In the Dark by Monica Murphy ♡♡♡♡

In the Dark by Monica Murphy is the second book in The Rules series. I loved the first book, Fair Game, and I felt pretty good about this book.

In the Dark tells the story of Lucy and Gabe. Lucy is spending her summer at the beach house sitting, and her next door neighbor, Gabe, is hot as hell and completely irresistible. The only problem is they live in different states, and Lucy isn't the rich kid Gabe believes her to be. They're all up for a summer fling, but when their paths collide again in the fall, things start to change.

This boom started as a sort of naughty beach read for me. Then things got serious in the middle, which was a good change of pace. For the most part, I really enjoyed seeing these characters learn to share themselves with each other.

The two things I didn't enjoy were some skinny shaming and a few instances where the characters talked directly to the reader. The skinny shaming was reasonable for Lucy's character, as she is self conscious, but since Gabe admit her normally slept with pretty much any girl he could, it seemed out of place. Also, I think it's important to say that being healthy is what's important, not looking a certain way, so I was disappointed by Gabe referring to a skinny girl as a "bag of bones". Talking directly to the reader just pulled me out of the story.

Even with my complaint about the skinny comment, I really did love this story. I stayed up late and got up early to read this book. There was a bit of laughter and a decent amount of crying. And I'm really looking forward to getting Tristan's story in November. He is the character I feel is the least redeemable, so I'm interested in being proven wrong.

Have you started The Rules series? Let me know what you think in the comments.

Here's the blurb from the publisher:

Stuck spending the summer with his screwed up family, Gabriel Walker is bored out of his mind and looking for an adventure. And he seems to find it with the hot girl who lives next door. The attraction between them is instant. Electric. Soon they’re spending every stolen minute together. Talk about the perfect summer fling…Lucy isn’t what she seems. She doesn’t live next door—she’s the girl who’s been hired to house sit for the summer while the family goes on a worldwide vacation. If Gabe wants to believe she’s a spoiled rich girl looking for some fun, she can go along with that. After the summer, she’ll never see him again.They don’t count on running into each other at college. Now Lucy must keep up the pretense of being a rich girl—and it’s exhausting. She knows she’s falling in love with Gabe and she’s scared he feels the same. Will he still care about her when he discovers the truth? 

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In the Dark Release Day!

Have you started the new series by Monica Murphy? Fans are loving this crew and we know you will too! We'll be celebrating the release of IN THE DARK! Join us in the fun!

Title: In The Dark

Series Name: The Rules Series

Author Name: Monica Murphy

Genre: NA Contemporary Romance

Cover Designer: Sarah Hansen, Okay Creations

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Amazon: http://amzn.to/1IZROmq

iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/in-the-dark/id1006446983?mt=11

IN THE DARK (Book 2) August 25, 2015

Stuck spending the summer with his screwed up family, Gabriel Walker is bored out of his mind and looking for an adventure. And he seems to find it with the hot girl who lives next door. The attraction between them is instant. Electric. Soon they’re spending every stolen minute together. Talk about the perfect summer fling…

Lucy isn’t what she seems. She doesn’t live next door—she’s the girl who’s been hired to house sit for the summer while the family goes on a worldwide vacation. If Gabe wants to believe she’s a spoiled rich girl looking for some fun, she can go along with that. After the summer, she’ll never see him again.

They don’t count on running into each other at college. Now Lucy must keep up the pretense of being a rich girl—and it’s exhausting. She knows she’s falling in love with Gabe and she’s scared he feels the same. Will he still care about her when he discovers the truth?

Excerpt:

He slips his hands beneath my dress as he continues to kiss me and skims his fingers along my thighs. I wrap my arms around his neck and hold him close, never wanting to let him go. He’s so strong, his body so hard and firm and muscular. I reach between us to finish unbuttoning his shirt, my fingers making quick work of the buttons until it falls open and I can touch his hot, smooth skin. I trace my fingers over his flat stomach, letting them drift down to the waistband of his pants.

I’m not feeling bold enough just yet to undo those pants though. I don’t want to rush this.

