How to Land the Hot Guy 1.0

A multimillionaire by the age of 27, app developer Evie James is clueless when it comes to hooking up. So she does what any self-respecting geek-girl looking to get laid would do: she programs her own app for landing a hot guy. After a few failed attempts at making contact, beta testing leads her to Caleb Anderson.

Caleb is used to female attention, but finds himself attracted to Evie because of her unique brand of awkward. A master of one-night stands, he's more than happy to show her what she's been missing in the bedroom. But he quickly discovers that one night with a woman like Evie will never be enough for him…

 

 

Review

This one was sexy, funny, charming, cute, and hot all at the same time. The heroine is a complex mix of badass boss lady, genius, nerdy, take no crap, and vulnerable. The hero is a person who is stuck in a place where he tries to stay surface and embody some playboy script he read somewhere but despite that is sweet and hurting. He is really as socially awkward as the heroine when it comes to really life. Loved it.

 

It would have likely been a five star if the romance had been longer if we got to see them really be together for 5 or 6 chapters of after the falling in love romance. However, it is a really great romance just as it is.

I think it's pretty clear that I read almost anything Ms. McCarthy publishes. She won me over with the first two books of her TRUE series. Jessica and Riley 4EVAH. So here I am, coming back for more, trying to see if I can find the second coming of the amazingness that were those two books. So far it hasn't happened.

 

This novella from the Cosmo Red Hot Reads series had a lot of ups and downs for me.

 

For one, I felt bored more often than I would've liked. There wasn't a lot of tension going on so I found myself dropping this really short read for whatever else held my attention span. For another, I did like Liam and he pretty much represents a fantasy of mine. Cute foreign guy falling for you and whisking you away to his country to give the relationship a real chance of succeeding. He was pretty much an adorable and very manly beefcake. One of these stars is just for him.

 

Sam was pretty much a nonentity. I also didn't feel like she grew a backbone or became assertive at any given point in the story.

 

Everything just felt a little rushed. Guess because of the length of the story. Sex scenes are definitely Ms. McCarthy's forte. They are always smoking hot even if this one did sort of take a while for me to get into it.

 

Cute but rather unremarkable read.

Review Posted at the USA Today, Happy Ever After Blog.

Zack felt like being in New York was a chore, part of what he had to do as a successful artist. Not that he really cared much about being successful. He was glad it paid the bills, but it was just something he did. Pretty much what his entire life consisted of for the last few years. He just walked through it, doing what he had to in order to get through it. And then - for some unknown reason - he told his cabbie to pull over and pick up the woman who couldn't get a cab, and things took a very weird turn.

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It was like the first hit off a potent drug. She imagined. She'd never done drugs. Because drugs were for the other daughter. The bad one. Just like she'd never done a stranger. Because this wasn't something for the good daughter, either.
Because it was wrong. Because there was a chance that the drugs and the men would be addicting, and that she would never get enough.
That she wouldn't be perfect. That she would be ruined.
He flexed his hips and thust up fully inside of her, and then she knew. She was ruined. For sex. For all other men. Forever.
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A fox in her henhouse. That's what Grace called Zack Camden that day in the cab. And he drew her a sketch of a fox just before she got out, taking his phone with her. Then she suffers through a humiliating meeting with her boss, so the idea of exchanging her phone with the intriguing cowboy sounds like a good idea. Or a bad idea - or some kind of weird, new, rebellious, idea. Well, she does it anyway - and boy howdy - who cares about her stupid boss.

Zack and Grace want the same thing - which is sex with no strings. Grace has a career that doesn't include complications like a relationship, and Zack simply doesn't want any ties whatsoever. But dammit, they find themselves actually talking and becoming friends. No, more than friends. Zack hasn't confided in anyone about his pain and loss, and Grace has never felt free enough to talk about her insecurities.

Why couldn't it stay simple? Zack ends up pouring his frustration into an unfinished work - and it stays unfinished until he understands that Grace may be what he needs, even if it wasn't what he wants. And Grace finds out after she takes action that living up to other people's expectations was something she should have asked about instead of assuming - a long time ago.

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"Sorry," he said. "Normally I'd consider this rude but it's work-related so..."
"What did you think my phone usage was - unicorn-related?" she asked, curling her lip.
"Funny," he said, hitting the accept button. "Yep. Uh-huh. Landed about an hour ago. Going to the hotel. Nope. Nope. Not going. Nope. Hotel. 'Bye." He hung up, then set the phone on the seat between them.
"Business, huh?"
"Yep."
"What sort of business?" she asked, completely unsure as to why she was bothering to play his little let's-be-friends game.
"The business kind," he said. "The kind you don't wanna do, but have to because...business."
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'Breaking All Her Rules' is on the cusp of being a full-length book, and I'm glad. I adored it, and I could've read more. Grace and Zack (Zack especially because... RAWR!) were lovely, and also amazingly hot together. Zack's the kind of guy you want to fix - and then you just want to sit and watch him weld shirtless the rest of the time. because again - RAWR!!.

I digress, because they both had some pretty heavy issues, and they also both got resolution through talking things out while they became friends. Yeah, I said it - friends. They were super hot in the sack, but the talking part? It was all about them getting deep into a one-on-one, I understand you and your pain friendship. And that's why they ran. Also why they figured themselves out.

So yeah, great book, great story, great characters - it's all good. The epilogue was the cherry on top of the whipped cream (not literally - it's a metaphor in this case). And you won't be disappointed if you're looking for a unicorn reference, it's right up front.

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He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Okay. You're beautiful."
That earned him a blush. "Thank you."
"And you Smell Nice."
"Also good."
"And I think I've been hard since you left the other day."
Her lips folded in and her smile widened, like she was trying to hold something back. "One too far," she said.
"I sensed it might have been. But then I went with it."
"Your instincts are broken, don't trust them."
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Just Cake!