ARC Review: Heated (Most Wanted #2) by J Kenner

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Title: Heated
Author:  J. Kenner
Publisher/Year:  Random House Publishing 6/3/14
Length:  416 Pages
Series: Most Wanted #3

Overview

 knew better than to risk my heart.
But fierce passion comes at a high price.
 
I grew up believing in right and wrong, good and evil, black and white. I knew better than to trust. And then I met Tyler Sharp.
 
Bold, charming, and dangerously sexy, Tyler always gets what he wants. But his smile can be deceiving, his dealings sordid, his ambitions ruthless. I thought I was the one woman strong enough to resist him, but our need for each other was too urgent to deny.
 
One look and I was in trouble. One touch and I was hooked. One night and I became his.
 
And now that I’ve fallen, there’s no going back.

My Thoughts

Oh how i do love J Kenner and everything that she writes.  We were first introduced to this series with Evan and Angie’s tale in Wanted and Heated, the 2nd book takes us on the journey of Tyler, the 2nd of the trio, and Sloane who is a cop trying to work a case off the books.

Sloane is on the last week of medical leave from getting shot on duty and she’s using this last week to help track down a friend who has gone missing in Chicago.  Her friend Amy was a stripper at a club called Destiny and Sloanes on the trek to find out if anyone knows where she’s gone.

Destiny as you’ll remember is owned by Evan, Tyler and Cole – and it’s newly made to be squeaky clean and legitimate after Evan’s relationship with Angie too a turn for the series.  Sloane figures that the club is her in to see if she can find any info from Tyler or the girls that work there, and that’s where her roller coaster begins.  We get a nice journey of seeing how 2 people who have issues with trusting others come together and play each other, yet find that maybe there’s something special there.

While Sloane thinks that she’s being sneaky, she’s been ‘made’ by the guys, and they know that she’s a cop and push her to see what her agenda is.  It’s during that time though that Tyler begins to think that there’s something more and that maybe he doesn’t want to play her like that.

One of the great things that we get from J Kenner are dynamic leads – characters that have great back stories that make for page turners.  Seamlessly woven into all of that too is passion and heat, and an amazing quality of sensuality that makes you want to read straight through without a break.  I find that i’m drawn into the scenes with these 2 especially – since i know what proclivities Tyler has, and what boundaries Sloane seems less than willing to cross.

The question throughout this story is what will really happen.  I mean, we know that the reason that Sloane is temporarily in Chicago is to find Amy, and it’s looking grim.  We also know that she’s only there for a week, so what does that mean for her and Tyler?  We know that he can’t be changed – his background makes him what he is and he seems to have no issue with it all.  I think that the journey that we’re taken on is a realistic one if you were to spin it longer than a week.  But that aside, i really enjoyed it.  I can’t wait for book 3 – Ignited, because i really want to see what gets under Cole’s skin – he’s quite an enigma, and i think that he’ll bring it all full circle.  Enjoy!

*click the cover above to buy!

ARC Review: Wanted (Most Wanted #1) by J Kenner

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Title: Wanted
Author: J Kenner
Publisher/Year: Random House Publishing 1/7/14
Length:  352 pages
Series:  Most Wanted #1

Overview

He is everything I crave, all I desperately want—and he is everything I can’t have.
 
Evan Black embodies my every fantasy. He is brilliant, fierce, and devastatingly handsome. But he is also headstrong, dangerous, and burdened with secrets.

My family warned me to stay away, that I could never handle Evan’s dark dealings or scarred past. Maybe I should have listened. Maybe I should have run. But our desire is undeniable, and some temptations you just can’t fight.

And from the moment we touch—the passion between us consuming us both—I know that I will never be the same.

My Thoughts

Well, the first thing that i can say is that J Kenner certainly didn’t disappoint in this new series – and i think that my expectations coming out of the Stark Trilogy into this one have been met and possibly exceeded.  The plot, the heat, the backstory – i think that there’s something really good here.

There’s nothing better than one of those stories about the younger girl who meets the main domineering sexy male when she’s too young and out of her league, forms a crush and is then left wanting.  Of course, that older man exudes such raw sex appeal that she’s haunted by it, but has to move on.

Well, here we meet Angelina, (angie or prior to that Lina) when she’s now about 24, at the funeral of her uncle who has been somewhat of a father figure to her since the death of her sister 8 years prior.  Angie comes from a family that’s well off, and political, her father being tapped possibly as the next VP candidate.  All that wrapped into the guilt that she carries from the death of her sister, well that means that she has to make a different personality and life for herself.

In comes Evan, the man that she’s been lusting after for a few years ,and well, he’s something to really lust after.  He’s tall, powerful, and while he’s a successful and well known businessman, he’s also a bad boy, which is right up Angie’s alley.  although she has a boyfriend, who’s an FBI agent.  (meaning that we know that something’s going to happen that’s a bit rough around the edges right?)

So, fast forward not very far, and Angie decides that with everything going on, Kevin isn’t what she needs, she leaves him and ends up with Evan, which seems like an answer to her prayers.  He makes her feel like everything is lighter, he controls her in a way that she needs, that’s not really self deprecating and harmful, and that’s ideal for her given her true nature.

This story takes us on the journey of this couple, when we know that there’s an expiration date to things (3 weeks in the future since Angie’s taking a job in DC), and we want to see where things go with them.  The question is about power struggle, both with Evan/Angie and Kevin and everyone else.  What’s the angle that he’s going to work with the couple, and is going to try to bring everyone down?

What’s even nicer about this story is that you know where the next 2 installments of the series will take us.  Cole and Tyler, Evan’s best friends and partners in business and crime so to speak.  they have their own air of sexuality and power that means that we’ll get something great out of their stories too.  and it would be great to see Angie’s friend Kat get in on the action since we know that she’s lusting after one of those guys.

Suffice it to say, i was hooked in the first few chapters.  It was hot, it was sexy and it really shows that J Kenner knows how to write in this genre.  I can’t wait to get my hands on Heated, the next book in the series, and see who’s hands get on whom.

enjoy!