SIZZLING
Series: Georgia Smoke #3
Author: Abbi Gaines
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: May 26, 2024

Briar

Running. It seems that’s all I ever do. I’ve been running since I was fifteen. Some days I wonder if I’ll ever be able to stop. Would I even know how to live a normal life if I could? Doubt it. No reason to waste good time thinking on it either. Sitting around wishing for something never did anyone a favor. If you want it, then you go and get it. By any means necessary. And I was an expert at using my strengths. I’d been born with beauty, and it had been a curse that haunted me until, one day, I grabbed it and used it to my advantage. Don’t judge. You have no idea the demons I’ve fought… and the ones I still do.

Storm

Sure, I was raised to kill when needed and to protect the family. However, my momma also taught me to open doors for women and respect them unless they prove they’re not ladies. It was a damn shame the sweet little piece I’d been unable to get out of my head had never been a lady a day in her life. That gorgeous face and mouthwatering body were real nice wrapping paper to distract men. Briar Landry was a liar, a thief, a cheat, and a very talented gold digger. She disgusted me. The more I was forced to be around her, the more I hated her. I knew the evil inside her and I had enough twisted darkness of my own. Treating her with cruelty, I hadn’t known I possessed, was the only way to keep from letting her pull me inside her web.

AMAZON

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, and I’ll cut your dick off.

Look, I don’t know what Abbi puts into these books, but they are the best form of book crack that I devour in one giddy sitting. And you know what the funny thing is? I could sit here and probably nitpick at plenty of things, and maybe if it was written by anyone else, I would. But when Abbi writes it, it just works.

That wasn’t the kind of woman you got out of your system. She was the kind that took your soul.

This is the next couple’s story in Abby’s Smoke series spinoff, Georgia smoke. And if you want to appreciate the story that much more, I highly recommend reading in order, because many characters are introduced early on and their story arc continues until their book. Such is the case of Briar, who we learned about in Slay King. Briar is a bit different from the other heroines that Abbi has written in these two series, because she’s self assured. She’s gorgeous and she knows it, and she uses it to survive. It was a refreshing change of pace to read. Having said that, while she puts up a good fight, sort of, she is still not able to resist the chemistry and attraction to Storm even when she should.

Storm thinks Briar is a gold-digger and takes every opportunity to judge her loudly for it. But even that judgement doesn’t lessen his attraction and pull to her. It’s also ironic that a man firmly rooted in the opposite side of the law would judge anyone, but here were are. As hard as he tries to fight the pull, he’s irrevocably drawn to the beauty and it doesn’t take long for their sizzling chemistry to finally implode.

What’s funny is that I would usually want to junk punch someone like Storm, but his hot and cold attitude just worked for me here. I would also want to judge how easy Briar gives into their pull no matter how crappy Storm treats here, but here were are. I just couldn’t seem to care because it just worked. Don’t ask me how or why, but I enjoyed the heck out of their dynamic. I could also nit pick into Storm’s sudden about face when it comes to Briar, but I couldn’t even bat an eye lash at it.

It was just one of those perfect, shut off your brain and enjoy sort of reads and I loved the heck out of it for it. It’s not a standalone and their conclusion will be with the next book, but it also doesn’t leave you on a painful cliffhanger. It ends at a satisfying point where you want the next book but you also get just enough of a good ending to be able to tolerate the short wait until the next installment.