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Bang On Trend
Twenty-three-year-old Milo McLaren didn’t expect to find a romantic gesture waiting for him the morning after a drunken one-night stand. Still, he convinces himself that his night with businessman Kazuhiko Yukifumi was a fluke. Kaz is powerful, rich, hot, and… intense. He can’t really be serious about wanting Milo, an executive assistant at fashion magazine Rebel .But their paths keep crossing, and Milo can’t deny his attraction or his desire to submit to what Kaz wants… until Kaz’s best friend issues an ultimatum that puts Milo’s job in danger. Milo has dreams he’s not ready to sacrifice, even for Kaz. Unfortunately, the fashion world is small, and even after he breaks things off, Kaz seems to go everywhere he does. Being so close to what he can’t have torments him. Can he find a way to pair his wants and needs in a way that really pops?
200 pages, Paperback
Published June 15, 2021
About the author
Eva Muñoz
3 books10 followersEva Muñoz loves dreaming of worlds filled with hot guys falling in love with each other. She believes that love is love is love and everyone has a right to find their person. Her love for writing began in high school. It was because her teacher complimented a story she had written that put her on the path she is on today. She would spin yarns on her father’s electric typewriter, bind the pages together, and bring the finished product to school for her classmate to pass around and swoon over. Little did she know at the time that writing would be a career she never knew she wanted.
She may have taken a circuitous path toward her passion for writing, but when she finally made that decision to stick with it after countless rejections, she never looked back. A degree in creative writing helps too. When she’s not at her favorite coffee shop thinking up new worlds and characters to explore, you can find Eva in a classroom teaching creative writing of all things. Talk about passion meets day job. Today she is molding impressionable minds the way her teacher once did for her.
She may have taken a circuitous path toward her passion for writing, but when she finally made that decision to stick with it after countless rejections, she never looked back. A degree in creative writing helps too. When she’s not at her favorite coffee shop thinking up new worlds and characters to explore, you can find Eva in a classroom teaching creative writing of all things. Talk about passion meets day job. Today she is molding impressionable minds the way her teacher once did for her.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 17, 2021
3,5*
Blurb:
Twenty-three-year-old Milo McLaren didn’t expect to find a romantic gesture waiting for him the morning after a drunken one-night stand. Still, he convinces himself that his night with businessman Kazuhiko Yukifumi was a fluke. Kaz is powerful, rich, hot, and… intense. He can’t really be serious about wanting Milo, an executive assistant at fashion magazine Rebel.
But their paths keep crossing, and Milo can’t deny his attraction or his desire to submit to what Kaz wants… until Kaz’s best friend issues an ultimatum that puts Milo’s job in danger.
Milo has dreams he’s not ready to sacrifice, even for Kaz. Unfortunately, the fashion world is small, and even after he breaks things off, Kaz seems to go everywhere he does. Being so close to what he can’t have torments him. Can he find a way to pair his wants and needs in a way that really pops?
I'm not sure how to rate what I've read.
The writing was smooth but the plot... I could not keep suspending my disbelief all the time. It felt like a Harlequin billionaire boyfriend trope met fashion industry soap opera.
Everyone is so upper class, speaks perfect Japanese and has money coming out of the wazoo.
It was so OTT and I got bored waiting for the MCs to finally get it on... talk about the slow burn with the constant titillation.
I was also uncomfortable with what happened to Kenji
I'm not sure what was the point of Kaz's brother showing up as a threat to disappear without further mentioning. Maybe it was the staging for the next book in series.
I did not like either MC to care what will happen to them next and most likely won't continue with the series.
I also own the vampire book and will try it first before making up my mind if the author's writing works for me or not.
Blurb:
Twenty-three-year-old Milo McLaren didn’t expect to find a romantic gesture waiting for him the morning after a drunken one-night stand. Still, he convinces himself that his night with businessman Kazuhiko Yukifumi was a fluke. Kaz is powerful, rich, hot, and… intense. He can’t really be serious about wanting Milo, an executive assistant at fashion magazine Rebel.
But their paths keep crossing, and Milo can’t deny his attraction or his desire to submit to what Kaz wants… until Kaz’s best friend issues an ultimatum that puts Milo’s job in danger.
Milo has dreams he’s not ready to sacrifice, even for Kaz. Unfortunately, the fashion world is small, and even after he breaks things off, Kaz seems to go everywhere he does. Being so close to what he can’t have torments him. Can he find a way to pair his wants and needs in a way that really pops?
