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.
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.
First let me preface my review by saying that my lower rating had nothing to do with the book not being wonderful; it was a sweet and sexy romance. It has everything to do with my own personal preference. So please don’t let my rating deter. Three stars, after all, means that I did enjoy it overall, just a few things kept it from being a 4 or 5 star.
Allow me to preface my review by saying had I read this book immediately after 
I have been a huge fan of Christy Reece since first discovering her LCR series years ago. I binged on those books and never wanted to end. This is my first book by her in the new LCR spin-off series, LCR Elite, and I can’t say that I ever felt lost or confused not having read the previous book in this series. I did, however, read every single one of her LCR ones. I got a little nostalgic seeing some of my favorite characters making an appearance here, like Gabe Maddox and Skylar from 
This was a solid four star read for me up until that last twist at the end. It was just so OTT that I found myself losing interest in the story. It served as the catalyst for Brennan finally getting his head out of his ass, but it was still mostly eye-roll inducing.
Playing with fire,” he said into her ear.
