Entice, The Affair Series, book 1, S. Layne
Review from Jeannie Zelos Book reviews.
Genre: Erotica, Romance
Well, I like the sound of this, though I’m not keen on cheating in a novel there’s no denying it does create drama – and I love that.
Anyway. we meet Laurie who’s had her world rocked – and not in a good way.There she was thinking she had it all, perfect loving husband, her first and only love, great job that she enjoys and a couple of fabulous best friends. Then at a dinner party at their house she overhears her husband talking about an affair...and it turns out he cheated on her with one of her best friends, his secretary!
He’s sorry, says it was a one off, and vows it will never happen again, but of course she’s still there as his secretary, nothing he can do about that and Laurie is still in shock. She doesn’t know if she can ever get back what they had. James is desperate to make amends, and seems to bitterly regret what happened. In a way I kind of felt sorry for him, one huge mistake and he’s risked everything. It’s clear that his secretary is no real friend to Laurie, and has just been waiting for the right moment, but that doesn’t excuse what he did. He seems such a great guy, truly loves Laurie – but he cheated, and it takes someone special to be able to get past that. He can’t explain why he did it and so Laurie can’t see why he wouldn’t do it again – they’re going round in circles, and getting nowhere. She wants to go to counselling but he won’t – its reached decision time and she’s got a work event needing her away for a few days. That will give her space to think and she says she’ll decide one way or the other then.
Its not that simple though when she bumps into Liam at the hotel. She’s shocked at the searing attraction to him she feels. He wants her too, but for one night only he says, that's all he ever does, never more, no love, no emotion, just incredibly hot and erotic sex. And he delivers all that and more.... Of course that one night stretches into two, then once more her world is rocked when her boss comes out with a shocking announcement, and she finds Liam has secrets too....and they affect her in a huge way.
She returns home knowing that her decisions are even harder now – I so felt for her. I’d find it hard to forgive James, and like her I’d be wondering what went wrong, what did they lack that he needed to look elsewhere? If a couple are perfect then it seems to me they don’t need anyone else, so if they do then there’s something lacking in the relationship. Or maybe he’s just a total jerk, untrustworthy, manwhore type – but James is very far from that and does seem to have genuine remorse. I was a bit unsure of her decision to meet with Liam though, she tells herself its only a drink but in her heart she knows he’ll try to make it more and she’ll go along with it. Is it because she needs to feel wanted again? She seems to feel James felt she was lacking somehow, and maybe seeing the want for her, the need in Liam's eyes is what her poor bruised self esteem needs. Poor Laurie, it works in the moment but long term she just ends up with even more problems...
Its a book full of questions, and before starting I felt that James cheated, he’s out and the new guy will be in, fall in love with Laurie and get over his one night only stuff. However it changes pretty quickly for me, I sympathised with James, which I didn’t expect. I liked Liam at first, but then his secrets and hot/cold emotions began to make me feel Laurie deserved better. It gets deeper and deeper, more confusing and even more decisions for Laurie at the end, and though I’ve book two on my kindle I needed to get my thoughts down for this one first. That was hard waiting – so todays reading will be see what happens next. There’s plenty of emotion and drama in this, perfect for me, and a good balance of sex v story but it does centre around the three main characters and anything else really just floats in as back-up. I felt I’d have liked a bit broader story, not just what feels like one extended plot. What there is definitely rates five stars but its not solid enough for a keeper.
Stars: Five, but a one off.
ARC supplied by Netgalley.