Done Deal - Lynda Aicher Review

“Power. Wealth. Respect.
The members of the Boardroom share these things—and more—in this new erotic romance series from Lynda Aicher, author of the bestselling Wicked Play books In the Boardroom, exhilarating pleasures happen after-hours.
At night, behind the closed doors of the Boardroom, it's members only. Stripped of their inhibitions, Bay Area moguls are free to indulge their most extreme fantasies, and business becomes pleasure.
Never in his dirtiest dreams did CEO Trevor James expect to see Danielle Stables on the guest list.
There'd always been something unspoken between them—a spark yet to ignite. An inscrutable and defiant player in the firm, Danielle exudes power and secrets. Tonight she is going to surrender. No strings. No judgments. No boundaries. By dawn, the games between them will have only just begun”

I received this as a complimentary ARC from Net Galley and Carina Press so thank you. All opinions and reviews are my honest and mine own.

This is the prequel novella to the first boardroom book, After Hours which is set to release in January 2018. You could tell that this was going to be the prequel to another novel as there wasn’t really much in the way of plot and really, it was just a book about the one scene which happens in the boardroom. 

In this, you get a quick introduction into the Boardroom which is an exclusive sex club set-up by Trevor Faulkner for people to act out their sexual fantasies without fear of judgement. This novella focuses around one specific meeting where a woman called Danielle is on the list for that night’s meeting in the boardroom and mainly the interactions between Trevor and a woman called Danielle who was added to the list last minute. It’s told from the perspective of both Trevor and Danielle and through their inner dialogues you understand that there was obviously something between them before hence the chemistry between them now. I hate novella’s as I feel that you can never get a full story and that was exactly this here and this was only a book about one main sex scene. I’m really hoping that there is going to be a second book in the series which focuses on answering all the questions about Danielle and Trevor which weren’t answered in this book.

The group sex scene was strange; it was obviously a group sex scene but it seemed like it maybe there to try and emphasize the chemistry between the main characters and somehow prove that they should be together? But it just seemed very strange and like the other characters shouldn’t have been there at all and their introduction was just unnecessary and unvalued. I really didn’t see the point in having a group scene which was made to feel like it was just two people in the room and everyone else was just intruding on them. 

I’m still going to read After Hours as the premise is intriguing and I’m interested to see where this goes however I don’t really see how this prequel novella can help add much story to the first book in the series although this may change if a book about Danielle and Trevor and their backstory is released.

Behind Her Eyes - Sarah Pinborough Review

“Louise is a single mom, a secretary, stuck in a modern-day rut. On a rare night out, she meets a man in a bar and sparks fly. Though he leaves after they kiss, she’s thrilled she finally connected with someone.
When Louise arrives at work on Monday, she meets her new boss, David. The man from the bar. The very married man from the bar…who says the kiss was a terrible mistake but who still can’t keep his eyes off Louise.
And then Louise bumps into Adele, who’s new to town and in need of a friend, but she also just happens to be married to David. David and Adele look like the picture-perfect husband and wife, but then why is David so controlling, and why is Adele so scared of him?”
As Louise is drawn into David and Adele’s orbit, she uncovers more puzzling questions than answers. The only thing that is crystal clear is that something in this marriage is very, very wrong, but Louise can’t guess how wrong―and how far a person might go to protect their marriage’s secrets

This is going to be a very interesting review to write, I don’t want to give too much away with the book being a thriller and the less you know going in is probably better.

I heard about this book a lot through good reads and all I heard was how good it was and how I needed to read it BUT you would either love or hate the ending. I mean, they even used #WTFThatEnding to promote the book and they were right, and even now, 5 days after finishing the book I still don’t know how I feel about the ending! 

