Review: ★Kissed★ by Elizabeth Finn

May 25, 2016 by ·

review-kissedKISSED
Standalone
Genre: Erotic, Contemporary Romance
Author: Elizabeth Finn
Release Date: May 23, 2016add-to-goodreads-button-2

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Reputation is everything, a fact Keegan Lauri knows all too well. A political PR strategist by trade, he makes his living creating and protecting the image of men, protecting them from women like Gabrielle Kitrick. She’s a threat to every man who falls for her. Beautiful, innocent, young, and available … for a price… Gabe is the shiny little trophy men of power seem to desire. But possessing her is a risk, a risk Keegan is responsible for removing from his client’s life.

He’s not above manipulating her for his own professional gain. He’s not even above seducing her and enjoying every second of it. But he finds out quickly her looks are a façade, and the more he comes to know Gabe, the more difficult it becomes to ignore her humanity. Because behind her beauty and crimson-lipped smile lies a young woman fighting for a better future, a future his very involvement with her jeopardizes.

When Keegan’s professional responsibilities threaten to expose her, will he choose to do his job or protect the young woman he’s become so attached to?

Buy LinksAMAZONReview4.5 starsKissed-DGR

So how much then?”
“How much…?”
“For your lips.”
“They’re not for sale.”

If there’s one thing I know when I pick up a new book by Elizabeth Finn, it’s that angst and a punch straight to the feels is guaranteed. There’s a damn good reason why she’s become my go-to when I’m craving an addicting combination of angst and feelings and she’ll deliver on the promise 100% of the time. Reading the synopsis I knew I was in for one heck of a read and I was not wrong. It’s everything I hoped it would be; seductive, emotional, angsty and hot enough to burn.

Keegan Lauri is ruthless when it comes to his job as a political PR strategist. He will do whatever it takes, even if it requires playing dirty. When he realizes that his new “assignment” happens to have a weakness in the form of the stunning woman that shows up on his arm to a political function, he knows he needs to get rid of her by any means necessary. What he doesn’t expect is to be lured in by her beauty and intriguing vulnerability himself…

Don’t worry. I won’t tell your secrets,” I whisper.
“You ARE the secret,” she whispered back.

Gabrielle Kitrick may be my favorite heroine I’ve read of Finn’s in a while. She’s this endearing combination of vulnerability and strength. The way that the author unveils all her layers though each chapter only serves to connect you to her even more. She may be a high priced escort, but she has a damn good reason for doing what she does. She’s not one of those in your face with her sexuality heroines, yet she doesn’t exactly berate herself about it either. When the devastatingly handsome Keegan shows up instead of her ‘client’ and propositions her for a night, the pull between them is too strong for her to refuse and so she gives in.

You want me to kiss it and make it feel better again, all those feelings you have bottled up inside, torturing you? Our lips sure do know how to make it disappear, don’t they?

What begins is a dangerous push and pull between two people that have everything to lose and yet chose to loose themselves in each other. The chemistry between them is undeniable and you can practically feel the electric current that crackles between them. The fact that you’re basically reading the book just waiting for the other shoe to drop makes it for one absolutely unputdownable read.

You know that something will go wrong, but you don’t know when or how. And that particular weight is a shadow over each and every one of their stolen interactions.

He leaned down, kissing my shoulder and then up to my ear. “Use me,” he whispered. ” I know you need to.”

The one thing that this author knows how to do amazingly well is give her characters an incredible amount of depth and you certainly feel that with both Keegan and Gabe. Keegan is a wonderfully multi-layered character. He may be ruthless when it comes to his job and he may not be able to control some of the insults that fly out of his mouth in the heat of the moment, but there’s also something so incredibly vulnerable about him too. The way that these emotions of his get unveiled is utterly delicious. With each new chapter brings an added depth to him and you can’t help but fall for him even though you know that he just may be Gabe’s ultimate demise…

They can’t hurt me. They can’t make some cruel off-the-cuff remark like you and cut me to the bone. The don’t get to make me cry. They can’t truly touch any part of me that really matters. You”- it came out on a rush of breath, trailing into nothing for a moment- “hurt.”

