HURTS TO LOVE YOU
Series: Forbidden Hearts #3
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Author: Alisha Rai
Release Date: March 27, 2018
Being bad never felt so good, in the third novel in Alisha Rai’s sexy Forbidden Hearts series!
Well-behaved women don’t lust after men who love to misbehave.
Heiress Evangeline Chandler knows how to keep a secret . . . like her life-long crush on the tattooed hottie who just happens to be her big brother’s friend. She’s a Chandler, after all, and Chandlers don’t hook up with the help. Then again, they also don’t disobey their fathers and quit their respectable jobs, so good-girl rules may no longer apply.
Gabriel Hunter hides the pain of his past behind a smile, but he can’t hide his sudden attraction to his friend’s sheltered little sister. Eve is far too sweet to accept anything less than forever and there’s no chance of a future between the son of a housekeeper and the town’s resident princess.
When a wedding party forces Eve and Gabe into tight quarters, keeping their hands off each other will be as hard as keeping their clothes on. The need that draws them together is stronger than the forces that should shove them apart . . . but their sparks may not survive the explosion when long-buried secrets are finally unearthed.
Well-behaved women don’t lust after men who love to misbehave.
I immediately fell hard for Alisha Rai’s writing when I first read Wrong to Need You. Her slow paced, character driven stories are not my usual cuppa, but they never to fail to have me glued to the pages. Her characters are unique without any of the typical OTT flare that you’d find in most romance novels these days. They don’t need it. They’re raw, and real, and feel like someone you know or would meet in real life. There’s something just so refreshing about that, that it immediately clicked with me.
Hurts To Love You is the third and final book in the Forbidden Hearts series, and while it’s a standalone with a different couple, I still highly recommend reading the rest of the series first. There’s so much history with these families that may be lost on a new reader and not enjoyed as thoroughly having read the rest of the books. Evangeline is the youngest Chandler sibling and sister to Nicholas from Hate to Want You. She’s the shy, soft-spoken and unassuming one. But still waters certainly run deep with her, because this a woman that harbors plenty of secrets and desires. Her biggest? Her unrequited love for Nicholas’s friend, Gabriel Hunter. Gabriel is rough around the edges, tatted, and completely off limits to her. Even if he didn’t make it clear to her all those years ago that he’s not interested in her, she can’t help how she feels.
Gabriel is a man with secrets of his own. One, are his own lustful feelings towards the beautiful Evangeline. The other is so scandalous, it can ultimately cost him everything.
Forced together for Nicholas’s wedding, Gabriel and Evangeline are forced to acknowledge their secrets, their demons, and their feelings in a slow building yet deeply emotional romance that was impossible to put down.
I adored Gabe’s dirty side underneath that quiet and unassuming exterior. He fights his feelings for Eve, but a man can only resist so much. And when Eve decides that she’s tired of waiting for things to happen and takes matters into her own hands, there’s only so much a man can take. I loved watching Eve finally find her voice and inner core of steel. She may be shy and introverted, but she’s also no pushover. Her and Gabe were the perfect balance to each other.
Between the continuing family drama, the disastrous wedding that seems to have one thing go wrong after another, and their own internal struggles, there was plenty of things driving the plot forward. It wasn’t full of OTT drama but it had just the right amount of angst with plenty of sizzle. I think this was my favorite book in the series. If you’re looking for a romance brimming with feels and overflowing with passion, I definitely recommend you check this one out.
THREE TO RIDE
A litte suspense with a whole lot of sexy makes Three To Ride one titillating read! I first got curious about Lexi’s Bliss series when she hinted at it in 
SINNER
So, erm, if anyone needs me, I’ll just be over here in the corner icing my ovaries. Because this book? Set those suckers on FIRE! I mean, sweet baby jesus. Pun intended. But seriously though. Hot damn. Just…hot damn.
ROUGH RIDE
It’s been a while since I reached for a KA fix. Truth be told, the last two releases were a very sad DNF for me that left me questioning if I’d finally reached a point where I had to admit defeat with one of my previously favorite authors. But I love The Chaos series, and I simply couldn’t help but one-click this book to see if I’ll finally get a bit of those KA feels back. It’s just been too long since I felt them!
But mostly confused.
SWITCH HITTER
This was such a cute and satisfying novella that I devoured in one smile filled reading.
HELLO STRANGER
All.
HAWKYN
It’s no secret that I’m obsessed with all things Larissa Ione writes. Having read her entire backlist, I don’t think there’s been one book of hers that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy, and this one was no exception. While the story is set in her Demonica world, new readers wouldn’t feel lost. There’s plenty of background, the characters are not ones that have previously introduced, and while part of a series, it’s a solid standalone as well. Though I’d still highly recommend the rest of the Demonica series because it’s just that awesome. But I digress.
Larissa Ione is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. An Air Force veteran, she traded in a career as a meteorologist to pursue her passion of writing. She now spends her days in pajamas with her computer, strong coffee, and supernatural worlds. She believes in celebrating everything, and would never be caught without a bottle of Champagne chilling in the fridge…just in case. She currently lives in Wisconsin with her U.S. Coast Guard husband, her teenage son, a rescue cat named Vegas, and her very own hellhound, a King Shepherd named Hexe.
KISSING THE BOSS
THIEF
Tanaka has only ever known duty and dreams. Her dream to become a ballerina, her dream to be the best one she can, it’s all within reach now. But her duty to her Italian roots and her father’s debt to another mafia syndicate soon costs her more than she knows.
A. Zavarelli definitely has a gift for writing one addicting and gritty mafia romance. She doesn’t shy away from the gory details or getting her readers way outside of their comfort zone. Nikolai is not perfect, and he makes it no secret. If you’re expecting a sweet hero in a bad circumstance that wields a gun while making googly eyes at the heroine, you’d best read another book. My one quibble with the story is the somewhat incorrect use of Russian terminology, slang, and nicknames. However, the author also clearly did her research on the Bratva and there wasn’t much Russian used here that brought out my nitpicking like it typically would.
A. Zavarelli is a USA Today and Amazon bestselling author.
NOBODY DOES IT BETTER
Lexi Blake sure knows how to end a series with a bang! Nobody Does It Better packed a heck of a punch; sexy, action packed, suspenseful, with a whole lot of espionage and plot twists thrown in. I couldn’t get enough!
