IT specialist Cora Benning has figured out the key to her formerly disastrous love life—make it virtual. In the online world of Hayven, she’s free of her geek girl image and can indulge her most private fantasies with a sexy, mysterious master without anyone in her life discovering her secrets. Until her information is hacked and she finds herself working to fix the breach under two very powerful men—one who seems all too familiar...
 
Best friends and business partners Ren Muroya and Hayes Fox were once revered dominants. Then Hayes was wrongfully sent to prison and everything changed. Ren wants to get back to who they were. Hayes can’t risk it. But when they discover the new IT specialist is their online fascination, and that she’s never felt a dominant’s touch, the temptation to turn virtual into reality becomes all too great.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have spent the last several days trying to come up with a way of describing this book. Its kept me from being able to write a decent review and honestly I'm still not totally sure where I land with it. I mean I didn't really care about the whodunnit aspect of the story because this was such a character driven story.

Warning this is a trio 3-way m/m/f relationship romance so if you aren't into that kind of thing this may not be the book for you. There is a lot of heavy angsty broken hero story brought in for the m/m romance end of the story and the complication of adding Cora in to the whole relationship which is further complicated because she's into the BDSM fetish which really doesn't have much grounds in this book despite the fact both R and H were world renown Doms (having controlling over masculine / dominant men with some play in bed does not equal real BDSM) that being said the sex is still hot so add some extra kinkiness and you got a good chaser to go with your shot of bourbon.

Cora wants a man who can take charge and gets two for the price of one.

There is a lot of that trying to take on reality verses fantasy which Cora has spent a lot of her time doing and gets caught up in when she begins her relationship with Ren and Hayes.

There is a lot I felt was a little bit off and others I didn't think got enough development but I personally had to set aside most of the extra scenes and focus solely on the sex instead simply because that's mostly the basis for this relationship when it boils down to the end. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                

 

 

 

 

 

 

Krissy's Bookshelf Reviews received a print copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts, comments and ratings are my own.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Krissy's Bookshelf Reviews received a print copy in exchange for an honest review from Penguin/ Berkley Publishing

 

 

 

 

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If any of Krissy's Bookshelf Reviews has been helpful please stop by to like or let me know what you think! I love hearing from followers! Thank you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hot, hot, HOT!! Roni Loren is one of my go-to authors for well-written romance with an erotic edge. A novella such as Yours All Along is exactly why I come back to her stories over and over again.

"I thought I'd let you go, but when I saw you in your restaurant tonight...it was like the fucking sun came out for the first time in years."

I immediately fell in love with Hunter and Devon, where they were written in such a believable manner and their emotions were so accurately described. This short story actually starts at the present day when Hunter visits Devon, his former college roommate, and then flashes back to four years prior when they took things to another level.

I had no problem imagining how difficult it would have been for Hunter to realize he had romantic feelings for Devon, who was openly gay, considering that Hunter's politician father would be dead set against it and would cut all ties to his family. Even with both Devon and Hunter knowing it would be a bad idea, they couldn't make their attraction go away. But other circumstances interfered and things were left unresolved.

'He needed to back away. Leave this be. Leave Devon alone. He leaned forward and kissed him.'

Ms. Loren did a fantastic job of building the emotions...the passion, the worries, the need...between Hunter and Devon. By the time we were caught up on the past and were back at the present day, I couldn't wait to see how it all worked out between them. There was an electric current buzzing around them, yet such a tenderness as well, proving how much Devon and Hunter truly cared about each other. So. Wonderful.

'In his world of everything feeling wrong, he'd finally found his way back to what felt right.'

Now, of course I know that some readers may not be comfortable with a M/M romance that does contain somewhat explicit love scenes. However, to me, the core of the story was the friendship that turned into so much more. And how it took four years for Hunter and Devon to find their way back to each other again.

Friends-to-lovers is one of my favorite building blocks for a romance and Roni Loren knocks it outta the park with Yours All Along. I hope readers will enjoy every minute of this passionate short story that leads up perfectly to Devon's little sister's story, up next in Call on Me.

Hindsight has given me time to drop this review from 2.5 to 2. It's just not good.

This story is super underdeveloped. The relationship between Hunter and Devon built when they were in college. In present day, they're bare reconnected before they're back together. The flashbacks give a good perspective, but it makes the relationship disjointed.

Hunter is deep in the closet. He's a Senator's son and professional baseball player. He's also engaged. To a woman. He's weeks from marrying her, in fact. While she's not painted as completely awful, she's a bit of the worst kind of chick. She ""tests"" Hunter's loyalty. To the point of...ok. Spoiler. So I won't. But let me just say, it's ridiculous. It's offensive. It doesn't make it ok for him to end things how he does. Seriously. THAT'S how you want to dump your fiance? Nope. Not ok.