This is a story that kept me glued to the pages from beginning to finish. While I knew what was coming, it still managed to pack in a few surprises with the way everything took place. I believe the point is that the reader ultimately knows what would happen and spend the entirety of the book with their heart in their throat waiting for that other shoe to drop. Finn manages to wrangle quite a few emotions in the process making this not only one sizzling read but something beyond your typical escort book. The pacing is perfection, the characters are phenomenally developed and the story itself is purely addicting. If you haven’t read anything by this author yet, I highly suggest you start with this one. I guarantee you that you’ll be hooked. Elizabeth’s brand of angst just works for me and she seriously outdid herself with Kissed. I can’t wait what else she has in store for us with her future releases.

I’d entered her life too thoughtlessly, too callously, too selfishly, and try as I might to undo that, I’d just never succeeded.

· Filed Under: All Reviews, Contemporary Romance, Erotic Rom · Tagged With: , ,

New Release & Review: ★Kane’s Hell★ by Elizabeth Finn

May 1, 2015 by · Leave a Comment
Kane’s Hell
Author: Elizabeth Finn
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic Romance
Note: Trigger warning
Release Date: May 1, 2015

Kane and Helene were the best of friends until a nightmare devastated them… Hopes were destroyed, dreams shattered, a budding teenage love torn to pieces. Eleven years later their lives are nothing like they once were. Time has changed them … and not for the better.Helene is smart, driven, and accomplished—her education and achievements a smoke screen hiding the frigid and fragile child wounded long ago.Kane is equally obsessed with his coping mechanisms—fighting … drinking … screwing … compulsively destroying himself one vice at a time.When their paths collide again, their past becomes an obstacle no coping mechanism in the world can protect them from. But confronting the past so they can heal in the present is no easy task. Can Kane reach Helene and recapture what used to burn so warmly between them, or will his own self destructive demons pull her into his hell?

A woman determined to look forward. A man always looking back. A love desperate to be restored.

“You’re the brightest, warmest star in my universe. You’ll never be less than everything to me.”

WARNING: This book contains darker subject matter and violent content that may be difficult for some readers.

Buy Links
Amazon / iBooks
Review
4 stars

 

I need to be near you, and I DON’T know what that looks like. But I DO know I need it. Please give me another chance.

Fans of second chance romance prepare to get your hearts ripped out. I’m talking ‘reach through your throat, make you ugly cry in a corner and fuck you up’ kind of ripped out. It’s no secret that this author writes some ANGST, but nothing prepared me for this book. Let me start off with a disclaimer here; I don’t think this book is for everyone. There’s a particular scene in this book that’s a potential trigger and if you’re sensitive to that sort of thing, well, be advised. Being a huge fan of dark romance I’m fairly desensitized to most things, but this scene even made me cringe. It was very difficult to read even if it wasn’t overly descriptive. It broke my cold and black little heart dammit. I actually had to pause the book right after it just to get my shit together. Yeah. It was that effective.

Kane and Helene were best friends in high school and had a budding romance going which Kane was always hesitant to act on. But then one night and one event changed the course of their lives irrevocably. Prepare yourselves for one gut-wrenching read because this event? It was BAD. You don’t know what it is and it will be retold through present to past flashbacks in the first third of the story.

I needed you, and you left me. You left me in this place to deal with…everything on my own.

What happened made Helene a shell of the woman that she once was. It took her years to wade her way out of the pain and nightmares especially since Kane left right after it, but she did it through her focus on school. Now eleven years later, she’s teaching and working on her dissertation, using her education and her career to push back the devastating memories. The last person she expects to walk into her classroom is the only person that knows what happened those years ago and shared the nightmare with her.

Can’t we just forget about the monsters,” he whispered….
“All I want is to remember us.”

