After Hours - Lynda Aicher Review

“The Boardroom. After hours, it’s where Bay Area moguls indulge their fantasies. Ties are loosened. Inhibitions, too.
Assistant Avery Fast watched from a distance, mouth gaping, blood roaring wildly in her ears as she stared at the naked woman on the table before her. At executive Carson Taggert ordering a man to pleasure her. It made her feel guilty, embarrassed…and hot.
Carson watched and waited. Waited for Avery to notice him in the Boardroom. Waited for her to like what she saw. Waited to see what she’d do the next day. And the next. He couldn't let her go—not when she'd seen what goes on in the Boardroom. He couldn't stop thinking about the desire in her eyes, the flush on her cheeks, her obvious arousal.
Getting her to join was easy. But now Carson wants Avery all to himself.”

Thank you to Carina Press and Net Galley for providing my with an ARC of this book. All opinions of this are my own.

This follows Carson and Avery and their adventures with the boardroom which is a secret sex club set-up for safe and private sexual exploration of those whose are member. I really enjoyed how Avery managed to accidentally stumble upon the boardroom and I think it made for a really great first story in “The Boardroom” series. As Avery learned more about the Boardroom and what it was, what happened there and how it worked so did we and it was really useful to not have both characters knowing what was going on as they obviously had to learn along with us. I was worried this wasn’t going to happen because of the Prequel Novella “Done Deal” which I didn’t enjoy but gave us an introduction into “The Boardroom” and some of its background so I didn’t think the background would feature as much in this but I’m definitely glad I did.

This does involve a lot of sexual exploration, mainly for Avery, as she tries to figure out what she wants from her Boardroom experience as you can pretty much tailor make the experience to you depending on the scene that is occurring for that boardroom meeting. The boardroom is also a very secretive and private place (which is the whole point) which means that you can’t talk about it with anyone who isn’t a member and it’s also a judgement free place which was something that Avery definitely struggled with at first and again it was great to see her going through the motions of feeling guilty for what she likes, to just accepting that everyone likes different things and there’s nothing wrong with that.

There wasn’t that much character development around the main characters Avery and Carson which I wasn’t actually mad at. This book was very much just centred on Avery and Carson’s relationship and them finding out what they want from each other and dealing with the feelings which are developing for each other along with the sexual exploration side of things too. You did get a bit of background on some of the characters like Avery’s boss Gregory and his Wife and Avery’s roommate Karen so it wasn’t 100% focused on Avery and Carson. You also get an introduction to Drake who is a friend of Carson’s and a fellow member of the boardroom who has actually been present in one of the scenes that Avery and Carson were present at – I presume that this is so he can be in the next book and we’ll have an idea of who he was in this book

I really enjoyed this book and I thought the mix of romance with also sexual and self-discovery was very well done and they played very well off of each other. It was executed in a way where Avery was relying on Carson to help her self-discovery but only because he was most experienced and knew more about how to do it and I feel that if Avery and Carson didn’t end up together in this book, then Avery would still be interested in continuing her sexual exploration without Carson because all he’d done was help open her eyes to possibilities and it didn’t feel like it was dependent upon Carson being there.

I don’t really feel like the first book added that much to this book to be honest; it gave you a short introduction to Trevor but you can definitely read this book straight away without reading Done Deal.

Dear Delilah - T. Bester Review

Thank you to the publisher for allowing to review a copy of the ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

“It has been said that boys and girls can never be ‘just’ friends, and until Nathan Penn barged into my life, I thought it was complete and utter nonsense. But one night changed everything, and what I thought was the defining moment in our friendship turned out to be more than either of us were ready for.
When my boss tasks me with writing the University’s new sex advice column, Dear Delilah, I make it quite clear that I’m the least qualified person for the job - my experience is limited to one sexual encounter that taught me about love and loss all at once.
So what makes me say ‘yes’?  Simple. A distraction. Something to take my mind off Nathan.
But once I start, I find myself wanting to be the voice of the girl who’s too afraid to ask for advice, the girl who wants to own her sexuality but doesn’t know how. Sounds easy enough.
Except it isn’t.
It’s complicated, and messy and awkward, and when Nathan offers to help, I’m caught between a rock and his hard place. Literally. It's only when my identity is threatened that I realize I might be in over my head. With all of it.”

