Fakeout, book one in the Lou & Jace Duet, is a lightly angsty, sexy, contemporary secret baby romance. Download today and get ready to fall for Jace and Lou!
Falling in love was never on the agenda. Oops…
Every family has an outcast, and in the Kindall family, it’s Lou. Avoiding them is her go-to move, but unfortunately, skipping her grandparent’s wedding anniversary celebration is not an option. Going alone, though? Total disaster. So, when her sexy neighbor volunteers to go with her, she agrees—quickly. Now, if only she could learn to ignore her very real attraction to her new fake boyfriend…
Jace Davenport knows exactly how it feels to be an outcast. His childhood certainly taught him that. That’s why he refuses to let Lou face her judgmental family on her own. Besides, maybe if he does a really good job pretending to be her boyfriend, she’ll consider upgrading him to the real thing…
A few hot kisses and stolen moments later, their fake romance starts to feel all too real. But is a happily ever after in the cards for this ex-soccer player and the girl of his dreams?
Lou and Jace will soon find out…
Contemporary | Romance | Adult Fiction
***Received an eARC copy through author group in exchange for an honest review***
Oh me oh my, did I actually take a break from my horror, true crime binging to read some romance? Yes, yes I did. And of course I gotta give some fake dating tropes every chances, so here we are with Fakeout. Hot neighbors, family drama, smooches; yes please!
So right off the back, I liked Lou’s entrance. The coffee spill on pants, let alone white pants, is a total me thing. It made her character very easy relatable right at the hook. Throughout I did not feel she was over the top, she semi blended with this image that I had of her. Lou is smart, but at the same time not a great judge of character (memo to self, continue to have men named Spencer on my hate list), and a bit of a people pleaser. Almost to the point that I felt she needed to stick up for herself a bit more, but again still made her seem relatable in sorts. Jace on the other hand, I liked him yet I wish I had more of a feel for him. I didn’t really connect with him as much as I had hoped. I wanted a bit more of his soccer background. Nonetheless though, I thought their friendship and conversations were easy flowing. The romance when they finally crossed that boundary was delicious.
I am a huge fan of supporting characters, as many know but I gotta admit, there wasn’t many side characters that shined out at me in the way I had hoped. On top of this, the sister drama was not entirely my favorite. I felt like it was very forced, but not in a bad way, just didn’t feel like it had much luster for me to invest towards. On the other spectrum I appreciated the fact that instead of focusing too much on supporting characters or how they affected Lou and Jace, it was more their dynamic driven.
Overall, this was a very light, quick read. It was a very cute read with the right amount of steam. Though I did enjoy Lou and Jace’s romance, I did feel like maybe there was too much of a quick pace – get it, Jace pace, oh I crack myself up. Seriously though, I do not mind quick reads, but I do think there could have been more flushing, more meat to the story, more buildup towards that cliffhanger. Which, I am all about these types of duets, I love a good cliffhanger that leaves you screaming “Oh no she did not just say that!”
Now off to Blindsided we go!
Blindsided, book two in the Lou & Jace Duet, is a lightly angsty, sexy, contemporary secret baby romance. Download today and get ready to fall for Jace and Lou!
They thought they were on their way to happily ever after. They were wrong…
After a blissful four months together, Lou and Jace thought they had it all. Everything was going perfectly. But the problem with perfection, is that there’s only one way for the relationship to go.
Down.
When his ex shows up in their small town and blindsides him with a potentially devastating secret, Jace knows the choices he makes next will either strengthen or destroy the life he’s only started building with Lou.
There’s no doubt they love each other. But between communication breakdowns, past hurts, and complications neither of them saw coming, is love enough? Or are Jace and Lou better off going their separate ways once and for all?
Contemporary | Romance | Adult Fiction
***Received an eARC copy through author group in exchange for an honest review***
And we are back! Did you miss me? I know you did. After that cliffhanger in Fakeout, I had to immediately jump back into the duet to finish it off. So here we are, Blindsided is read!
Many people know my personally less than favorited tropes, which generally boils down to baby type tropes. Not that I won’t read them, but sometimes I just cannot stay connected. Secret babies, single parent, or others are not my go to but again, the cliffhanger did leave me with all kinds of feelings that I had to find out the truth. And maybe it isn’t my favorite trope dynamic, I felt like this played through some interesting storyline, something I haven’t seen often. For example, Jace “you are the father”, yeah I wasn’t really expecting him to be, more often authors will make it into a more out for money ploy, so I really liked this scenario. I did feel like Deliha was a bit over the top with her conversations, reactions and ultimately how she approached the entirety of the situation. And though I liked the fact that Jace stepped up, it felt like Deliha was made out to be a villain without possibly exploring more.
To that, we are also back in the mix with Lou and Jace’s budding relationship that is now jumbled with a child. I actually liked Lou’s reaction. I think some people felt she acted immaturely but honestly, she just finally got her crush all to herself and boom, child. What I did not entirely like was how she immediately went into mom mode with Jace. Again, maybe this is just me, maybe because I do not have kids, it just for me felt rushed, forced, and a bit underwhelming development. Not saying Jace needed to woo Lou, he stepped up as a father, I liked that, but I would have liked to have seen them re-connect differently, with a bit more buildup.
Bottom line, Blindsided was good romance. I enjoyed Lou and Jace’s ending more than I thought I would, especially given some of my pet peeves. I felt like though that epilogue brought me so much joy. I loved the small glimpse into the evolution into their family. It was heartwarming, sweet and honestly I think it was how I wanted it to end. It had a bit of predictability, but honestly I really enjoyed the ending!
Suey Library 