The last place Kane wants to be in is the one that reminds him of everything that he lost and the nightmares he barely keeps at bay. Where Helene uses her education and career to mask her pain, he uses self punishment in the form of fights, alcohol and sex. He craves the pain to punish himself. Back to care for his ailing father, he’s determined to finally get the only girl that’s ever had his heart.

I’m not good at much in this world. But I’m good at loving you.”

If you’ve come to love Elizabeth’s dirty talkers, Kane definitely delivers on that end. He also has that dash of asshole that you’ve come to expect from this author, though not overly so.

The story is told in 3 parts; the first third is told in alternating flashbacks of present to past, slowly retelling the nightmare that Hell and Kane shared together 11 years ago. The reader is given one small piece of the puzzle in each flashback until all the pieces begin to fit together into one devastating picture. The 2nd and 3rd part doesn’t have the flashbacks and is told all in the present and focuses on Hell and Kane attempting to put their broken pieces together again.

Everything about us is fragile- our relationship, the way we communicate, the way we fuck. I always feel like I’m two seconds away from letting you slip through my fingers. It’s all so very fucking fragile.

I did find the story dragging a little somewhere after the 40% mark and I found myself skimming through quite a few sex scenes. I can’t say that it read like a filler, not at all. But it was slower paced after the jaw dropping events of the first third.

I love you, Helene. I want you to know that. You’re the only person I have ever and will ever love in this lifetime. I’m so good at loving you. It’s the one thing I can safely say I will never falter at.

This was NOT a dark romance, but it certainly had much darker undertones than anything I had previously read by this author before. It had plenty of her trademark angst, dirty talk and hot as hell sex scenes. But beyond that it also had a beautifully painful second chance romance about two very broken people that slowly learn how to heal themselves and put back together their shattered pieces.

You are EVERYTHING to me,” I said emphatically.
“Sometimes nothing is enough- not even everything.”

It’s not an easy read for sure, but it’s certainly worth the pain for the beauty of their HEA at the end.

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Review: ☆The Rules Regarding Gray☆ by @ElizabethFinn77

September 13, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

Gracelynn is drowning in an existence that fails to fulfill her. A ballerina by trade, she’s devoted her life to the stage, sacrificing adventure for discipline. When her boyfriend gives her permission to want what she’s not supposed to want, can she walk away? Or will she leap?Jasper isn’t a man with many boundaries, and “sharing” a woman with his best friend is hardly a new endeavor. But the moment he meets Gracelynn he realizes she’s different. She leaves him feeling alive in a way he’s not used to, and for the first time in his life, he understands what it means to be wanted… Cherished… And he needs more…

But there are rules—rules that forbid Jasper from truly having her. As forbidden desire spirals out of control, Jasper has to decide if he’s willing to fight for something that doesn’t truly belong to him. His best friend doesn’t deserve her, but is Jasper strong enough to believe he does?

Buy Links

Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Review4 stars

I want to do something I’m not supposed to do. I want to want something I’m not supposed to want. I want to make the mistake I’m not supposed to make.

I’ll be the first to admit that the second I even get a whiff of a love triangle in a book

So when I first read the blurb here, I was a little scared. I don’t do love triangles…well aside from a very few exceptions. And if you’re anything like me? You’ll want to read this book. While a love triangle is implied with the “sharing”, it’s not really one. Gray’s boyfriend is a douchebag of epic proportions from the very first page, so there’s never really any doubt about who to root for. It’s very clear they’re not meant to be together. Now usually my biggest pet peeve when 3 people are involved is the heroine dilly dallying with a decision; stringing one along because she just can’t make up her mind while having an angst fest with the other man. I didn’t find that to be the case here either. Grace was clear about what she’s going to do fairly quick, and I understood why it took her the time that it did…though not always liking it. There were a few certain circumstances that prevent her from cutting Ian loose right away, and while I wish it happened quicker, I didn’t mind the pacing of it.

Gracelynn is a prima ballerina that’s devoted her life to her career and making sure she lives her life on the straight and narrow; disciplined. She’s been dating Ian for a few months, and things seem to be going well…until he makes a proposal that changes everything.

