Title: No Reservations
Author: Stephanie Julian
Publisher/Year: Penguin Group (USA) 9/3/13
Length: 320 Pages
Series: Salon Games #2
Overview
Play by the rules and you’ll never get what you deserve.
Tyler Golden is all about control. It’s an attitude that helped him and his brother build Haven, a boutique hotel in Philadelphia. The only thing Tyler couldn’t control was his fiancée’s death. It left him emotionally guarded, and willing to go only so far with women: satisfying his sexual needs.
Kate Song knows the feeling. Her sole focus is her dream to be a lingerie designer. She’s not about to be distracted by any man. No matter who he is. Or how demanding. Or forceful. Or captivatingly sexy. Or so she thought.
Tyler has the power to make her dream come true. Who can say no to such a dominating personality? Who would want to? Not Kate. Offering her body for submission is one thing. But giving her heart and soul is another. Now Tyler may discover that the one woman who taught him to love again is the one woman he might not be able to keep.
My Thoughts
after reading the first installment of this series (by private invitation), i knew what we were going to get into here with the 2nd book, especially since we had a resolution of Kate’s relationship at the end of book 1. This one literally picks up off the heels from the first book, where we find that Tyler and Kate are finally going to act on their feelings.
as a quick reminder, Kate is Anabelle’s best friend and Tyler is Jared’s brother. Anabelle and Jared have found happiness that was a long time coming in book 1 and it’s nice to see that their happiness is spilling over to the ones that they love.
So in this 2nd installment, we’re diving deeper into Kate and Tyler’s story to see what can be done to make both happy. From what we learned of Kate, she had been engaged to a man that she just wasn’t in love with anymore. She had a lukewarm sex life with him and because she’s so passionate about life, that just wasn’t working for her. We saw that passion manifest itself in her occupation (she’s a costume designer / wedding dress designer on the side) and has a flair for the kinky/sexy. Tyler on the other hand, we learned that he’s battling his own demons of his past – his fiance Mia keeps haunting him ever since she passed away 2 years ago. He had shut himself off emotionally from the potential of finding a soul mate and love that it was a nice surprise that caught him off guard when he met Kate.
We are taken on a roller coaster with these 2 where they are completely consumed with the chemistry that they have, and boy is it hot! but at the same time, they are trying to find themselves in life and figure out what the next path is for them. Kate’s being offered all these opportunities all at once that she’s been waiting for and doesn’t know what to do about them especially since she’s just found Tyler, and Tyler on the other hand has to make a choice on keeping his family’s legacy alive at the sacrifice of his own happiness, or to be more selfish.
What i love about this story which was nice about book 1 is that we get the involvement of a 3rd player with these couples. In book 1, we had Dane who was Jared’s best friend and who dabbled with the couple in a menage, and in this installment, we have Greg to fill that role. the way that Stephanie Julian writes these menages into her stories gives us hope that the series will continue and that we’ll get to see into Dane and Greg and everyone else that we’ve met. (possibly Sabrina too?)
The one downfall that i have to this story though is that i felt like the ending was resolved a bit too quickly and a bit too nice and tidy for my liking. I was caught off guard with how abrupt it felt, even though the ending suited the story. I can only hope that there’s another book to follow that we’ll be able to see how things progress from here with the folks that we’ve grown to enjoy reading about.