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Review
Smart, funny, sweet and sexy, this was such a great read! Featuring a hot Hollywood star, a feisty southern girl, and a brilliantly written, UST-filled, enemies-to-lovers romance. The whole story is absolute gold!
5 stars
Cole Masten is the hottest actor in Hollywood, however the heartthrob is left reeling when he catches his superstar wife cheating on him. After trying to drown out his pain with alcohol and meaningless sex, his lawyer demands that he lay low and keep out of trouble while his high-profile divorce is settled. So he is shipped off early to the small-town location of his next film to hide out and pull himself together before filming commences.
Summer Jenkins has lived in Quincy, Georgia for most of her life. She was happy there until an event three years earlier changed everything for her. Now, mostly shunned by the townsfolk, she lives a quiet life with her mother on the plantation where she works, and though she is mostly content, she dreams of what her life could be if only she could get away.
Things are starting to look up though, with a movie about to be filmed in town, Summer gets drawn into the pre-production and so she’s right there when Cole Masten arrives in town. However, when the man she has fantasised about for years about actually appears on her doorstep, she is less than impressed. Of course, he’s gorgeous, but she finds him rude and entitled and she lets him know right from the start that she’s not going to put up with his Hollywood attitude.
“Don’t do that.”
“What?” He straightened off the porch railing.
“That smile thing. It’s creepy.”
He stopped smiling. “Ten million Americans would disagree with you.”
“Then ten million Americans are idiots.”
Summer is like nobody Cole has ever met. For the first time, he encounters somebody who isn’t afraid of his celebrity clout. He sees a ‘normal’ woman, one who is comfortable in her own skin, and who is full of fire and speaks her mind, unafraid to put him in his place and, surprisingly, he likes it. So used to the fake-ness of Hollywood and people constantly fawning all over him, Summer is a breath of fresh air – one that he doesn’t know how to handle.
And when Summer is sucked even further into Cole’s world their animosity develops into full-on hatred as they provoke and annoy each other, arguing and bickering all while their barely-concealed attraction for each other grows. It’s a delicious mix and the chemistry between them is palpable, the sexual tension zinging from their very first encounter and growing to epic proportions that had me squeeing at all of the snark and teasing.
“A kiss,” I repeated with dread.
“Yes,” Cole said. “I know. Painful. Trust me, Country. I’m not looking forward to it any more than you are.”
I whipped my head to him, his mouth curving a little bit when he took in my glare.
“Liar,” I accused.
He laughed and leaned in, close enough for only me to hear his response. “Yes, baby. And so are you.”
The build-up is EPIC, slowly becoming something that neither of them are able to resist anymore, and then there comes the sexy time and it is so freaking hot!
In that moment, that push, I lost every hold I had on myself and became his. He shuddered out my name, pressed himself fully inside, and waited for one long breath.
“Are you okay?” His words were painful and tight, gritted out between his teeth, and I nodded, unable to form words, unable to do anything but worship at the altar of Cole Masten from that moment forth.
“Good,” he moaned. “Because I’m about to unleash hell.”
*fans self*
It doesn’t all play out like I expected, and I loved the sense of anticipation and the ‘knowing what’s coming, but not knowing how’ feeling that I had while reading. But everything that is between them builds perfectly – slow and intense, and super-hot, but also sweet, funny and swoony. It’s full of emotion and wonderfully written and I lapped up every moment of it.
This was not a rebound, this was not infatuation, this was the end of his life as he knew it, and the realization hit that even if she didn’t want him, he would never ever find another woman like her.
God, I love these two together!!! Arguing and fighting, goofing around together, or finally giving into their feelings, their chemistry is amazing, and I couldn’t get enough of them. And the follow-on is just as fantastic as the build-up. Some romance stories fizzle after a couple hooks up after a great build up, but this one holds strong the whole way through. I loved the way the story played out even after all of the tension – the detail that we got that finished off the story beautifully and left me absolutely satisfied.
Now I knew why they said you fell in love. I plummeted with no parachute, and hoped like hell he would catch me when I hit the bottom. Only, there hadn’t been a bottom. There was just him.
I love the way Alessandra Torre wrote this story. It’s written in multiple POV, with excerpts and quotes thrown in, and the detail she gives sets everything up brilliantly. There is a fantastic introduction to both Summer and Cole, with lots of detail about their lives and where they are at before they even meet, and she continues to build on it throughout the story. The side characters each play a huge part, the scenes with ‘Cocky’ the pet rooster were absolutely fantastic, and even the town of Quincy almost feels like a character in the book, with Torre creating the ‘feel’ of the small, southern town with all of its quirks and customs.
This is one of those books where all of the different elements come together to create something really special. The perfect blend of drama, laugh-out-loud moments, and a sexy, chemistry-filled romance, and the whole book is so much fun!
Cole and Summer’s story had me hooked from start to finish, I absolutely loved it.
5 stars.