I want you to fuck Jas.

Yes, Ian is nothing if not eloquent.
How does a girl turn a proposal like that down? Well, easily actually. Gray is obviously insulted by it at first, as is Jasper. But neither can deny their uncontrollable attraction to one another, even though Gray is nothing like Jasper’s usual type. Deciding to finally let go of her tightly held rules, Gray decides to take the risk if only to know what it may be like and to experience the undercurrent of passion that seems to run between her and Jas. But of course the ever eloquent Ian also has some rules.

You don’t touch her. Not her tits, not her face, certainly not her pussy. You keep your mouth off her and your fingers out of her. And she will not be sucking your cock either. I’m reserving every part of her for myself except for one very small, tight hole.

He’s a real peach, isn’t he? See what I mean about this not really a being a love triangle since you’ll pretty much want to jock punch him from the very first chapter?

After one night of forbidden pleasure, it soon becomes clear that there’s something beyond just lust between Gray and Jas. But their guilt of betraying Jasper’s best friend and Gray’s boyfriend, Ian, is a constant presence between them.

 Jasper truly stole the show for me with this book. He was such an incredibly endearing character, I just couldn’t get enough of him. I loved how Elizabeth portrayed him as a strong yet ultimately broken man, and allowed him to let his emotions through while keeping him as alpha as it gets.

Say yes.”
“Yes”, she breathed out.
“Say you understand exactly what we’re doing. No rules, Gray. That means I’m going to fuck you however the hell I want and tell your boyfriend to eat shit while I’m stretching that sweet pussy of yours.”

This was an erotic and emotional read that will tug at your heart strings and make you fall for Jasper just as hard as I did. Gray, while I can’t say was my favorite heroine, was still a great one. If you’re concerned there may be cheating, don’t be. Ian pretty much gives the the go ahead, though Jas and Gray do still suffer from a healthy amount of guilt about it. I understood Gray’s struggle even though I did wish she would become a little more assertive with Ian. I did love how supportive she was of Jasper and I absolutely loved the two of them together.

I guess real closeness comes when you find that person that can…break the hold your darkness sometimes has on you. They can liberate you.

My one complaint? The way that Gray and Jasper chose to “handle” Ian at the end. Their “revenge” read more like a juvenile prank more so than what two grown adults would decide to do. I would almost rather they did nothing than what they did. It felt a little random and a lot childish to me. But hey, that may just be me. I wanted to castrate Ian after the 2nd chapter, and I suppose that may have been a touch too excessive for this book LOL. I hope that Ian continues to be surrounded in pussy….really….

Of the furry and feline variety that is. Lawd but I hated him. I wasn’t sure who I hated more in this book, Ian or Jasper’s dad. Both were strong contenders for douchebag of the year. But I digress…

If you’re a fan of Elizabeth Finn, this is a book you’re not going to want to miss. It was emotional, erotic, at times a little painful to read, but ultimately a beautiful love story that began as a bit of forbidden fruit. I also adored the epilogue, the perfect way to end things with a glimpse into their future…

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ARC Review: ☆The Innocent Liar☆ by @ElizabethFinn77

April 19, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

A woman hiding from her past, a man lost in his own…

Fiona was desperate to find a life in Jackson, Wyoming, but when a job interview that was supposed to be a sure thing turns ugly, she doubts there’s much hope of it. Eli sees through her lies, and regardless of the favor his father has asked of him, he’s just too stubborn to hire a woman who refuses to even give him her real name.

But there is a reason for everything, and he finds out soon enough her deceptions have a purpose too.

Secrets and lies are nothing to build a relationship on, but their attraction to one another is too intense to ignore. They’re simply magnets pulled together in a situation that should be driving them apart, but Eli has his own ghosts to contend with, and his past leaves him incapable of trusting a woman he can never fully know.

How can they move beyond her lies when the truth is what Eli really needs, and when her past threatens to destroy her, can he rise above his own needs to protect her — his innocent liar?

