One King's Way

by Samantha Young

[EBookObsessed]

Samantha Young takes us back in time with One King’s Way. Joss and Braden have just started dating and so have Adam and Ellie. Craig Lanaghan is a bartender at Club 39, working with Joss and Jo. You would remember him as the co-worker who kissed Joss to piss off Braden which ended with Braden following Joss into the office where he gave her one hell of a hot kiss himself.

Craig’s only interest in women so far has been of the one-night-stand variety. The handsome, flirty bartender has more than enough offers each night and not enough interest in anything more. This is drawn out for us quite clearly at the start the story when Craig wakes up in the morning to find he dozed off after sex and he tries to sneak out without waking the snoring woman next to him. He is at least honest with them and tries not to pick women who think it is more than just sex.

When he sees Rain Alexander walk into the bar looking like a 1940’s pinup girl, he is intrigued, but Rain is there for revenge not a hook up. She is trying to find her sister’s ex-boyfriend and make him sorry for making a sex tape of her sister and showing to all his friends at a party. Rain really has no plan what she is going to do other than get embarrassing information on him and humiliate him. Not a great plan, especially when she finally finds him and his plan is to grope her at the bar. He is a dirtbag but he’s not stupid and he knows she up to something he just want to see how far she’ll go. Craig realizes that her plan is a mess and tries to talk her out of it.

There are sparks between these two from the moment they meet. Craig’s interest in Rain is there from the moment he see’s her and even after she tells him that she is not a one-night-stand girl, he realizes for the first time that he might be willing to try a relationship if it means spending more time with Rain. Rain tries to scare him off letting him know that she had a lousy childhood, she reads too many romance novels, and wants a man who will be all about her. Even this doesn’t scare him off. For Rain, he is ready to try a relationship and he’ll do his hardest to make her happy.

They have great chemistry and although I could imagine a real-life Rain would be a very high-maintenance and a frustrating woman to keep happy, what I enjoyed most about this story is watching Craig’s absolute awe that being with Rain doesn’t make him want to run away like all the previous women he’s been with. Things he sees in other people’s relationships, he finally understands and you can almost hear the click, click, click of things falling into place as he realizes what he feels is real HEA love for Rain.

Rain does not come off as a great character, with her stupid, unformed plan for revenge, her unrealistic ideal relationship and her issues babying her little sister which almost ruin her relationship with Craig. Notwithstanding the flaws in Rain’s character, the sparks between the characters and watching Craig fall in love make the story worth reading.

Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.