#CBR8 Book 25: "Wicked Sexy Liar" and "Not-Joe's Not-So-Short Story" by Christina Lauren

Page count: 439 pages
Wicked Sexy Liar: 5 stars
Not Joe's Not-So-Short Story: 3 stars

First of all, I have to once again thank the wonderful Mrs. Julien for getting me the Target special edition paperback of this book and sending it to me with a veritable feast of Junior Mints, just so I could get to read Not-Joe's story, which wasn't included in the e-book version of the book. The Junior Mints were a lovely bonus, and I now have to be very strong and not gorge myself on all of them in one weekend.

London has a graphic design degree, but as she has her own place in San Diego and a flatmate she adores, she doesn't feel a pressing urge to be throwing herself into a competitive job market. She's quite happy surfing by day and bar tending by night, doing the occasional job to slowly build her portfolio. Having been burned more than once by cheaters, she's very wary about dating anyone at all, although seeing all her current friends disgustingly happy in couples, the loneliness is starting to smart and she can't help but feel like a seventh wheel. So when she meets the gorgeous and charming Luke at the bar where she works, she knows she shouldn't go home with him, but does anyway. Determined to keep things casual between them, she doesn't really expect to see him again.

Luke loved deeply and long, but broke up with his girlfriend Mia four years ago. Since then, he's been looking for the opposite of commitment and has become a bit of a player. Hooking up with London (whose name he mishears when they are introduced and as a result he calls her Logan for the entirety of their first night together) wasn't supposed to be anything more than a bit of fun, but he quickly realises that he wants to see this woman again and he doesn't really like how correct she is in her surface assessment of him as unreliable, a bit douchey and prone to one night stands. Unfortunately, he can't deny that he has a lot of dumb bro friends, that his phone is full of random women's numbers and that on a given day he gets a ridiculous number of propositions. He has played the field rather epically since his break-up with his first love and now he needs to figure out how to change his ways and convince the woman he wants to become deeply committed to that he's worth her trust, time and affection.

His job is not made easier once London puts two and two together and discovers that he is her friend Mia's ex. Not having many close friendships, London is terrified of ruining the ones she has with Mia, Harlow and Lola and will certainly not continue seeing Luke if either of them has a problem with it, no matter how short of breath she gets when she sees him or her heart beats faster around him. Luke has his work cut out for him, but thrives on challenges and is determined to win the fair London, even if it takes a while.

I was a lot more excited about the prospect of finally discovering slacker philosopher Not-Joe's real name than about the prospect of London and Luke's romance. As it turns out, his bonus story is more of an extended epilogue to the four other romances than a romance in its own right, but it does bring about closure for a few of the characters and takes the whole series full circle in a satisfying way. Having read it, I never need to think of it again, but I'm still glad I got the bonus story as well as the main book.

Having low to no expectations can turn out very well indeed. I agree with Mrs. Julien that this is clearly the best of the Wild Seasons series, and probably the only book in the series that I don't have a single thing to quibble about. I loved Luke and London, separately and apart. I loved seeing the previous couples as supporting characters and meeting new supporting players who were important to London and Luke. Her boss, Fred, is great. The car fund jar where she gets a dollar every time someone refers to her dimples (and it happens a lot) was a great touch. Luke's sister Margot was amazing and I adored their very close and honest relationship and how they didn't let the other one get away with anything. The entirety of Luke's family were great and his grandma had me howling with laughter.

Having now finished this entire series, I really will have no choice but to start reading Christina Lauren's other books, because their brand of sexy, light-hearted romance is incredibly moreish and I can't wait to see what they write next.  I'm very glad that I was wrong about this book and it gave me several hours of laughs, happy sighs and contented reading pleasure.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 95: "Dark Wild Night" by Christina Lauren

Page count: 352 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars

Lorelei "Lola" Castle and Oliver Lore got married in Las Vegas, as did their friends Ansel and Mia and Finn and Harlow. While their friends were busy getting physical all over their hotel suites, Lola and Oliver walked for hours along the strip talking, not even holding hands. By the time Lola plucked up the courage to ask if they should get their own hotel room, Oliver had concluded that Lola wasn't a one night stand kind of a girl, and rejected the offer as kindly as possible. They got an annullment, then became the very best of friends, as Oliver opened a comic book shop in San Diego just as Lola's first comic book "Razor Fish" hit the market and became a huge success.