This is a new adult romance and is told in Dual POV; from the POV of Savannah who is currently at college and interning at her College’s newspaper whilst she figures out what she wants to major in. And also from the POV of Nathan who is her Best friend, also works at the paper and is supposedly your typical womanising, buff jock-type guy. This starts with Nathan and Savannah not talking and you know that something has happened to make them fall-out but you don’t know what has actually caused it. You find out what made them ‘fall-out’ through flash backs from them both in the first half of the book and follow on from that to see if they can re-build their relationship at all. 

I really enjoyed the side-plot of Savannah writing the “Dear Delilah” column for the College newspaper and I felt that it explored some great points to do with feminism and sexual equality for women and putting how you feel first. “Dear Delilah” is the paper’s sex advice column and within the book we see Savannah writing some of the columns for this segment and doing research for the column. It explores topics like the female orgasm, sleeping with someone on the first date, strage sexual injuries and how men can sleep with a load of girls and be a ‘lad’ but if a girl does it she’s a slut. It was great to see these things discussed within the book within the plot itself and I felt like it was actually quite educational and empowering too!

I didn’t feel like there was that much chemistry between Nathan and Savannah but I feel like this may be because they already had an intimate relationship before they fell-out. Whilst we still a few flashback of this intimate relationship, it wasn’t enough to build any chemistry between them as they were just short flashbacks. However, this didn’t take away from the sex scenes and they were still very steamy.

The issue I had with this book was that despite it including a lot of great topic as mentioned above, there was a part in the book where she is doing some research for her column and her roommate Zoe walks in on her googling some, er, interesting things. Savannah obviously tries to cover up what she’s doing and make her roommate not think she’s some porn obsessed girl etc but the way she says it is ridiculous;

“But I also don’t want Zoe thinking I’m some porno freak who gets off on watching other people bumping uglies.” And that is quickly followed by a “Not that there’s anything wrong with people who are into that kind of thing” like that makes what she thought better! It just threw me as the rest of the book was so empowering and covered such great topics and then there was just that totally crappy comment about how watching porn makes you a porno freak. The way it’s said also makes it seem like there’s something wrong with watching porn and getting off from it when it’s actually a totally normal thing and so many people will do it. The way the “Not that there’s anything wrong with people who are into that kind of thing” is chucked on the end like it makes it somehow better really annoyed me too – that doesn’t make what you said ok. Grrrr, that comment really bugged me and has really stuck with me through the book. 

The other thing as that Savannah was cast as this shy, innocent girl who was a virgin and completely new to all things sex-wise. Yet she blushes when talking about sex and all things sexual for gods sake, YET she has both her nipples pierced?! That seemed so random and just so unlike and out of character for someone who is shy to have? Maybe that’s just me stereotyping, but the way that Savannah is portrayed in the book and then the pierced nipples just didn’t match for me. Although she also goes on a great rant near the middle of the book about her being a “sexual being” also and it just didn’t tie up with the way she’ portrayed for the rest of the book.

There were a few timeline inconsistencies but I’m going to put this down to being an ARC copy as there were also a few spelling and grammatical errors so hopefully these will be fixed in the final copy.

Overall I really enjoyed this and thought it was a good story-line with an even greater side-plot which was dealt with in a really positive way. I’m interested to see where the next book goes and what other topics are brought up and discussed for Dear Delilah! I really hope that the next book also follows Savannah and Nathan because I want to see how their relationship progresses and again more of the column! I want to know if it causes any more problems or what other research they need to get up to, to help the column! This was such a fun read with an important message or messages put across fantastically. 

(PS. I really love the cover! It’s nice to see a pretty girl instead of the abs that we’re used to for the usual new adult books!)

Burned Promises - Willow Winters Review

This is currently free on Amazon UK for Kindle!

