series and I can’t wait for more.
Lauren Layne is the USA Today Bestselling author of contemporary romance.
Prior to becoming an author, Lauren worked in e-commerce and web-marketing. In 2011, she and her husband moved from Seattle to New York City, where Lauren decided to pursue a full-time writing career. It took six months to get her first book deal (despite ardent assurances to her husband that it would only take three). Since then, Lauren’s gone on to publish ten books, including the bestselling Stiletto series, with several more on the way in 2015.
Lauren currently lives in Chicago with her husband and spoiled Pomeranian. When not writing, you’ll find her at happy hour, running at a doggedly slow pace, or trying to straighten her naturally curly hair.
I was first hooked on this series and this author when I read 
This book had some of the best sexual tension I’ve read in a very long while. It was utterly delicious. I loved the way Chanel Cleeton handled their attraction and ultimate giving into it. I couldn’t get enough of these two.
There is no other trope out there that I love more than hate-to-love. And I think I may have found my favorite hate-to-love romance book to date. Even the Score was full of sexual chemistry, humor, all wrapped around a fantastic story that was utterly delicious. Delicious I tells ya! If this book isn’t on your TBR, you are seriously missing out because what a perfect gam this turned out to be.
Kate Meader devised the perfect formula of hate+lust to make this book absolutely unputdownable. I couldn’t get enough of it. There’s none of that typical and tiring back and forth that you’d normally find in books like this. It just felt like natural progression here.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m not really a trilogy girl. I have never really read a trilogy where the main couple consumed me in such a way that I was itching for more of them, and yet somehow these two authors have managed that feat. Not only did I enjoy Release Me, I loved it even more than the first. Yeah. I’ll give you a moment to absorb that.
If second chance romance is your thing, this trilogy will deliver it in spades. I gobbled it right up like the starved addict that I am and it was absolutely delicious. The angst, the secrets, and of course the absolutely scorching hot sex all combined guaranteed for a page turner.
There was not one wasted page in the story. While I felt like the first book was a bit overwhelming on the sex, this one had the absolutely perfect formula. It was just enough to add to the story without taking anything away.
Allow me to preface my review by saying had I read this book immediately after 
What’s better than a second chance romance? A second chance romance with an Aurora Rose Alpha. *swoon* There’s a reason she’s my go-to author for pure guilty pleasure read, and this book was the perfect fix. At just under 200 pages, it’s on the shorter side, and easily read in one sitting (which I did since I couldn’t put it down). Surprisingly in those short pages Aurora managed to give the readers a true heartfelt romance. It made me cry, it made me swoon, it made me pant. It was that perfect weekend afternoon read that will leave a smile on your face.
Fifteen years ago Lea and Austin were high school sweethearts that were planning on spending the rest of their lives together. But then the tragic death of her father leaves Lea shattered and she runs; from her life, from her town, and from Austin. Now she’s recently divorced and back to her childhood town to take care of her dying mother, but coming to terms with her past isn’t quite so easy when the boy that stole her heart those years ago is now the man that still makes it pound.
To say that Austin isn’t happy to see Lea again is definitely an understatement. When she left, she took what was left of his heart along with her. He’s bitter, angry, and the fact that she still draws him in like she did all those years ago doesn’t make it easier.
It’s been one year, a month, 3 days, 2 hrs and 58 minutes since I read 
Carly may only be 18 years old, but this is no blushing ingenue. The girl is tough as nails and doesn’t exactly shy away from male attention. She craves the men’s lusty looks like a drug. But one night, she allows her flirtation to temp the wrong man and gets thrown head first into something she has no hope of escaping…not without Gio’s protection.
Carly and Gio together were absolutely magnetic. But there’s so much more going on in this book than just the budding romance between them. There’s the mob, there’s Gio’s revenge for what he lost, there’s the lingering effects of what happened with Mia in 
Aly Martines has quickly become one of my go-to favorite authors to read. I stalk her new releases incessantly and would pre-order without even batting an eye lash. I love her books that much. She writes some of my favorite broken heroes and heroines that melt their hearts and mend their broken pieces. 
