Tag Archives: Convenience

Review: The Ruin (Convenience #3) by Stella Gray

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Title: The Ruin
Author:  Stella Gray
Publisher/Year:  Stella Gray 9/15/20
Length:  203 Pages
Series:  Convenience #3

Overview

My life is in ruins. Failed marriage, failed career—I’m a failure.
 
My husband may have had a hand in it, but I can’t help missing him.
 
We made an agreement. I signed the contract, and so did he. Without our arrangement, everything falls apart. 
 
So we’ll keep losing ourselves in each other’s bodies.
 
We’ll keep pretending everything is fine.
 
But maybe I’m getting sick of pretend.
 
Maybe I want to find something real.
 
And just maybe, Luka does too.

My Thoughts

We were on such a roller coaster in book 2 that I think we could use a bit of a reprieve in book 3, the final installment. If that’s what you were expecting as a reader, then you don’t know Stella Gray that well, and of course we were on another turbulent ride.

The end of the last book had our hopes up soo high thinking that Brooklyn will finally get her break on a huge national / international campaign, especially since Luka seemed to be her cheerleader, but we were left freefalling off a cliff when Monica Shore’s name was called and shocker, she had a new look that was exactly that of Brooklyn.

Tensions are high since Brooklyn now feels betrayed, by her husband and by the woman who seems to want to get into Luka’s pants. It’s sad to think that everything they overcame in book 2 was now falling to the wayside. Brooklyn runs to LA to be with Mateo who’s the only person who’s able to help her pick herself up off the floor. They craft a plan dubbed Operation Sexify which is now a means to make Brooklyn less wholesome since that’s the persona that Luka and Stefan needed her to take on.

The bulk of this book is tense, they are at odds with one another, yet there’s still clear love and chemistry between them. They can’t stay away from each other but they both have such hatred about the situation that they can’t be around one another. It takes Luka being called up to testify in his father’s trial to get Brooklyn to come back to his side, and when we think that there’s hope, walls of stone and ice are up once again and it seems as though there’s really no point in even making an effort.

What we do get as a constant is that every time they do seem to like each other more than they hate each other, we get some of the kinkiest steamiest scenes ever. And those carry the story through.

True to form with this story – just when it seems like they’re on the final uptick, controversy hits – the first time it was on their honeymoon when the leak of Brooklyn’s offer from Elite came to light. This time it was Monica herself leaking the details of what was offered to Brooklyn, implying that she took the deal and lied to the family. Luckily, Luka already knew the details, but that didn’t help things when Brooklyn goes to see Luka to make sure things are ok and overhears him talking to someone supporting Monica yet again instead of his wife.

We get gender reveal for Stefan’s baby, and the growing up of Mr Kibbles. We have romance and sadness, hints of opportunity for love for Em, and yet, there’s still so much vagueness for Luka and Brooklyn. This story definitely gives them the send off that we wanted and I think that there was no way to truly expect all that was thrown their way. I read that Emzee now gets her own series coming out of this one but the release date looks like Feb 2021 so I have to be VERY patient. Oh well – Enjoy!

Review: The Contract (Convenience #2) by Stella Gray

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Title: The Contract
Author:  Stella Gray
Publisher/Year:  Stella Gray 7/28/20
Length:  206 Pages
Series:  Convenience #2

Overvew

If only I’d never signed that contract. Or accepted the one I didn’t.

My husband doesn’t trust me. Not that I can blame him.

But he needs me, needs my image. I need his connections. And I have to find a way to convince him to set aside our differences.

There’s one way that always works.

Even when we hate each other, our bodies betray us.

The one place we’ve never disagreed is in bed.

Except this is about more than just us.

And even Luka Zoric’s legendary control breaks sometimes.

My Thoughts

It’s been a minute since I was wrapped in the world of Luka and Brooklyn but it takes just a second to remember where we left things off – they were newly married, they started to build a foundation that seemed stronger than the farce that this began as, and then it all crumbles on their honeymoon when Luka is tipped off about the contract that Brooklyn had been offered with Elite Models to get insider information about them to bring them down.