I felt for Hunter until that ending. The author did a good job of showing the relationship with his father and the challenges he faced. The flashbacks showed him as a really great, if young, guy. He was on Devon's side. He was figuring himself out. I empathized. I wanted his eventual HEA.

Let's talk about that HEA. It was abrupt. And incomplete. I think it's supposed to be HEA, but it barely qualifies at HFN. If you're going to spend half of the book building up why Hunter is so very deeply in the closet, I'm going to find it difficult to believe he just decides to be done with HIS WHOLE LIFE. Seriously. No. I don't buy it.

Oh, and the other guy was Devon. There's...very little about him. I mean, we know he did awesome things for his sister and was kicked out by his family. His issues are clearly secondary to Hunter's. But sure. He's completely likely to forgive Hunter in 5 mins. That's plausible.

The story just feels rushed at the end. It had potential to be a great book, but it was too short for the amount of emotional build-up.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley for review.

3.5 stars

** yes, this review is spoilery; you have been warned **

When I first decided to read this novella, I was quite aware of the blurb: "...preparing to marry his beauty-queen girlfriend". See, I have never been comfortable reading about cheating or another person being hurt for the main characters to be together. Then why did you read it, Ami? What can I say, sometimes curiosity got the best of me, okay? So yes, reading the first chapter, I thought I thought I would've regretted it;

Well, it was good to know that I was wrong about it -- that this came as a nice surprise. Because the extent of this story, probably about 80% of it, actually happened in the past. Four years ago, after a car-accident following the night that changed the status of their friendship, Hunter cut Devon out of his life. Being a congressman's son, whose life had been mapped by his parents, Hunter was forced to succumb to his father's demand. Until few days before his marriage, and his fiancée sent him to Dallas to de-stress, which actually brought Hunter to Devon's door.

This story basically told about that college days -- about their friendship up until that fateful day. Because of that, I was able to leave my discomfort at the door :)

I enjoyed Roni Loren's writing -- this is my first experience of hers -- and for an author who writes mainly M/F romance, I thought she was able to write hot, steamy, and passionate romance between the two young men. The tension between Devon and Hunter was thick and engaging, and the fact that they were friends first made the chemistry believable. Yep, I really liked it.

I would've loved that their reunion to last a bit longer; but then again, they have been separated (not exactly willing) for four years, and Hunter has been two years celibate (apparently his fiancée is a virgin and want to wait until they are married), so maybe they need to immediately fix that. And Hunter decided to break things off first with his fiancée before he and Devon stumbled into bed. The ending was rather abrupt, though. Maybe because they will appear in the next book in this series?

Oh, by the way, even if this is a novella in Loren's "Loving on the Edge" series, but it can be read as stand-alone.

♥ ♥ ♥ 4 STARS ♥ ♥ ♥

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“You were my best friend for a reason. I loved you way before we ever touched each other. And I thought that was enough, had accepted that it's all we could ever be. But then when things changed, I got a taste of how much more might be there, and I was a goddamned goner.”

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Hunter is going to get married very soon a woman he cares about, but doesn't love. As the date of their nuptials is quickly approaching, Hunter starts to feel trapped. When his fiancée sees his reaction, she suggests he take a trip to a spa in Dallas to relieve the stress. She also suggests that since he still has no best man, that he should look up his college best friend Devon, and see if he can do it. The last person he needed to see was Devon, but when he arrived in Dallas that seemed to be the only thing he wanted to do. Devon is no longer the purple streaked gay boy from his fraternity, he is now doing well as a restaurant owner. Devon never thought he would ever see Hunter again, and never did he think he would be asked to be part of Hunter's wedding. There is so much unresolved tension between them. This inevitably makes them think of all they went through together in college.

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“We've waited long enough. I'm all yours---however you want me.”

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This was my first book from this author, and from this novella, it was not bad at all. For it being a short read, I was so happy that I was still able to connect with both of the characters. I really appreciated the fact that we got flashbacks of their frat days so that we could see how their friendship began, and how it turned into so much more. I loved Devon, and how he didn't care what anyone thought of him as he was openly gay. Hunter did make me more frustrated by some of his decisions. But I did understand that he must have been really confused, since he had never felt anything for any man until Devon. I very much loved the growing chemistry between them that made the steam oh, so wonderfully hot.

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'Hunter wouldn't let go again.
He'd found his home.
He was free.'

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Overall, I thought it was a really great novella. I am definitely going to be checking out more books from this author. I enjoyed this steamy little read, and I enjoyed the characters. The only thing I can say I didn't like too much, was how quickly Devon and Hunter seemed to make up in the present. I also would have liked a bit more of them in the present to see how it all worked out for them. But, I was happy for their ending. I just didn't want it to end. Definitely a good read and one I would recommend you give a try.





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