Design: 4.4

Really solid design for this book. I like the style that the designer has come up with for this series: the photographs on the cover follow a certain style with the lighting and stance, along with the visual it gives. The font choices are interesting – in a good way – I like the more deconstructive cursive-type font. The one word title doesn’t offer much for content for the designer, so the cover is fairly simple – but it works! All the more reason the title font choice works. The interior of the book is very nicely designed, no commentary needed there. As for the cover models, Darian: hubba-hubba. Hot mama. As for Jackson, I hate to put any negative thoughts out there buuuuuuut the model just looks slightly too young to be Jackson… plus he’s supposed to be so much taller than Darian. Am I getting too into the book and details of the book that I’m nit-picking the cover based on the book’s details? Maybe. I mean, Landow describes Jackson as not looking to be in his late 40s and he’s built – like b-u-i-l-t – and he’s supposed to be so incredibly good-looking. But I was just surprised when I got a little ways into the book and looked at the cover again – the model depicting Darian works, but I wasn’t so 100% sold on Jacksons just based on those two factors I mentioned above. Otherwise, love the design!

Review: 4.4

Well, hello AK Landow and thank you for coming on my radar. This was my first AK Landow read and I really enjoyed it because it was a great change-up for me from what I have currently been reading. That’s always good, right? A little change of pace? Well, this certainly was – let me show you all the ways.

This was a first of the “older” main-character-reads for me… somehow the leads always seem to skew younger than 40 in most of the books that come across my bookshelf and Kindle… go figure. It’s certainly not been by design, but just by default – maybe? But this was a nice change, to have a 40+ lead – that said, shouldn’t I relate more to these characters than the younger one? Hmm, something to ponder for me…

Jackson and Darian, the two main characters, were really believable and genuine, which I truly liked. (When I’m reading a book and the characters are just so not believable, it just ruins something for me – which was definitely not a problem here!). This story can be perfectly transferred to a Lifetime or Hallmark movie… well it’d have to be an R-rated movie… ok so maybe it should not be made into a Lifetime movie then. You see, the romantic and sex scenes are actually pretty incredible in this book, so it’d just be a damn shame to lose them for the likes of Lifetime television – BUT the other parts of the storyline are so perfectly genuine and sweet that they’d transfer perfectly to Hallmark or Lifetime. But let’s talk about those sex scenes for a minute. Hooooooly hell, can we input a gif right here? You know the one of Chris Pratt sitting in an office chair and the camera angle focuses in on him while he’s making a “ohhh” face while smirking? Yeah, that face. That face is on your face when you’re reading this, while a blush creeps up your neck. Phewww, it just got hot in here. But it’s also sweet, so just damnit, Landow hits the trifecta of saucy sex scenes – just hitting that whole thing out of the ballpark. Well played, Landow, well played! This book can and should be read just for those sex scenes, if I’m being honest. … I’m just going to take a moment and fan myself off.

I love nothing more than a writer who makes me feel the gamut of emotions, and I was so excited that Landow did that! In this book she had me crying because those letters from Scott – OMG get me a tissue!!! That last letter was just everything – I was a second away from losing my shit and all-out ugly-crying. Wheww. This book had me snort-laughing and full out LOLing, because Crazy Cassandra is hilarious as is Donna, whose Stalin joke had me snort-laughing because it was so unexpectedly funny. And I gotta say that the first time Jackson meets Harley and then Darian meets Jackson’s son – omg that was just soooo funny!!! As if those emotions weren’t enough, this book will have you – well – perhaps slightly turned on but it’ll definitely have you blushing!

AK Landow created a great story here with interesting characters, and a very believable storyline that was so refreshing. There were some spelling errors and grammatical errors that I found to be slightly distracting which resulted in a deduction in my points (sorry, I”m a stickler), but it was a wonderful read. AND I loved how she set us up for the second book – what is Harley up to? I cannot wait to find out. I definitely would recommend this for a fun, sweet, and sexy read.

Amazon excerpt:

Jackson
I’ve given up on finding love. I’m fine loving my kids and not having that special someone to share my life with. That’s until Darian Lawrence walked into my life. She’s changing everything I thought that I knew. She’s beautiful, sexy, smart, funny and a little dirty. She’s suffered loss, and may not be ready to love me, but I’m ready to love her.

Darian
My soulmate left this world too soon. Part of me died with him. I’ll never get it back. I don’t know if I want it back. That’s until a chance encounter with the handsome Jackson Knight reawakens a long dormant part of me. A part that I thought was forever gone. But I don’t know if I can betray my past to have a future.

This book has the perfect mix of hilarious and spicy. Darian and Jackson are red hot together. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll enjoy the spice.