Only With You by Lauren Layne

Only With You

by Lauren Layne
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

My Review:
Lauren Layne books always have such compelling characters. I kept telling myself I'd only stay up for a few minutes reading, but each session ended up being over an hour. Gray and Sophie were likable and vulnerable. Gray was socially inept while Sophie seemed to have nothing but social niceties – for a while, Gray didn't think she had anything deeper than that.

I felt so many things for these two. Sophie's sense of inadequacy really drove the book forward. We see all the things she's really good at, but no one (including herself) truly valued her contribution. Her family criticized her all the time, she was always in go-nowhere sorts of jobs, even her boyfriend dumped her for being too flighty.

When Sophie met Gray, he was exactly the opposite of her: quiet and stoic, very serious, totally grounded. I loved how he saw value in her and always called her on the way she'd belittle herself. I felt like we missed out on a bunch of his story. He seemed to have a lot of pain and motivations that didn't get hashed out in the book.

Most of the plot revolves around the misunderstandings and anger between Sophie and Gray. There were a couple times I wanted to smack them and tell them to stop being so petty and childish. But I also saw the realism behind it. It wasn't an over-the-top drama-fest. It was just people being stuck in their own heads. It kept me invested in the story and I had my fingers crossed that they could work things out.

But...the ending. Gosh, it bothered me. It felt like they had this big explosion; such a huge, nasty argument with both of them saying terrible things. Gray said and did some things that made Sophie feel so small again. It was pretty blatant and it felt really outside his personality. With all of the ways he built her up, he tore her down in seconds and I didn't feel like we saw what the cause was.

It's possible that there was introspection we didn't see. From the time of the argument until the make up, we didn't see anything in Gray's POV, so I honestly had no idea what was going through his head.

It just reminded me of some of the older contemporaries I used to read where the hero would be all “I can't possibly say 'I love you', unless I already know she loves me first”. Seriously. He didn't even say “I love you” during their make up scene. It was just sort-of assumed and he got off really easily because “he was damaged”.

So yes, Sophie grew and found her footing. Yay for her. She was a true and vulnerable character and I liked that she didn't rely on Gray to solve her problems. She fixed them on her own, started on a path that would make her happy, and even stood up for herself. I was glad for her. But I had a sour taste when she just accepted Gray back without him TOTALLY groveling, because he really needed to after the things he said.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, I love the writing and I love the characterizations. But you might end up feeling dejected from the ending, like I was. It was one of those books that I felt I needed to make up my own ending to resolve my issues. I would have given it five stars if the ending was better. I still liked it enough to give it four stars.

I received a complementary ARC of this book from netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

**This review is archived on my blog: The Theory of Lieto Fine

Just One Night by Lauren Layne

Just One Night
by Lauren Layne
Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

My review:
We had two great stories with Love The One You're With and After The Kiss. Julie and Grace were nice, solidly draw heroines. Now we have book three of the series. Riley was the sexpert of the group. Outgoing, pushy, always the push-the-line woman who knows how to get what she wants, and in the other two books, knows the sexy advice to help Julie and Grace get what they want. She always seemed confident and outrageous, so I had some high hopes for this book. Amazingly enough, it met and surpassed all of my hopes. It was sweet and touching, gave me all kinds of good feelings.

I wished that I could have read the entire story in one sitting. Some of the emotional punch gets muted when you have to start and stop a bunch of times. Even then, I was crying within the first few pages and had so many happy, tingly feelings through the rest of the book.

Riley is so confident on the outside and I loved how she wasn't willing to settle. She thinks about it and is so close to having sex with someone even though she's not attracted to them, but she's confident enough in herself to just say no. And she doesn't let anyone else's opinion change her mind. She doesn't let guys push her around at all. Even though she's not as sexually experienced as she'd like people to think, she's just so self-assured and knows how to take on the world. I appreciated that she didn't avoid sex for some shame-based reason. She just didn't find someone who did it for her. Although Riley's idea is to have one night with Sam for her personal experience story at the magazine, once they're finally together, there's never any doubt that they were meant for each other. In fact, there really wasn't any doubt to begin with.

And Sam... well, Sam is really hot. He's sweet and vulnerable. He takes these huge risks but then sort of chickens out for the final step. He's quirky and lovable and totally hot. There are issues he needs to work out, he treats Riley pretty poorly at one point, and he needs to accept himself. But there's never really a question of if he's capable of loving someone. He simply does (love). He just can't figure out how he's worthy of it. One of the greatest things in the book is that Riley doesn't try to take that on herself. She says it to him, but she leave the responsibility with him. I was so happy to see her have solid boundaries.

I always love the friends-to-lover troupe. Riley's family was a great addition to the story too. This story was so well written; they had secretly been in love with each other for years. I found it so believable and touching that both of them generally knew in the recesses of their hearts that they were meant to be together. This book is the perfect, emotionally rich, soul mates will wind up together, cozy evening read. I know I'll read it again. Now we just have to wait for Emma's story!

I received a complementary ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Love The One You're With

Love The One You're With
by Lauren Layne
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

My Review:
I've been anxious to read Grace's story since I finished After The Kiss. If anyone deserved a Happily Ever After, it was Grace. I felt that since she believed in the magic so much more than her friends, her story should be even better. I wasn't disappointed.

We pick up Grace's story just a few months after she's broken up with her boyfriend of nine years. She's the long term girl, has always and only wanted to be a wife and take care of someone. She's known as Stiletto’s resident relationship expert, but she's questioning everything about herself since her boyfriend was cheating and she didn't know. She thought she could “read” guys really well, but now she's not so sure. However, in order for her to keep her mojo at work, she agrees to a date-off with a journalist from the competing men's magazine to prove who knows the opposite sex better.