This was my first book by Willow Winters; it’s told in a dual POV with Emma and Derek and is a second chance romance. Emma first walked away from Derek 5 years ago as he was into bad things and she knew that he wouldn’t change. Flash forward to the present where Emma is staying at her sister’s house whilst on holiday from University and Derek & Emma’s paths cross again. 

It had a good premise and the story showed the struggle between choosing sexual attraction and possibly love against morality and good judgement. Derek hasn’t changed much and is still the bad boy he was before and has just increased in the ranks and is now managing the drug business he was involved in before. He refused to tell Emma anything about what he was doing which I personally found really annoying! She’s an adult now and I understand wanting to protect her by not letting her know too much about what he did but he literally told her nothing despite her continually asking and claiming to love her. He got incredibly angry at times and I just felt like it was unnecessary and I would have run a mile at that point; especially since she’d although broke things of before because of his business ventures. I did enjoy the sub-plot about Derek’s mum having cancer and although I saw the plot twist coming, I did enjoy the execution of it. 

I have no problems with domineering men BUT there a difference between being domineering in a good way and then just taking it too far and I hated how it was done in this book. I highlighted a part in the book that says “I want her, so I’m taking her. It’s that simple.” NO! You don’t get to just bloody take her! There were comments like that scattered through the book and it really annoyed me. Unless she’s said otherwise you can’t just take when you want and do what you want. However, there is a great scene in this book where Emma gets high and then starts doing sexual things with Derek; he stops and carries her to bed and doesn’t even undress her which was great and could have obviously gone a very different way.

Overall I gave it 2 stars; it was an OK read but nothing impressive and I had issue with some of the writing.  

Anything To Have You - Paige Harbison Review

“Nothing should come between best friends, not even boys. ESPECIALLY not boys.
Natalie and Brooke have had each other's backs forever. Natalie is the quiet one, college bound and happy to stay home and watch old movies. Brooke is the movie—the life of every party, the girl everyone wants to be.
Then it happens—one crazy night that Natalie can't remember and Brooke's boyfriend, Aiden, can't forget. Suddenly there's a question mark in Natalie and Brooke's friendship that tests everything they thought they knew about each other and has both girls discovering what true friendship really means.”

I’m going to start by saying that I flew through this book and managed to read it under a day; I just couldn’t put it down! I know that there are a lot of bad reviews on good reads and many of them say that this book is a very inaccurate portrayal of teenage children in high school and it probably is but I didn’t feel like that detracted from the story enough to make it a terrible book! I mean, tbh when I was seventeen / eighteen, I was going out drinking most weekends in club and spending all my tie with my boyfriend which isn’t too far from what’s happening here!

This is told both from Natalie’s POV and Brooke’s POV but isn’t split into alternating chapters. Instead you get several chapters told from Natalie’s POV and then several chapters from Brooke’s POV. I preferred reading from Natalie’s POV and I found that although I was interested in Brooke’s POV to see her side of the story that was happening in the book, I wasn’t as bothered about Brooke herself like I was with Natalie. Brooke just seemed like a manipulative, jealous bitch and I just couldn’t get on board with anything she was doing. 

As with most people, I found the first chapter really difficult to get through and I though I was going to really struggle with carrying on with the story but it really picks up after that first chapter – so much so that, as said above, I managed to read it in under a day. 

You could see the twist coming from miles away but it didn’t really detract that much from the story and plotline. And I also liked the way that Harbison took the story to get to the twist. The build-up of Natalie’s and Aiden’s relationship felt organic and not forced; especially when you find out both sides of how Aiden and Brooke got together in the story. And a mentioned above, because of how Brooke was, I really didn’t feel that sorry for her.

This is a young adult story as the characters are all 17 and 18 years old but it is a much more mature YA novel and deals with a lot of alcohol, drugs and drug taking and sex so that would be something to consider. 

I’d recommend this is you’re looking for a more mature YA novel which involves coming-of-age and romance along with some over-exaggerated use of alcohol, drugs and drug taking and sex along with the partying [although I didn’t feel like this detracted from the story itself.