Holding on Tighter (Wicked Lovers, #12)

by Shayla Black

[Eve1972]

2.5 Stars

When I got approved for this book I was SO excited. First Berkley NEVER approves me for ANYTHING...and probably never will again now...sigh. (I seriously think someone in their promo department made a mistake) and second I LOVE Miz Black and this series. Unfortunately, my joy was short-lived...



This book was rough right from the beginning. I don't mind OW sex scenes, but I do mind when a heroine sees the hero with the OW and knows they have JUST had sex. And when did Miz Black start with OW sex scenes in her books??

Anyways, Heath was seriously nasty, he was coming on to the heroine and telling her he was coming for her MINUTES after having his dick stuck in an OW in the hallway of a bar. Literally, they were standing RIGHT outside the bar and he was putting the moves on her. Now I could have gotten past that had it not been for the fact that he and the heroine are having sex a couple hours after he JUST had sex with the OW.

At least he showered first, but honestly...NO.



AND his sex with the OW is constantly brought up for the first 25% of the book. Add in the fact he JUST lost his wife 7 years previously. AND she is mentioned ad nauseum (as is his manwhore past..I mean we could literally not have a sex scene that wasn't compared to either his wife or one of his plethora of hookups). AND he was in love with a heroine from a previous book. I wanted to call it a day 25% into this thing.

On top of that, I found the heroine annoying as hell. Why can't authors write strong heroines without them coming off like uptight bitches?

That said I was determined to give this the ol college try. So I kept reading and although I got sucked more into the story about the stalker (Miz Black knows how to write a great book) it just never recovered enough from the beginning to make it a wholly enjoyable read. To say I was disappointed is an understatement.

Side Not: That epilogue hurt my brain. Seriously? Could we possibly have name dropped any more characters from previous books? What exactly was the point of having Cutter introduced to EVERY couple from the previous books? It was like the ending of an episode of The Waltons where everyone is saying "GOOD NIGHT" to John Boy!