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Review: The Open Door (The Found Duet #2.5) by Laurelin Paige

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Title: The Open Door
Author:  Laurelin Paige
Publisher/Year:  Evil Eye Concepts 8/15/19
Length:  128 Pages
Series: The Found Duet #2.5

Overview

I knew JC was trouble the minute I laid eyes on him.

Breaking every rule in my club. I never forget how he made me feel that night. With all the women in that room, all those bodies on display, but his eyes were only on me.

Of course I married him. Now years have passed. Kids have been born. We’re still in love as always, and the sex is still fantastic…

And yet, it’s also not. Like many who’ve been married for a while, I long for the high intensity of those days of the past.

I’ve heard rumors for years about the Open Door. An ultra-exclusive voyeur’s paradise. A place to participate in-or watch-any kind of display you can imagine.

My husband’s eyes would still be on me. And maybe other eyes too. If that’s what we want.

So when an invitation to come play arrives, how could we turn it down?

My Thoughts

We’ve read so much about experiences at The Open Door through Trish’s story, through Celia’s story and now we get it in Gwen’s. The perspective this time is completely different since her reasons for going are unique to what we’ve seen from couples before.

We’re put back into the world of JC and Gwen, they have two kids now and they are settled in their relationship. They’re happy yet exhausted and there are times that Gwen wonders if she’s enough for JC who still looks as sexy as the day she met him. She feels like her body’s gone to shit from having kids and she’s not going to be able to keep the interest of her husband. That’s definitely not the impression that we get from JC but you know how women get in their heads sometimes.

When JC’s given a membership from an investor, they go back and forth on whether its the right thing for them and what their boundaries would be. They discuss whether it’s even for them, even though it seems like JC is really intrigued. Gwen’s heard about it from the folks she hangs with but she’s never known that it was real so this is a chance to really see that in person. She’s afraid of what it will do to her relationship but at the same time she’s hopeful for some nudging in the right direction.

The path that we take in this novella is one that spans quite a bit of time. They go to a party and experience it from a far. They aren’t sure what to make of it, but they know that they’re intrigued – and there’s a positive effect on their romance at home for a bit coming out of it. That begins to wane when life takes over and they try again. Each time they go, their boundaries are pushed further out until they are crossed.

So we’re left to wonder if this was a good idea or if The Open Door means the end of their relationship, and of the bond that they once shared. The only way to know who gets involved and how….is to read. Enjoy!

Review: Find Me (The Found Duet #2) by Laurelin Paige

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Title: Find Me
Author:  Laurelin Paige
Publisher/Year:  Paige Press 8/13/19
Length:  272 Pages
Series: The Found Duet #2

Overview

I came to The Sky Launch to begin fresh, away from the horrors of my past. The circumstances that brought me here were not the best, but I’ve become good friends with Alayna and Hudson Pierce, and my family has healed in ways I never thought they could. With them around me, I’ve never felt more at home.

But starting anew means letting go.

And there are some things I don’t want to leave behind – like JC, the man who taught me how to let loose. The man I wasn’t supposed to love. The man I don’t want to lose.

My life is safe now. The threats from before have become less menacing, and I’m faced with a choice: either move on completely or keep holding to the hope that JC loves me enough to come and find me.

My Thoughts

There were so many ups and downs from that first book that we have to know that the same will come in the second. Even though Gwen thinks that her life is in the right / safer path, that’s the furthest from the truth, and we have to sit by and watch it all play out.

Through Norma’s work relationship with Hudson, Gwen gets a dream job at The Sky Launch beside Alaynna and what comes from that is an amazing friendship that’s even more like a family. While she’s trying to live her life knowing that JC may never come back, she’s also hoping that in some way he will find her even though everything about her including her appearance has changed. She moves on slightly with Chandler, Hudson’s younger brother and while he helps with one itch, he doesn’t fill the hole in her heart.

What happens next – is what changes her world forever. They see JC on TV talking about the court case that he’s the star witness for and that means that Gwen’s world implodes – he’s in New York and hasn’t made contact. The minute she decides to go down to the courthouse to watch the trial is the moment that changes her trajectory. He sees her and he goes after her and they realize that they are more in love now than ever before.