With the other two drunken impulse marriages having become a very real thing and their friends a tight-knit group, it's obvious to absolutely everyone, including Oliver's employee not-Joe (I'm assuming his real name will be revealed at some point) that Oliver and Lola are absolutely gaga for one another. When Lola's bestselling comic book is optioned for a three part megabudget action franchise and Oliver is the first person she tells, not one of the two women she's known since primary school, she starts to realise that he's become a bit more than just her best bud.

Lola's terrified that her wierd obsessive working habits are going to be off putting to Oliver, as it has been to guys she's dated in the past. Her mother left Lola and her father after Lola's dad came back from Afghanistan with PTSD, which has left Lola with some pretty deep-seated abandoment issues. As long as Oliver is firmly in the friend category, she won't have to be so worried about losing him.

Oliver, of course, has no intention of going anywhere at all. Having spent months patiently and calmly observing Lola in all aspects of her life, he knows her every habit and is mad about her anyway. All he wants is a chance to take care of her and love her the way she deserves. He's not about to let her handle smarmy Hollywood writers and executives on her own. While he's worried about their friendship changing, he also can't keep his feelings secret any longer.

The previous two romances in this series were extremely quick and satisfying reads and I love the friendship that has been set up between all the different characters. When I realised that the third book would feature geeks; (very physically attractive people, but geeks nonetheless) a tall, dark, handsome Australian who runs a comic shop and pretty, independent comic book creator, plus it was a friends to lovers story, I was all aflutter. My expectations were already pretty high, after having devoured the first two books a couple of weeks ago. So I'm glad I discovered these books when I did. At least I didn't have a super long wait ahead of me.

My expectations, while very high, were pretty much all met. My only niggle with this book, which is keeping it from a full five stars is that Lola acts really very stupidly for parts of the book. Oliver is pretty much the perfect guy and while she has a lot of issues, she should have come to her senses sooner and not tortured him so much. Apart from that, I loved it. The supporting cast are all great, the story entertaining, the unresolved sexual tension in the first half of the book is extremely well done, proloning the moment when the protagonists actually take the plunge and do it already.

The next book isn't out until February 2016, but I'm figuring it must be about Lola's roommate London, who is the only currently single female in the group. I suspect I'll be reading the Beautiful Bastard series as well to tide me over, as these women write really compulsively readable romance.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 90: "Dirty Rowdy Thing" by Christina Lauren

Page count: 352 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Like their friends Mia and Ansel, Harlow Vega and Finn Roberts had a wild, unforgettable night together in Vegas, where they drunkenly got married. Unlike their friends, Harlow and Finn got an annulment the very next morning. While the sex was amazing, neither of them are entirely sure they even like each other. With the exception of a brief impulsive weekend, when Harlow turned up at Finn's house in Canada wearing nothing but a trench coat, where they spent their whole time together hooking up, they've barely seen each other.

Now their friend Oliver is fulfilling his dream of opening a comic book store, and Finn and Harlow find themselves in each other's company a lot more often. Harlow, who is normally the one who takes care of everyone and everything, solving and fixing any problem thrown at her, has received some very bad news about a family member and is in a new and vulnerable place because of it. Finn, who has been running his family's fishing business since he was a teenager is in California to talk to some investors, as he and his brothers may be unable to run their business successfully without help anymore. Both are used to being in control and the new state of affairs is deeply unsettling to them. What starts out as casual hook-ups to blow off some steam quickly evolves into something a lot more significant.

