Entice Me (Austin Singles Novel)

This story is a continuation from When Things Go Wrong. It picks up from where that book ended.

Scar comes crashing back into Julia's life in such a fun, LOL way, too bad he doesn't realize it is her. When Julia cannot get Scar off of her mind, she decides to head to the strip club Hounds (the same place he was at when he came into the ER) in hopes of seeing him. While Julia is scared and nervous to be in Hounds because of her past, she has a much stronger desire to see Scar.

When she sees Scar all those feelings come crashing back and he seems just as excited to see her. Quickly these two realize that maybe there is more to these feelings than they realized. Too bad neither of them do relationships and Julia has sworn off men for the last two years. Scar wants to be with Julia any way he can and is convinced he can win her over. For the first time in his life he wants to try and have a relationship. Too bad things from Julia's past seem to keep getting in the way. When danger starts to affect Julia's life, Scar has had enough and decides to go into alpha mode.

It will take a crazy, unthinkable story line to get these two to a happy ending but boy is it worth the ride. I just loved both of these broken characters. It took them a long time to realize that what both of them were always searching for was just each other! This story will make you laugh, cry and swoon.

This book was given to me by the author at GRL 2017 in hopes that I'd read and enjoy it, and write up a review. 

I read it and enjoyed it, and here's my review:

Gus, our protagonist, is in his early 40s and decides to change his whole life for Sam, including buying an old train depot up in Vermont, sight unseen, to restore and open a bookstore/cafe. 

Except Gus is the victim of catfishing, and Sam isn't who he claims he is. Which Gus doesn't find out until he's already in the air on his way to the small Vermont town.

PS stands for Post-Sam here, and Gus jumps headlong into the adventure. The premise is cute, even if the beginning is horrid (for Gus), and I enjoyed myself reading this book. Slightly unbelievable that folks in this small Vermont town would drop everything to help a guy out, and even more unbelievable that they'd be okay with deferred payment for renovating/rehabbing the old train station. Or offering Gus a place to stay. Then again, I haven't been to Vermont so I really couldn't say how realistic this actually is. 

I had some issues with the characters, and those are the main reason for the lower rating. The author's word choices were mostly fine, even if dialogue tended to be a little awkwardly phrased on occasion, but there are some plot points that didn't work for me.
- Sam the catfish supposedly being a 21 year old creative writing student, yet the relationship is supposed to have gone for 4 years - am I supposed to believe that Sam was 17 when he/she first started playing WoW with Gus? 
- the relationship between Gus and James was a little too quick for my taste, and it felt as if Gus was able to move on from Sam just a little too rapidly. Also, the history between James and Sam felt too convenient. 
- Sam being a real person - so weird, that part. Also, Sam's behavior in general. Pretty odd for the most part, and gross on one occasion. What the fuck was that? Sam felt to me like someone who really really really could have used some serious therapy. 

My biggest issue was the lack of depth. I needed more, especially for Gus and James. I never got a real good feel for either of them - what made them tick, what drove their actions. I also didn't really get a spark between them, so their relationship progression didn't work for me.

Caraway Carter spins a decent tale, and the writing itself is likable and enjoyable. I'm interested in reading more by this author.


** I received a free copy of this book from the author. **

Ah, I just adore Jo Myles' books. They're so very British, and I just love that. 

I'd never heard of Narrowboats before this book. I'd no idea that there are people in Britain who live on these skinny boats, slowly moving up and down the rivers and canals through the country-side. I'd no clue that you can rent such a boat for a holiday. Until I googled that, and wow - there's apparently a ton of these boats, no wider than a few feet, on which you can live and cook and sleep. 

Robin, one of our MCs, owns such a boat, and he's basically hiding himself away after heartache and heartbreak, unwilling to risk his heart ever again. Love? Pshaw - who needs it?

On the other side, we have Dan, a London-based travel writer and self-proclaimed slut (one-night-stand-Dan), whose latest assignment is writing a story about the Narrowboat culture. He knows not a darn thing about boats, including the one he's rented, which is how he meets Robin. 

Boats collide, two very different men collide, and - dare we hope - hearts collide as well.

With her typical British humor, Jo Myles creates a fabulous romance against a background of lazy canals, penniless boaters scraping by, and the ever so beautiful English countryside, where two men, both different and alike in so many ways, literally bump into each other and tentatively, carefully, dare to reach out and learn that what they believed to be true might not be true after all.

With a fabulous supporting cast (other boaters, a land-locked curmudgeon, a randy old geezer, and Robin's errant cat), this book paints a gorgeous picture of what life is like when you live on a boat, and presents you with two imperfect, somewhat damaged MCs who are, beyond their wildest dreams, perfect for each other. Their banter had me in stitches, the sexy times were smoking, and their rather rough road to their love story, no matter how much they might fight their feelings and hurt each other in the process before kissing and making up, made me want to root for them, and in the end left me with a huge smile on my face.

I love Jo Myles' books. Recommended!



** I received a free copy of this book from the author via Signal Boost Promotions. A positive review was not promised in return. **