Amazon I Barnes & Noble
3.75 Erotically Angsty Stars

A woman hiding from her past, a man lost in his own…

The Innocent Liar is an angsty and erotic story about 2 broken people, each hiding from different kinds of demons from their past.

Fiona is hiding behind a veil of lies, innocent as they may be. She’s in a desperate situation, and the one saving grace that she’s counting on is the job that Eli may give her as a favor to his father.

Too bad Eli is too much of an asshole to just blindly do what his father asks. A man with his past is not one that can trust a woman that can’t so much as give him her real name. And his none-too-gentle dismissal of Fiona sends her fleeing his office in tears.

Guilt, circumstance, and desperate need bring them together again. But can a man that’s incapable of blind trust survive a relationship with a woman that’s incapable of giving him the truth, no matter how hot the passion between them may be?

I really liked this story, especially with the introduction we get to Eli. I have a particular soft spot for assholes, and Eli was one major asshole when Fiona first showed up to his office. He’s not exactly known for being a nice guy. A past that still haunts him and a fucked up marriage and divorce have pretty much guaranteed that. But there’s a method to his madness…


Anger gave him a sense of control and power that had once been missing from his life. People always assumed when a person was broken they didn’t realize they were broken. It wasn’t at all true. He knew it well. He saw it in himself, yet he would do nothing to stop it because he didn’t know how to function without his defects. They kept him sane and grounded. That was just a fact of life for him.

Fiona was one of those characters that I had a tough time deciding whether I truly loved or not. She wasn’t quite strong, and yet she wasn’t exactly weak either. What she was, was desperate and hiding from something that you know from the very beginning is going to be brutal to learn.

But something pulls the two of them together, even if neither of them truly understand what it is. Eli is a man that depends on truth, and Fiona is a woman that can’t give him that. Yet the inevitable happens…

He’d lived his life as though his past didn’t exist, yet oddly, his past had consumed him. But now, it didn’t – it wasn’t, and strangely, what had happened so many years ago was closer to the surface than ever before. She had something to do with that, and he needed to hold onto her, even if he hadn’t a clue how to do that.

Eli bounced back and forth between an utter asshole, to sweet back to asshole, to broken man, and then sweet again. It was tough to get a handle on his moods at times, though I did understand the reasoning behind them.

I’ll admit that at times I struggled to understand the connection between him and Fiona. I get that there was a sexual pull between them, but I felt like the progression of their relationship, especially given the circumstances was a little unbelievable to me.

I do love Elizabeth Finn’s writing, and by then end of the book I was very much sold. And if there’s one thing that Elizabeth can give you, it’s one hell of a scorching love scene. If you like your books steamy, this one will deliver that in spades.


I’m going to eat your pussy.” His tongue flicked the lobe of her ear. “Then I’m going to eat your ass.”
She shuddered…
“Then I’m going to watch you suck my dick. Then I’m going to fuck your ass, and I’m not going to stop until I’ve come inside you. Do you understand?”

I had a feeling about Elizabeth’s past, though we never really get the full painted picture, just the glossed over version of it. I understand that had the author went into the gory details of it, it would have shot the book from just angsty to pure dark category…but a part of me feels like I would have still wanted those details. We get bits and pieces of what she went through, but never the whole picture. And the ending doesn’t give much more details. Maybe it’s the dark romance lover in me that craved those details? I’m not sure.

For whatever reason there was just always something here that kept this from being that perfect 5 star read for me. I tend to be stingy with my 5 stars, so I tend to save those for books that I either absolutely LOVED or would see myself reading again.

Fans of Elizabeth Finn would definitely enjoy this book. She delivers a great angtsy love story about 2 broken characters finding healing with each other. And if you haven’t yet discovered this author, then I recommend you do. I’ve read a few books by Miss Finn, and I’ve enjoyed each of them.

So while this may not have been a perfect 5 star read for me, it was still a very enjoyable one and certainly one I would gladly recommend.

**ARC courtesy of author in exchange for an honest review**

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