Mind you, that was old information, old news – the contract hadn’t been something that Brooklyn was pursuing at all anymore, but Luka didn’t care and so a wedge was forced between them. We spend the bulk of this second installment watching them hate each other. Watching Luka not allow Brooklyn to explain and watching Brooklyn trying to figure out how to survive knowing that the situation that they were in was something that she really couldn’t get out of. She was ambitious and she really did feel like there was something between her and Luka.

Every time they started to make progress, someone would come between them. That typically led to heat and passion and painfully raunchy sex (for a moment) but then nothing good would spawn from that. As a reader, you hope for more of those heated moments, but you know that there’s nothing good behind them.

It’s only when enough pushing is done that they take a moment outside of the world to be with the family to realize that there are emotions that mean something and use that as an opportunity to try to heal. If only healing was possible right? Through an unfortunate circumstance, with a person who was out for the downfall of Brooklyn (and likely the agency as well), we see the final scene of this book turn out in the exact opposite way that we want, and they are ripped apart again. I can’t wait to see what happens in this next book and how Luka can explain things, but i’m sure he’ll try. So…i’ll be patient and hopefully enjoy it. You guys should too!

Review: The Sham (Convenience #1) by Stella Gray

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Title: The Sham
Author:  Stella Gray
Publisher/Year:  Stella Gray 5/5/20
Length:  235 Pages
Series:  Convenience #1

Overview

Our marriage is a sham. I’m the first to admit it. Only privately, of course.

Notorious playboy Luka Zoric needs a wife, and the good PR it brings.

I just need the career boost being his top model will give me. It’s a win-win–on paper. But since when has real life been simple?

His jealousy makes me crazy.

The control he maintains over my body is unacceptable.

I really shouldn’t be so turned on by it.

But there’s more to both me and my husband than meets the eye.

And it isn’t long before I’m wondering–which of us has made the bigger mistake?

My Thoughts

It’s funny – i was going to read this book before the Arranged series and i’m glad that i didn’t. That’s the set up to this, the prelude to this bit of the story and it really helps set the stage.

We met Luka in the first book – he’s the younger son of the KZM dynasty and a playboy at that. Throughout the first series, we saw him as a drunk, as a guy who’s out for the next quick affair, usually with a model from the agency and really just a PR nightmare. Now that the brothers are in charge of things, we see that Stefan and Luka need to turn things around in the agency’s image and while Stefan has done a great job from a business perspective, Luka now needs to help give them a more human image….resulting in another arranged marriage.

That’s where Brooklyn comes into the mix. These two met a few years back when Brooklyn was trying to make her big break on the modeling scene which resulted in a string of lies from Luka and a great one night stand for these two. Fast forward 3 years, and we’re back at the newly formed DRM agency where Brooklyn is trying to get her shot at the open audition.

What all the girls soon realize is that this isn’t a usual audition, the girls are being asked unique and personal questions, and this is all for the hunt for Luka’s wife. Brooklyn checks all the boxes and we get to watch the push pull throughout the first half of the book between these two. There’s chemistry between them but Brooklyn is so upset about how Luka clearly doesn’t remember her, and Luka on the other hand is sooo attracted to her that he’d be dumb not to remember her. Mind you, all this brings out jealousy and tension that’s really intense and unexpected on both parts of the couple.

The journey from here is a roller coaster. We watch the games that they play with each other because it seems like they both are holding onto this notion of a temp marriage, but there’s history there, there’s chemistry and need and clearly stronger and deeper emotions that anyone expected.

Throughout this though, there’s also a secret that Brooklyn is hiding that i caught onto pretty quick and i’m sure most others did as well. I don’t know what motivated her to get into the situation that she’s in, but it’s one that’s going to hurt a lot of people, especially her new family, and i can’t wait to see how she gets out of this one.

We get a lot of the same heat and passion levels that we saw in the former series. There’s a chemistry and intensity that Ms Gray writes that really keeps us engaged. The moments that this couple steals together, in closets, in bedrooms, anywhere – they are on fire and that’s exactly what’s needed to keep a story like this moving. So…now i have to wait until July to get book 2, but in the meantime, you should read this and the other series and enjoy!