JC has an uphill battle – remember the last time we saw him was in Vegas right after he married someone else on the night he had wanted to marry Gwen. She walked away from him and JC let her. So with a lot of explaining, and a video that explains a lot, JC finds his way back into her life.

The romance story blossoms from there – we know that they are both the other’s only necessary thing in life – JC wants to marry Gwen still but she’s guarded and makes him work for it. They don’t know yet what their future holds but they know that they want to be with each other. Until……Gwen finds that she’s pregnant….which is interesting. Not only is she un sure that she even wants kids, but the timing of the conception means that it could be either JC or Chandler.

Add to that stress, the win that JC thought he had from the court case is overruled when the murderer gets out on a technicality, forcing JC to go into hiding again.

A baby with unknown paternity, going back into hiding with no sense of what that means for anyone, a murder attempt, and oh yea, Gwen’s father is a heroin addict who still wants money from her. So you can imagine what comes from this ‘final’ installment to their story and I can’t wait to see how it plays out – you should read as well! Enjoy!

Review: Free Me (The Found Duet #1) by Laurelin Paige

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Title: Free Me
Author:  Laurelin Paige
Publisher/Year:  Paige Press 8/13/19
Length:  270 Pages
Series: The Found Duet #1

Overview

I wasn’t supposed to be working the night I met JC.

Before him, I’d been content with the daily grind, managing one of NYC’s top nightclubs. So what if my life didn’t have a happily ever after? I didn’t believe in that anyway.

Then JC showed up.

Sexy, rich and smooth-talking, JC is nothing more than a distraction. I’m not interested in a night-in-shining latex so it’s easy to push the playboy away. Or it is until my life spins unexpectedly out-of-control. Then he’s there for me, offering a new method of survival, one based on following primal urges and desires that requires me to abandon my constant need for control.

His no-strings-attached lessons obliterate my carefully built walls. And as I discover freedom, I start to feel things for him that I shouldn’t. Things that make me fear for my newly vulnerable heart. Because JC has secrets of his own, and his secrets don’t want to set him free.

My Thoughts

I love how i’ve read so many stories around the world of Pierce an Edward and Celia and Alayna – now to find the story about Gwen. There’s so much that we learn about her that really surprises me and makes me wonder why I didn’t realize things before.

The story of Gwen is a hard one to swallow. She’s had a rough life with her father abusing her and her siblings, even more so once their mother passed away and as a result, she’s become hard and tough. Reserved and guarded. They ultimately put their dad in jail for what he’s done and life changes.Her older sister took over as guardian until she was old enough and as a result, she’s had this reliable example to take from. That older sibling is non other than Norma – the CFO at Hudson Pierce’s company. The salary that he pays her gives them more than enough money so that Norma can support them in a luxury high rise apartment and even send money to their younger brother Ben who lives in LA.

The journey here is watching Gwen go through the motions at a job that she actually loves as a manager at one of the most successful clubs in NYC. It’s only when she picks up a shift for someone else that she finds herself at a point of tension where her nature as a rule follower crosses paths with the sexiest man who is NOT a rule follower. that man….JC.

The chemistry that we watch rolling off them is intense and it’s a battle of wills to see when they actually take the steps towards one another. The arrangement that they come to is something that’s a bit unorthodox, but it works for them. JC wants to help Gwen relax, get out of her comfort zone and loosen up, and at the same time he gets to spend time with a woman that he’s so attracted and drawn to that it’s a win win.

We watch them make this no attachment situation work with their unique schedules and we see what always happens – the notion of no emotions and no relationship always backfires. It’s when there are too many secrets to keep hidden, that things start to crumble. They developed feelings for each other and that means that issues from their past will bubble up. All that JC is hiding (and it seems like a lot) will come to the surface and Gwen’s past comes to her present in the form of her father.

We are left at a point in the story where they are bonded and committed to each other but there are intense an unsafe factors at play that will keep them apart. Gwen chooses herself and walks away, takes steps to change her life, knowing that it means that JC won’t be able to find out. so, what that means for us is that we get to watch what happens with his life, watch to see if he sorts things out and then watch his attempts to track her down. I can’t wait to dive in right now to see how it ends up. Enjoy!