TOO HOT TO HANDLE
Series: Romancing the Clarksons #1
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Author: Tessa Bailey
Release Date: May 17, 2016
When rescue looks like a whole lot of trouble…
The road trip was definitely a bad idea. Having already flambéed her culinary career beyond recognition, Rita Clarkson is now stranded in God-Knows-Where, New Mexico, with a busted-ass car and her three temperamental siblings, who she hasn’t seen in years. When rescue shows up—six-feet-plus of hot, charming sex on a motorcycle—Rita’s pretty certain she’s gone from the frying pan right into the fire . . .
Jasper Ellis has a bad boy reputation in this town, and he loathes it. The moment he sees Rita, though, Jasper knows he’s about to be sorely tempted. There’s something real between them. Something raw. And Jasper has only a few days to show Rita that he isn’t just for tonight—he’s forever.
This is what’s going to pass for conversation tonight. Small talk will be my tongue flicking against your clit until you cry out my name like a swear word. My headboard slapping the wall is going to be our heart-to-heart. And that gorgeous body riding my dick is going to be our nighttime prayers. You with me, Rita?”
Ladies, guard your ovaries, because the Queen of Dirty Talk is back at it with her brand new series featuring the four Clarkson siblings and their journey to a HEA.
The Clarkson siblings have been almost estranged for many years. They love each other but their camaraderie has been strained at the very least. When Rita reads her mother’s journal upon her passing and finds out that her last wish was for all four siblings to travel to NY and jump into the ocean as she did many years ago with the Coney Island Polar Bear Club, she’s not exactly sold on the idea. Then a fire burns down her mother’s award winning restaurant and with insurmountable guilt over it causes her to re-evaluate it. And while her siblings begrudgingly agree to accompany her, the road trip is not smooth sailing. Having their suburban break down in the middle of New Mexico is certainly not something they need to help their bickering even more.
A random good samaritan pulling over his motorcycle to help them wasn’t in their plan either. And neither was the instantaneous connection between him and Rita.
EVERYTHING. This acquintance with Rita was no longer some test of his worth. It was something bigger. He could feel it. “Time. I need more time with you, Rita.”
Jasper Ellis used to be the town’s bad boy. But he’s looking for more from his life now than simply the owner of the local watering hole and bad boy rep. It takes just a glance at the brown eyed beauty on the side of the road for him to know he wants more than just a good time with her. But Rita is only passing through, so it’s up to him to convince her that their connection deserves more than just a few hours spent between the sheets.
If you’re looking for Tessa’s signature dirty talk, you’ll certainly find that here…in spades.
Jasper delivers on that promise and more!
What I unfortunately found lacking here for me, was a connection with the characters. As much as I wanted to love the two of them together, their instant connection just didn’t work for me. There was definitely plenty of sexual tension and push and pull between them, but I wanted more. I just didn’t buy it, I suppose. For some reason they just fell flat for me. Perhaps it was because the entirety of their relationship in the book spans only three days and I’m just too cynical of a reader for that? Perhaps because at times it wasn’t only their relationship that fell flat for me but the characters themselves as well. I just didn’t connect with them or their romance. The sex was hot, as always, but I wanted more emotion. I also found myself thinking that some of the dirty talk was a bit too much at times, as well. Personally it does nothing for me when I read the hero referring to the heroine’s clit as “sweetheart” and having an actual conversation with her. But then again, since I didn’t have much of a connection with the story, I did nitpick quite a bit.
The pacing of the story was slow yet never boring, but ultimately my lack of connecting did force me to skim certain parts. Don’t get me wrong, it was still entertaining, but I supposed I simply wanted more from it.
I did love the relationship between all the siblings and getting a deeper peek at that with this story. It was enough to hook me to want to read the next three books.
If you’re a fan of this author, I definitely recommend the book. No reader is the same, and this may just be a winner for you! As much as I wish I could rate this a bit higher, it just didn’t hit me as much as I wished it would. This is one of those times where I really wish that GR had half stars, because while it wasn’t quite a 3 stars it wasn’t exactly a 2 either. To be fair, I’ll rate it a 3 here because ultimately I did still enjoy it for what it was. Perhaps it was my mood and coming off another book that blew me away and so my expectations were higher than normal. Read it and judge for yourself 😉