As far as I can tell, in most of Christina Lauren's books, there is alternating narration from the hero and heroine. Sweet Filthy Boy, the first book in the series, only had Mia's POV throughout the book, this one changes between Harlow and Finn. I liked that a lot more, because seeing both sides of a romance as its developing always feels more satisfying. On the surface, Finn and Harlow could not be more different. Finn is from a small town in Canada, having helped out with or personally run his family's fishing business since he was a boy. He's big and very strong, and not the most emotionally forthcoming, having been surrounded only by men since his mother died when he was a young teen. Harlow is the beautiful eldest daughter of a famous movie star and a successful cinematographer. She works as an unpaid intern about twelve hours a week and thanks to a very generous trust fund, doesn't really need to work at all if she doesn't want to. While Finn initially sees her as a vapid socialite, he quickly discovers that there are a lot more layers to Harlow when he actually spends some time with her.

Like in the previous book, the relationship between the protagonists starts out as purely physical, with Harlow and Finn finding release from their worries in each other. My major complaint with Sweet Filthy Boy was that I felt cheated out of the emotional development between the characters, because all that was described, not just mentioned in passing, was the sex. Possibly because we get the story from both Harlow and Finn's POVs, more time is also spent on their feelings, which gradually change as they keep seeking each other out. In this book, the final quarter, where the big misunderstanding is introduced, is less well handled than in the previous book, but overall, I think I still prefer this one. Not enough to give it another half a star, but possibly quarter of one (I'm not going to start doing quarter stars, that way madness lies).

While Harlow was a secondary character who mainly talked to Mia on the phone in the previous book, although her impulsive visit to Canada was mentioned, there is more time spent in this book on the setup for the next one. Mia and Harlow's third friend, Lola, who also got married in Vegas, but never so much as kissed her husband, Oliver, is spending a lot of time in his comic book store and it's quite clear that while they may just have spent their night in Vegas talking, he is head over heels in love with his ex-wife, patiently waiting for her to notice him, while supporting her in her increasingly successful career as a comic book artist. Just the fact that the next book is going to be about a hot Australian bespectacled, blond guy who runs a comic book store (I'm basically picturing Chris Hemsworth in that photo from the new Ghostbusters movie) and a female comic book artist fills me with so much glee. Their book is out shortly, and I can't wait to read it.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 89: "Sweet Filthy Boy" by Christina Lauren

Page count: 416 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Mia Holland goes to Las Vegas with her two best friends to celebrate her college graduation. Mia's dream was once to become a dancer, but a nasty car accident put a stop to that dream and now she's on track to fulfil her father's dream for her, which is fast track through a prestigious business school in Boston. He's even offered to help pay for her apartment there. This Vegas weekend is Mia's last chance to cut loose, and she sure does.

Mia is shy, almost painfully so, and after her accident, she barely spoke at all for a long time. Her two besties have learned to interpret her silences and body language, but are shocked to see that when Mia is with Ansel, the hot French attorney from the suite across from theirs, she opens up, flirting and becoming a regular chatter box. That Ansel has two good looking friends that Mia's two BFFs can hook up with is a pleasant bonus. Mia has one weekend to go wild, and Ansel was only supposed to be a one night stand. But when Mia wakes up the next morning, only barely able to walk from her truly epic night, to discover a wedding band on her finger, she's not sure what to do. Ansel hands her a letter over breakfast, a letter she wrote to herself the night before. Mia wrote herself a letter once before, after her accident, and it's one of the things that gave her the strength to go on. In her drunken letter from the night before, she confesses that she's the one who proposed and that she really wants to give the marriage a try. Ansel claims he promised he wouldn't agree to annul the marriage until after the summer and wants Mia to come back to Paris with him.