He runs his fingers up and down along the sides of my outer thighs and a shiver steals through me. His hands curve around, touching my ass and they grow still. I’m guessing he’s figured out I don’t have any underwear on. I break the kiss to stare up at him.

His eyes have a dark gleam to them and his smile is nothing short of gigantic. “You’re a bad, naughty girl, Luce.”

“I am? Why?” I ask innocently, even batting my eyelashes at him for good measure.

“You know why.” He shoves the skirt of my dress up to my hips, exposing me completely and he sucks in a harsh breath. “Look at you,” he says reverently, his gaze locked on the spot between my thighs.

The perv.

But hey, at least he’s my perv. For tonight.

A tiny part of me wishes I could keep him for all my nights.

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Blurbs :

FAIR GAME (The Rules Series, Book 1) May 12, 2015

When your boyfriend bets YOU in a poker game, you better know when to run...
Bad enough Jade Frost's boyfriend drags her to a boring poker game. Even worse that he actually threw her into the betting pot during an intense round...and lost. Talk about the perfect excuse for Jade to make him her ex-boyfriend.

Now she supposedly belongs to the ultra rich, extremely gorgeous Shep Prescott. He could have anything he wants yet he seems to be in hot pursuit of her. No matter how rude, how snarky, how impossible she acts, it doesn't stop him. More like her horrible behavior seems to make him want her more.

When she finds herself starting to fall for him, Jade's confused. There's more to Shep than the carefree rich charmer he portrays. No way could he want a serious relationship with her...or could he?
Goodreads

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Google Play: http://bit.ly/1HdWutH
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1ESLYFS
Amazon CA: http://amzn.to/1DPQK1H
Amazon AUS: http://bit.ly/1IHpRne

Up next!

SLOW PLAY (Book 3) November 10, 2015

Newly broke girl Alexandria Asher just wants to live a normal life. After her parents are sent to prison on embezzlement charges, she enrolls in college under her mother’s maiden name and tries her best to pretend she’s someone else.

Tristan Chadwick is everything Alex is trying to avoid. A seemingly egotistical, lazy, rich jerk, she dumps her beer on his head when he comes on to her one night at a party. This only spurs Tristan into action. He loves nothing more than a challenge. And the beautiful Alex is exactly the type of challenge that intrigues him.

Despite her reluctance, Alex finds herself quickly involved with Tristan. Underneath that playboy exterior is a good guy, a sweet and sexy guy who she is undoubtedly falling for. What they both don’t realize is the actions of Alex’s parents are the reason for so much tragedy in Tristan’s family. And when Tristan discovers who Alex and her family really is, can he forgive and forget?

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About the Author:

New York Times, USA Today and international bestselling author Monica Murphy is a native Californian who lives in the foothills below Yosemite with her husband and three children. She's a workaholic who loves her job. When she's not busy writing, she also loves to read and travel with her family. She writes new adult and contemporary romance and is published with Bantam and Avon. She also writes romance as USA Today bestselling author Karen Erickson.
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Scorched by Jennifer L. Armentrout ♡♡♡

Scorched by Jennifer L. Armentrout is the second book in the Frigid series. I enjoyed the first book, but can't say I loved this one.

Scorched tells the story of Andrea and Tanner. Andrea is spending her time drinking her nights away and sleeping with guys she can barely remember. Tanner is part of her friend group; he's a nice guy, but Tanner and Andrea bicker more than anything else. Andrea doesn't think she could ever be anything more than a hookup to guy like Tanner. Until they end up spending a week together. That's where everything falls apart.

Tanner and Andrea have it bad for each other. I enjoyed reading about their tension, and their bickering could be pretty funny at times. I loved the characters, and the writing, as always, was great. What I didn't enjoy was that it took a long time to get to the heart of the story. The beginning was a lot of sexual tension, and I was starting to wonder about halfway through, where the story could go. It made getting to the story a bit boring.

If there is more to the series I'm still going to read it because I love most of the other books I've read by Jennifer Armentrout.

On a side note, I do have to say I love this cover. It's absolutely beautiful!

What do you think? Do you enjoy a slow build up to a story?