I’ve seen a lot of people say that the book gave away too much too soon but I personally enjoyed the flashbacks and the fact that you could sort of see where you thought things were going. Because then they would take a turn in the opposite direction and you’d be left surprised with what was happening. Yes I did have some idea of what the ending could involve but I didn’t expect it to go like it did and it was still a big twist! I still can’t decide if I love or hate the ending; when I first read it, my reaction was a complete WTF but the more I’ve thought about it, the more I sort of understand how the ending makes sense and fits logically. I couldn’t think of a better way to end the book that would give it a better thriller-y ending so therefore this one will do.

It’s a very slow building story which involved a very well woven love triangle I enjoyed and felt really helped to build the suspense and the character building was excellent. It’s told from the perspective of Louise and Adele and also flashbacks from Adele which tell mainly of her childhood after her parents died and it really helped pull all aspects of the story together for the big twist at the end. The big twists at the end also isn’t the only twist and there are plenty of little twists through the book which keep you pulled in and keep you wanting to read more. 

I don’t want to say too much because like I said, it’s a thriller and the less you know going into this, the better. I only gave it 4 stars because of the ending but I would give the rest of the book 5-stars.

All of the Above - Quinn Anderson Review

Thank you to Net Galley and Riptide publishing for providing me with an ARC Copy. All views and opinions are my own!


 “Brendon isn’t in a rut, per se—he just always seems to be in-between things. Jobs. Degrees. Boyfriends. He never finishes what he starts. The perfect path is out there somewhere, and if he can just figure out what it is, he’s certain everything else will fall into place.

The last thing he expects is to meet his soul mate in the pages of a magazine quiz. “Who Is Your Perfect Man?” by Matthew Kingston seems like a road map to his future husband: the author himself. Brendon may not have his life figured out, but if Matt is as romantic as his quiz, Brendon can check “true love” off his to-do list.

When Brendon fakes a meet-cute between them, Matt proves to be as wonderful as he hoped. The more Brendon gets to know him, the harder he falls. But Brendon has a confession to make: how can he explain to Matt that he arranged their “fated” meeting? Brendon can’t tell if he’s found his soul mate, heartache, or all of the above”

This was my first romance book which was LGBTQIA and was a male/male romance story! It was a good cheesy romance and I felt it was a good story to introduce me into a Male/Male romance.

Brandon has been a bit unlucky in love and has yet to find the man of his dreams until he stumbles upon a magazine with a quiz at the back for finding your perfect date and it just happens to include all his favourite things. Brandon finds out who wrote the article, Matt, and makes it his plan to ‘accidently’ bump into Matt at his favourite places (that he knows through the article) and ask him on a date. It was all fun until they start a relationship and Brandon is stuck on whether to tell him that the circumstances that they met under weren’t exactly confidential.

It was quick light-hearted read and I really enjoyed it. It was only 155 pages, so novella length which makes it even more interesting that I like it because I usually hate novellas – they’re normally not long enough and don’t have enough detail in them to wrap everything up but this did such a good job! It wrapped up really well and managed to cover everything in the sorry without leaving any loose ends and even had an epilogue to show what happened 2 years later. 

The characters were really well developed – especially Brandon who was the main character and you did feel emotionally invested with the plot. One minute you wanted to hate Brandon because of what he was going and then you were wishing they were together! It was a rollercoaster of emotions and it really kept you pulled into the story. There was obvious chemistry between Brandon and Matt also which I really enjoy in a story and obviously helps make a romance a lot more realistic. 

I also enjoyed how the plot had that modern twist to it – Brandon manages to find a lot out about Matt because of his online content and he only had a blog! It obviously was a bit creepy how Brandon went online and googled Matt before he went on a date and tried to set up the circumstances to meet him but as Brandon has mentioned, it’s something you can see all the time in romantic comedy films and they make it seem the norm. I’m sure a lot of people will have gone online and googled their partners that they’re going on a date with to see how much they’ve got in common before going on the date so it was interesting to see a twist on that!

Overall it was good, fun read and I’d definitely pick it up if you’re looking for a good book to give you an easy introduction in a Male/Male Romance.