This was a sweet, sexy romance with lots of happy tingles for these two. They worked really well together, they could give and take without getting offended and they kept each other on their toes. It was fun to read and I felt really pulled into the characters. I was glad that even as their relationship got more serious, they were able to separate out work and personal and yet still have some integrity and understanding towards each other.

I did feel a little bad for Grace. The point of the dating was supposed to be showing readers how well you know the opposite sex. Jake and Grace had some good banter back and forth, but most of the time I felt like Jake got to be the reader/aggressor and Grace was passive and swoonish. It's fine in the sense that I felt it fit Grace's personality. She was the nurturer and only let her inner aggressor come out occasionally. But I felt like she mostly just let Jake drive the “reading” bus and she'd take whatever she could get. It felt like Grace's version of “reading” was mostly being caring and nurturing. She was good at it, but she was also pretty good at being the aggressor when she felt like it.

I think for Grace, she was finally able to let go of who she should be and who she wanted to be, so she could just be whoever she actually was. She was a doormat for her ex and I was happy to see her grow some backbone with Jake but still be the nurturing, caring individual she was. I think it took a lot for her to accept that being one thing doesn't exclude you from being something else too. She found that it's ok to be your own individual with or without a guy next to you. And also, that you are not nothing apart from your relationship. With Jake, she starts out trying to be so different than she was with her ex. And she's pretty good at it, even if she has to pep-talk herself into it sometimes. But it was so interesting to see her find a place on the tightrope between the two extremes.

Jake was pretty iffy on the whole love thing. Grace started out reading him so well – a charming, sexy, bachelor who's used to getting whatever girl he wants. He's short term all the way, mostly because he doesn't like feeling stagnant. It's pretty funny to see these two together when they're so opposite on this. Grace is perfectly happy staying exactly where she is. She likes that settled feeling. Jake's got the settled gene inside him somewhere. You can totally see it when he's visiting his family. But he seems a little emotionally young to start out – wanting to keep moving so he feels like people approve of him and all of the action/accolades it will get him to say he's “going somewhere”. He takes a while to wake up, but it did feel nice and organic how he gradually figured out where he belonged.

I found it very amusing when Grace is wearing a pair of Jake's sweat pants and the waist is about five sizes too big. I see this one a lot and I just don't get it. Grace is a curvy girl who knows how to eat and Jake is pretty lean. In real pants, I just don't see how most women in these novels put their boyfriend's pants on at all. The butt differences just don't fit from what I've seen. Speaking from experience, guy butts are smaller than most curvy girl butts. But (haha)...that just could be me.

I was very satisfied with Grace's story and now I have Riley's story (and maybe a new girl, Emma's) to look forward to. I will definitely keep reading because I love the voice behind these stories.

I received a complementary ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

After The Kiss

After the Kiss 

by Lauren Layne

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

My Review:
This was a book that was worth staying up late for. I kept saying I'd only read a couple more pages before bed, but I just couldn't leave the story.

Julie is a the resident dating expert at Stiletto magazine. She's great with first kisses, first dates, first anythings. But the idea of being in a relationship; having “couples movie night”, is horror inducing for her. Then her boss gives her the assignment to write about what happens after the “firsts”.

Julie decides her best course of action would be to go undercover and pretend. Find a guy that's obviously long-term and just grin and bear it for the sake of her article. Her friend picks out Mitchell and even his name makes Julie grimace. He's a long term guy through and through, but when they meet, she's surprised by their chemistry.

But at the same time, Mitchell just got out of a boring long term relationship and is persuaded to have a fling. It's a bet between him and a coworker and the coworker picks out Julie – knowing that she's always, only looking for a fling.

Mitchell doesn't believe in seeking chemistry and Julie doesn't want to be saddled with someone round the clock or long-term. Mitchell doesn't actually like Julie's made up flirtatiousness, but both of them sort of like who the other is underneath everything. The story reminded me of “How to lose a guy in 10 days or less”. It was a sweet story and fun to see how these two opposites attract.

Julie starts finding that she actually likes being around Mitchell and is surprised to realize that she misses him on days they're not together. It's a first for her and she's not totally sure what to do about it. For the first time, she feels natural with someone. The things they do together seem easy and right.

Each of them start the relationship on the wrong foot and they both have secrets. If their secret reasons come out, it could spell the end. Neither one knows if the other will be able to forgive and when the sh*t hits the fan, there's actually a much bigger explosion than I expected.

Mitchell was sweet and caring, but there were a couple times I was shocked by his misogynistic attitude. Wearing skimpy clothing does not mean someone is “selling something”. He said some pretty nasty things and I thought he could have groveled a bit more to make up for his attitude and lies, but I was still satisfied at the end.

Julie describes herself as a little insubstantial, but she really likes herself. She enjoys her first date lifestyle and isn't looking for anything more than that. Her reasons are eventually revealed, but I liked that she was confident and happy with who she was. It didn't feel like she had to change, so much as see other facets of herself. I started the book thinking that it would be rather insubstantial too, but both characters were well written and had some gumption behind them. I do wish that Julie had told Mitchell off a couple times and forced him to change his attitude a little more, instead of just getting comfortable in her new role of long-term partner.

This was an emotionally fulfilling book. I cried during the sad parts and a couple of the happy parts too. And finished the book feeling like everything worked out in the end. I'm hopeful that this author will write stories for Julie's two friends as well. They deserve their own happily-ever-after too.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.