Scorched on Goodreads

That Boy by Jillian Dodd ♡♡

That Boy by Jillian Dodd has been coming up on my Goodreads recommendations since the time I started reading New Adult. BookBub emailed me a deal, and I decided to give it a shot. The book is about 4 years old, so the whole series is out (or at least it seems to be).

That Boy is about a girl named Jadyn and growing up with her two best friends, Phillip and Danny. When I say growing up, I mean it. The story takes place from elementary school all the way to after college graduation. And we watch Jadyn's life unfold through ups and downs and lots of boys. Even time where she might be into her best friends.

I thought, when I started, that the book would highlight some of Jadyn's younger years and then skip to college pretty quickly, but college was a small part of the story, which was disappointing. It felt to me that there was too much time spent in the younger years.

The story says it's contemporary romance (which makes its recommendation under new adult frustrating), but it felt more like a young adult title. There was some cursing, but in quite a few places it was bleeped out with symbols, and the narrator doesn't talk about sex because she says she's polite. So the book felt like it was a book to read between YA and NA, with a big emphasis on growing up, but leaving out most of the mature content.

The voice of the narrator didn't change much throughout the story, something I thought should have happened as we watch her go from a child to a working professional.

There were also a few things I would have liked more details about. The story works too hard to set up who she would be with. But skipped over the whole relationship of the other person, the guy who was actually interesting. He ended up with someone else and we don't get to see how Jadyn feels when he starts to get serious or the ways that changes their relationship, even though they had something going on between them for quite some time. All of a sudden he's getting married to some other girl, and we don't get to see how things might change for Jadyn in that situation.

Overall, I wanted to see more from this story. I think there was a lot that could have been done that was instead used to show us most of Jadyn's life in small snippets. I would have preferred a story about her adult life. It's not likely I will continue on with this series.

What do you think? Have you read this series? Let me know what you think in the comments!

That Boy on Goodreads

Summer's Temptation by Ashley Lynn Willis ♡♡♡♡.5

Summer's Temptation by Ashley Lynn Willis is the first book in the Vandeveer University series, and I was hooked pretty fast. The book had me laughing, crying, and angry as hell. And I pulled an all nighter to find out what was going to happen.

Summer's Temptation tells the story of Cassie, who is getting over a recent heartbreak, and she's looking for a guy she won't fall for to take care of her needs. Tyler is the school player. He has a revolving door of girls coming in and out of his bedroom. He seems like the perfect guy for the job. There's no way she'll fall for him. Until, of course, she does, breaking all the rules she came up with to protect her heart.

I couldn't stop reading this book. Tyler was the guy every girl wants to change, and his player status made him the perfect guy for Cassie. I loved their interactions, their friendship, and their passion. My biggest complaint is they were both part of Greek life, and that Greek life sorts of things are likely to play an even bigger part in the next book. But I can't wait to read it. Unfortunately, I don't know when the next book will be out, but I can't wait to get my hands on it.

If you love a forbidden love story with an HEA, then this is the book for you.

Summer's Temptation on Goodreads

NEW BOOK! In the Dark out August 25th

IN THE DARK (The Rules Series, Book 2) August 25, 2015

Stuck spending the summer with his screwed up family, Gabriel Walker is bored out of his mind and looking for an adventure. And he seems to find it with the hot girl who lives next door. The attraction between them is instant. Electric. Soon they’re spending every stolen minute together. Talk about the perfect summer fling…

Lucy isn’t what she seems. She doesn’t live next door—she’s the girl who’s been hired to house sit for the summer while the family goes on a worldwide vacation. If Gabe wants to believe she’s a spoiled rich girl looking for some fun, she can go along with that. After the summer, she’ll never see him again.

They don’t count on running into each other at college. Now Lucy must keep up the pretense of being a rich girl—and it’s exhausting. She knows she’s falling in love with Gabe and she’s scared he feels the same. Will he still care about her when he discovers the truth?

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

New York Times, USA Today and international bestselling author Monica Murphy is a native Californian who lives in the foothills below Yosemite with her husband and three children. She's a workaholic who loves her job. When she's not busy writing, she also loves to read and travel with her family. She writes new adult and contemporary romance and is published with Bantam and Avon. She also writes romance as USA Today bestselling author Karen Erickson.
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