The end of Fighting Silence finds Flint jumping in front of a bullet for Eliza and losing his ability to walk after getting shot in his back. Angry at the world, resentful, and drowning in his jealousy of his brother’s woman that he knows will never be his is slowly chipping away at him. His answer is to leave it all behind and to move as far away from them as possible in order to start anew. This is when Ash Mabie walks into his life.
I knew his heroine will have to be something very special to catch his eye and boy was she. I knew I’d love Oakley from just the first chapter. Not often you meet a heroine that’s preparing cupcakes for her daughter while engaging in dirty talk as a sex line operator as her day job. I couldn’t help but giggle as she described the mundane experience of her “night job” while thinking about her chores. The woman had sass a mile long too.
Pike is a bad boy you’ll fall for right away. There’s always this undercurrent of vulnerability to him that flashes behind his devil-may-care attitude. When all the pieces of his past begin to click together, your heart will absolutely break for him and everything that he’s been through. While Pike thinks that all he wants is between Oakley’s thighs, he soon begins to realize that what he wants most of all is inside her heart. Oakley is not so easy with her turnaround, however. Her history with men and especially men in the music business is one that left some deep rooted scars. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t soon find herself falling deeper and deeper under Pike’s appeal.
This book was a little bit different from the rest of the series in where The Ranch wasn’t a large part of the sex, if at all. Pike may be a rockstar in bed and out, but he’s not a man that recognizes himself as a Dom or anything else. He likes what he likes and he doesn’t label it. He likes a bite of pain in his sex and he likes a little bondage, but he’s not above letting the woman take control either. While he’s definitely NOT vanilla, the romance between him and Oakley didn’t have a very big BDSM element. So if you’re a reader that doesn’t enjoy much BDSM, you’d definitely enjoy this book.
I don’t think there was anything I didn’t enjoy about this book. It was sizzling hot and with a fantastic story that was perfectly paced. The sex was scorching but it never took away from the romance, only added to it. It’s not often you find an author that finds that perfect balance of erotic but without overwhelming it with sex.
It’s been over a week since I read Toxic and it’s taken me this long to be able to sum my feelings and clear my head enough to rate it. If I can describe this book for you in one word, it would be exhausting. I was absolutely emotionally spent when I finished it. I spent a good 40% of it feeling like I want to rip my hair out. And this is coming from a self-professed angst whore, mind you.
But then here’s the thing; I liked it. Even though the constant back and forth between Phoebe and Jeremy left me feeling like they’re going to give me whiplash, I still liked it and gobbled it up like the angst starved junky that I am. Was it delicious? Heck no! I thought I may choke on it. But god help me, I still liked it. My favorite trope is the second chance romance and Toxic delivers it in spades.
While both Phoebe and Jeremy know they may be toxic together, they can’t stay away from each other. Their chemistry practically crackles in electricity. There’s one thing that’s certain, Kim Karr can write some scorching sex scenes. But the lies between them are like poison that won’t leave. Much as they try to purge it from their relationship it remains that one toxic factor that brews the way for mistrust and mistakes. I think it would be safe to say that neither of these characters are perfect, far from it in fact. These two fuck up so many times it made me want to throttle them and chuck my kindle at the wall. It was rage inducing.
There’s a wealth of secondary characters that were introduced that added to the story in a very significant way. Maybe that’s what helped dilute the angst between Jeremy and Phoebe? It made the book evolve like a movie in front of my eyes and it made me really connect to the characters’ lives. I’m not sure I’d be able to say the same thing if this happened in any other book, but in this one it just worked.
If you’re looking for a book that will enrage you and enrapture you all in one, Toxic is that. It’s a make you want to rip your hair out while still rooting for the characters kind of second chance romance. It was far from perfect, but yet it worked. It may not be for everyone, but if you’re a reader that enjoys your angst in rage inducing proportions while getting an unforgettable second chance romance, Toxic is definitely a must read.
