Tag Archives: Reckless

ARC Review: Seduction and Surrender (Reckless #2) by C.C. Gibbs

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No-Brainer

Title:  Seduction and Surrender
Author: CC Gibbs
Publisher/Year: Grand Central Publishing 3/1/16
Length:  416 pages
Series:  Reckless #2

Overview

From the peaks of erotic ecstasy–to the point of no return . . .

Power. Passion. Pleasure beyond imagining. Billionaire playboy Rafe Contini offers all this–and more–to the beautiful Nicole Parrish, a young American traveler with a taste for adventure that matches his own. From the private yachts of Monte Carlo to the palatial estates of Geneva to the glittering penthouses of Bangkok, Rafe has shown her a world of unimaginable sensual delights. Now, he is ready to take her to the next daring level. Of danger. Of desire. Of deliciously erotic self-discovery.

Nicole has never known a man as sexy, as strong–or as commanding–as Rafe Contini. Night after steamy night, he turns up the heat, tests her boundaries, and pushes the limits of her body and soul to the point of sweetest agony. But when this masterful lover sweeps her away to a secluded island getaway–where anything can and will happen–Nicole must decide just how far she wants to take this game. And just how much she can bend Rafe’s rules . . .

My Thoughts

I have to start off by saying thanks to the folks at Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for getting me this early read – this is a series that i’ve been invested in before it was a spin-off.  On that note, we start off this 2nd installment with Rafe and Nicole – when they are in hiding in a sense trying to track Zou, all the while, Rafe is trying to keep nicole safe and sated.

What we get here is on par with everything that we’ve come to expect from CC Gibbs – a lot of heat and passion, some great character relationship dynamics and a lot of anxiety wondering when the other shoes going to drop.

Throughout the story, you can see that Rafe’s trying to distract not only Nicole from what’s going on, but himself as much as he won’t admit it.  He’s very involved in the whole scenario trying to find Zhou and his mistress/child but you also see that his head is all wrapped up in Nicole and doesn’t quite know what to do.

The interesting thing here though is that while we’re typically accustomed to seeing the issues as a result of the relationship, anything that keeps these two apart has nothing to do with them – they are GOOD – it’s outside forces pulling at them, but never for too long.

So that being said, it’s very expected in the sense of knowing where the love relationship will go, but the questions that you have throughout while you read is where is Zhou, where is he going to pop up next, who’s he going to hurt and what will that mean.  it’s the last third of the book when things really start to speed up and you’re really getting pulling into the crux of the story.  I have to say that it’s expected yet there were twists, and it was enjoyable to read.  I got what i was hoping for and i’m a happy girl.

 

The question that remains though is what’s next.  who are we going to get to read about next and in what context.  i’m interested and intrigued since this can’t be the end.  that’s all i’m saying.  have a great night all!

ARC Review: Power and Possession (Reckless #1) by CC Gibbs

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Title: Power and Possession
Author: CC Gibbs
Publisher/Year: Grand Central Publishing 9/1/125
Length: 266
Series: Reckless #1

Overview

The ultimate pleasure lies in sweet surrender . . .

Brash. Brilliant. Devastatingly handsome. Billionaire playboy Rafe Contini can have any woman he wants-no strings, no commitments, no promises. But when American graduate student Nicole Parrish crashes his private party in Monte Carlo, he wants more than a casual one-night stand. He wants to possess this beautiful stranger-body, mind, and soul.
Nicole isn’t interested in being possessed by any man-especially one as powerful as Rafe. But with a seductive smile and enigmatic charm, he lures her into his private world of erotic discovery and pushes her to the brink of ecstasy. In the summer days-and nights-that follow, they explore every forbidden fantasy, every willful desire, every wild, dizzying sensation. And come dangerously close to crossing the line-between love and lust, pleasure and pain, power and possession . . .

My Thoughts

I loved the All or Nothing series and this is a spin off of that so i knew that i’d get something great and fantastic.  That and i think that we got a teaser of this story in the final installment of the former series.  I actually feel like i kept waiting for that scene to show up in this first intro to this new series and it wasn’t until the latter third actually when it did pop up.

So as you guys all recall, Dominic has a niece named Nicole who is 22 and this is her story.  Or at least the continuation of her story.  We meet up with her while she’s on ‘holiday’ or summer break from school with her friend Fiona – and they are living it up in Europe somewhere – on a yacht.  It’s on this boat that her life changes and we don’t know yet if it’s for the better or not.  While she’s walking aorund this yacht, nursing a hangover and recalling the craziness of the night before, she runs into what is propbably the sexiest man that she’s ever seen – and well….the sparks fly.  This man of course is Rafe Contini – billionaire businessman, and playboy.

