He's a Brute (Tough Love, #1)

by Chloe Liese

One dark and handsome control-freak sports star meets one smarty pants bioengineer with hair to match her fiery temper. It's an experiment straight out of sexual thermodynamics. 

Every good scientist knows the second law of thermodynamics: the universe's disorder, entropy, is always increasing. Professionally and personally speaking, Nairne’s familiar with the principle. After a streak of costly fame, now she’s set on saving the world, microscope in hand, and there’s no time for romance. Problem is, when a rude, despicably sexy Adonis shows up to run their board meeting, chemistry and its ensuing chaos become more than a formula—now they’re a burning hot reality.

Mafia prince. Professional footballer. Bad boy demeanor and a reputation for being as talented between the sheets as he is on the pitch. Rumors are the man's an absolute brute. And he turns out to be just as demanding, controlling and vicious in person as he is on paper. The Law of Attraction’s proven true, as Nairne finds herself accepting Zed’s proposal: rough, wild stress release, more orgasms than she can count, and most importantly—no falling in love.

Agreement in place. End date secured.

No attachments. No forever.

What could possibly go wrong?

• ISBN10: 179915646X
• ISBN13: 9781799156468
• Publish Date: 3 May 2019
• Publish Status: Withdrawn
• Imprint: Independently Published
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 252
• Language: English

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

2.5 stars

[Liz (Bent Bookworm)]

~*Check out all my reviews over on The Bent Bookworm!*~

He’s a Brute was Chloe Liese’s debut novel, and wow did it pack a punch! I did admittedly read these books out of order (read [b:She's a Spitfire|45175530|She's a Spitfire (Tough Love, #2)|Chloe Liese|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1555693535l/45175530._SY75_.jpg|69885565], which is Tough Love #2, first), and while technically that’s fine I would definitely recommend starting with the first book. This is a three book series involving the same couple. I enjoyed the first two books so much that I bought hard copies of all three, even though I had eARCs of the first two!

A lot of reviews said this was a 50 Shades-esque novel. I’ve never read 50 Shades, so I can’t say either way. There is dominant/submissive kinky sex between Zed and Nairne, but it is completely consensual. Zed is rough around the edges, arrogant, and emotionally closed off, but he makes sure Nairne is 100% okay with whatever he does before he does it. There’s a contract and everything.

Things I Liked

- Consent! Consent! Consent! For this type of kink to sit well with me consent has to figure in immediately, not as an afterthought, and it totally did. Made the steamy scenes even hotter. And they were HOT. Phew!
- Zed! I like alpha males, what can I say. Muscles and confidence. Mmmhm yes please. Besides being a pro soccer player, he’s also in the ruling levels of the Italian Mafia. Realistic? No. But romances around pro sports players AREN’T realistic, in my opinion, because they are so rare. So it didn’t bother me.
- NAIRNE. I love Nairne so so much. She’s turned on by Zed’s dominance but she doesn’t let him push her around outside of the bedroom and I am HERE for it. My girl!! Also, she is such a strong person. As a star football (soccer) player herself, she suffered a traumatic injury that left her in a wheelchair. While this understandably caused her a great deal of mental and emotional anguish, she doesn’t let it completely consume her. She struggles – who wouldn’t – but she keeps fighting.
- The relationship between Nairne and her best friend, Elodie! They have each other’s backs, no matter what. I loved them together so much. It was good to see a book with positive female friendships.

Things I Didn’t Like

There was a LOT going on in this book. I think it was because the author is introducing all of this crap that Nairne and Zed have to go through in the series of three books, but it was just like…whoa, Nellie, slow down!!
Zed’s older, female mentor/lover. Yick. I know things like that happen, because bad people do bad things…which would have been fine, but I didn’t feel like it was dealt with well. Zed never really did deal with it, and I feel like he needs to because that’s really messed up. Maybe in the later books? I hope so.
The whole thing with Nairne’s father was a little too wrapped-up-in-a-bow. It felt completely out of place and unnecessary and unlikely. I was glad it occurred at the end of the book instead of the beginning because I’m honestly not sure I would have finished it!

4/5 stars overall.

I love Zed and Nairne and if you enjoy romance with lots of steamy sex, a little danger, and a lot of banter, this one is for you!

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[Eve1972]

I enjoyed this one, but I didn't love it. First, it is basically 50 Shades of Grey (including the older woman mentor who taught him all about sex...yay) and with mafia, sports, and a more intelligent and disabled heroine. Which was fine, there are a lot of books fashioned after that series. Some of them are even better than 50 Shades (not a hard feat, I know). And this wasn't a bad book by any means. I quite liked both Zed and Nairne and it had some great secondary characters. I wasn't a fan of Nella and had I known her "mentoring" was of the sexual variety I would have passed on accepting an ARC for this one. I am not a fan of this type of OW being a fixture in my books any more.

So yea, I enjoyed it. Enough to check out book two?? At this point that is yet to be determined.