Harlow and Lola, Mia's friends, also got married and have no hesitations about getting annulments. Mia thinks going to Paris is completely crazy, but after returning home, and facing a whole summer living in the presence of her disapproving father, she decides to extend her wild weekend to a wild summer, takes the plunge and goes with Ansel. Of course, she gets her period on the plane, while wearing white jeans. Then she's struck down with a horrible flu, meaning her new husband has to hold her hair back while she's sick all over his fancy Paris apartment and spoon feed her until she regains her health. Finally waking up after a week of illness, Mia is struck by that fact that she married a complete stranger. Now she's far away from everyone she's ever known, trying to see if absolutely mind-blowing sex can be the beginning of a stable relationship.

At the end of July, NPR published their list of 100 swoon-worthy romances. Sweet Filthy Boy was included among the contemporary romances. It also made it to the final eight books of Dear Author and Smart Bitches, Trashy Books' March Madness tournament, which is where I first heard of the books. Along came my key word challenge for August, where this book fit right in. I was pretty much hooked from the get go.

I really liked Mia, and related to her shyness and insecurities. All her dreams were crushed along with her leg in that car accident and now she doesn't actually know what she wants with her life. Going to business school to please her father is clearly something she's deeply ambivalent about, but at least then he'll look at her with something other than disappointment. She's so clearly the sort of person who rarely, if ever, does something without considering all the alternatives first. So hooking up with Ansel, getting married and then deciding to stay married to him, following him to Paris to actually try to make the relationship worked was clearly going so completely out of her comfort zone, she might as well have left the galaxy. I loved her friendship with Harlow and Lola, who are clearly important supportive characters in her life and that even though they could have just been mentioned briefly as shameless sequel fodder, they are actualised characters, for all that they mainly speak to Mia over the phone for much of the book.

Ansel seemed to me to be a Greek god physically speaking and a bit like an adolescent puppy dog in personality at times. He's clearly extremely attractive, and being in his presence makes Mia feel enough at ease that she can really be herself. Unfortunately, since Mia isn't entirely sure yet who her real self is after the accident, having never taken the time to really settle down and think what she wants to do with herself, their time together isn't always smooth sailing. Extremely impulsive, Ansel pretty much just liked the idea of having Mia around when he got home in the evenings, ready and willing in his bed (or anywhere else in the apartment, they really don't seem to limit themselves to just the bedroom), not really considering how much time Mia has to spend alone when he's busy working. Up over his ears in a high-profile, extremely demanding lawsuit, Ansel spends a lot of time away from Mia, whose left to explore one of the most romantic cities in the world on her own.

Luckily, both Ansel and Mia acknowledge that a marriage is going to need work, and it's clear that they do a fair amount of talking and interacting. What I didn't like about the book is that this is just TOLD to me, not shown. Mia and Ansel have a LOT of sex. So much of it. In Las Vegas, in France. There's some awkwardness once Mia gets worried and self-conscious and overthinks things for a while, but they seem to work through that very fast. I get that the physical connection is what pretty much brought them together, and from Mia's internal monologue I understand that she and Ansel spent much of their first night together talking and that this also happens in Paris. It's just that when I'm not privy to the information that's exchanged during said conversations, I don't really see how their connection builds from the spectacular smexy times and I get annoyed and honestly, a bit bored.

I also thought, apart from his massive work load, Ansel seemed just a little bit too perfect. Sure, he's obsessively tidy, but he's also gorgeous, attentive, funny, generous, an amazing lover - you get the gist. Where were his flaws? About two thirds of the way through the book, one pretty major flaw is revealed, however, and it's a pretty impressive dark secret to have been harbouring. I very much admire the way Mia dealt with it, in a way that shows how much she develops over the course of the book and through her time with Ansel. While the ending may have been abrupt, it seemed pretty obvious that while Ansel and Mia's time as main characters is over, their story will continue as they pop up as supporting cast in Harlow and Lola's books. This is my first of Christina Lauren's books. They are apparently best friends who write highly successful romance novels together. Based on Mrs. Julien's reviews of their Beautiful Bastard series, I'm not sure they'll be something that appeals to me, but I will certainly be reading the rest of their Wild Seasons books, because I want to see all the characters get their HEAs.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.