Where we go on this journey is actually a nice place – both are really strong characters – so it’s not one of those ‘naive girl gets sucked into a world that she’s unfamiliar’.  Similar to how CC Gibbs wrote Kate in the other series – we have a girl who knows her value, and maybe she’s still got a bit of ‘finding herself to do;’ but it’s definitely not due to a lack of confidence.  Rafe also knows that he’s sought after – for his money, sexual appeal and any number of other things.

Rafe finds that because Nicole doesn’t just say ‘yes’ to him, that he’s drawn deeper into her web, and Nicole feels like he’s her match in the sense that he gives her butterflies but also makes her feel like she’s able to push herself and him at the same time.  This makes for some GREAT sexual chemistry – and the scening that we have come to love an expect from our author comes out here with vengeance.

I’d have to say that the one downfall to this story is that 2/3 is really just a lot of banter and sexual chemistry – not a bad thing in reality but there’s really a lack of the story development.  I get that the basis for doing this is to show how far out of each of their comfort zone they are in – neither does relationships and that’s exactly where it seems like this is going – but i think that the excitement really only starts when we’re in the last third and Rafe’s company comes under attack from hackers and then well, Dominic shows up at an inopportune time in Paris.  That’s when it gets tense, angsty and well – things really begin to speed up.

Where we are left in the final pages of this story is the edge – there’s definitely a cliffhanger here.  Nicole and Rafe have to ‘flee to safety’ and there’s a big question on if they will be safe, if someone’s going to die, and who’s going to protect whom since we know that Dominic protects what’s his as does Rafe.

There’s also the underlying story of who Rafe’s father is, when he’s going to find out, and the fact that Dominic is so close to him in an odd sort of way.  So…i guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens in book 2 of this series and i’d love to get my hands on that ARC too since i don’t know that i can wait so long.  so….thanks Netgalley and the publisher for giving me access to this early and i hope that you guys enjoy it as well!

Review: Reckless (Thoughtless #3) by S.C. Stephens

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Title: Reckless 
Author: S. C. Stephens
Publisher/Year: Gallery Books, 3/5/13
Length: 534 pages
Series: The Thoughtless Series #3

ahhh, at long last we get book 3 in the Thoughtless series which takes us to the more mature stage of the relationship between Rock Star Kellan and Writer Kiera.

So if you remember, in Thoughtless (book 1) we were introduced to Kiera right when she had made the decision to move from Ohio to Seattle with her boyfriend Denny who had graduated and found a great job.  He had lived in Seattle during high school when he was an exchange student (from Australia) and lived with Kellan’s family, so Kellan was putting them up when they came out west.  Of course, you can’t help yourself being a female living with a rock god and one thing led to another, and a sordid affair began, putting a wedge between Denny and Kiera, and some how bringing K&K closer together

Then, in Effortless, (book 2), Kellan’s band the D-bags was starting to make it big and they went on tour, with Kiera having to stay behind to finish school and all that.  Of course when you’re in a pseudo relationship with a rock god, who has a bit of a history of being a man whore, you never know what to believe and you get jealous at every turn.  that’s basically what Kiera’s life was like, not knowing what was real, what was real for her, and what was going to make her happy.  Denny pops up at those key moments when Kiera really needs a friend, causing even more friction.  alas, they do get a happier ending leading us into the 3rd installment.

oh yea, Anna (Kiera’s sister) and Griffen (another man whore bandmate) somehow manage to get together to an extent and procreate

so that takes us to book 3 Reckless where Kellan and Kiera are now Married.  well sorta – they ‘got married’ in a bar basically meaning that they got engaged but to them it’ married.  The D-Bags are going on tour and finishing up their album and making it big.  Kiera joins Kellan in LA pre-tour as she’s now finished with school and is able to write her book on the road.  While in LA, Kellan (and his band) are propositioned (or ordered) by their label to join forces with Sierra Sexton who is like the raunchy Britney Spears of the story to do a steamy collaboration in the hopes of boosting sales for the guys band and to help put Sierra back on top.  Of course you can’t have 2 hot stars doing a steamy collaboration and not have gossip and rumors come of it, so that’s basically what we’re dealing with throughout the story.  Watching Kellan and Kiera’s love manage to deal with everything that it can, but does it get to be too much?  Sierra is used to getting her way and there seems to be heat between her and Kellan, so you spend a lot of time trying to figure out if gossip is real or just gossip.  There’s a bit of anxiety, babies born at inopportune times, relationships that may not be strong enough to hold on but you hope they do, and then of course some of the happiest romantic moments of all.

so….i enjoyed it for sure, but i feel like it didn’t have the same level of nail biting scenes that the other books did.  not to say that it was bad though cause it wasn’t – it was just maybe slightly above average.