I'm not sure how to rate what I've read.
The writing was smooth but the plot... I could not keep suspending my disbelief all the time. It felt like a Harlequin billionaire boyfriend trope met fashion industry soap opera.
Everyone is so upper class, speaks perfect Japanese and has money coming out of the wazoo.
It was so OTT and I got bored waiting for the MCs to finally get it on... talk about the slow burn with the constant titillation.
I was also uncomfortable with what happened to Kenji
I'm not sure what was the point of Kaz's brother showing up as a threat to disappear without further mentioning. Maybe it was the staging for the next book in series.
I did not like either MC to care what will happen to them next and most likely won't continue with the series.
I also own the vampire book and will try it first before making up my mind if the author's writing works for me or not.
July 24, 2021
Dropped at chapter 16 of 26. I may come back and finish it but for now it’s a no.
I don’t even know where to start regarding my problems with this book. It reads like the novella version of the most overdone rich top yaoi manga. I disliked the tone and pacing of the writing, and the plot is neither innovative nor compelling. The characters are bland and completely over the top. It was just a really frustrating read and I couldn’t take it anymore. Each new absurd yet predictable revelation was an attack on the suspension of disbelief that had already run out ages ago.
And finally, in no industry ever is the executive assistant’s next career move the job of the person they’re assisting. That’s not how anything works.
I don’t even know where to start regarding my problems with this book. It reads like the novella version of the most overdone rich top yaoi manga. I disliked the tone and pacing of the writing, and the plot is neither innovative nor compelling. The characters are bland and completely over the top. It was just a really frustrating read and I couldn’t take it anymore. Each new absurd yet predictable revelation was an attack on the suspension of disbelief that had already run out ages ago.
And finally, in no industry ever is the executive assistant’s next career move the job of the person they’re assisting. That’s not how anything works.
June 18, 2021
3.5, rounded up
Milo is the executive assistant to the head of Rebel, the biggest name in the fashion industry (think Andy's character, in the Devil Wears Prada). His mother was a big-name model, his boss is also his godmother, and his father is some mysteriously powerful but absent businessman.
In preparation for a huge fashion event (forgive me for the vagueness, the fashion industry has never been a huge interest of mine), Milo gets sent to more-or-less babysit/entertain a prestigious, up-and-coming Japanese designer -- and, in the process, meets the designer's best friend and silent business partner, Kazuhiko Yukifumi.
Sparks fly instantly, and they spend the rest of the book trying to find time for each other amidst their numerous obligations.
Things I loved about this book:
- The Japanese language and culture woven into the plot and every interaction, making already-tense scenes even more layered (e.g. Milo calling him Kaz and Kaz never challenging it, despite the fact that it's a huge intimacy in Japan to let someone call you by your first name, let along a derivative of your first name)
- The scorching hot chemistry between the two main characters.
- The writing style -- the prose was really nice.
Things I didn't love about this book: (spoilers)
Anyway. This got longer than planned. The tl;dr is:
I really loved the writing, I really loved the premise, I really loved all the Japanese culture mixed into the story. I enjoyed reading the book, every minute of it. But overall, it felt unpolished, and I think it could have become even more amazing if elements of the story had been more fine-tuned and/or expanded on.
Milo is the executive assistant to the head of Rebel, the biggest name in the fashion industry (think Andy's character, in the Devil Wears Prada). His mother was a big-name model, his boss is also his godmother, and his father is some mysteriously powerful but absent businessman.
In preparation for a huge fashion event (forgive me for the vagueness, the fashion industry has never been a huge interest of mine), Milo gets sent to more-or-less babysit/entertain a prestigious, up-and-coming Japanese designer -- and, in the process, meets the designer's best friend and silent business partner, Kazuhiko Yukifumi.
Sparks fly instantly, and they spend the rest of the book trying to find time for each other amidst their numerous obligations.
Things I loved about this book:
- The Japanese language and culture woven into the plot and every interaction, making already-tense scenes even more layered (e.g. Milo calling him Kaz and Kaz never challenging it, despite the fact that it's a huge intimacy in Japan to let someone call you by your first name, let along a derivative of your first name)
- The scorching hot chemistry between the two main characters.
- The writing style -- the prose was really nice.
Things I didn't love about this book: (spoilers)
Anyway. This got longer than planned. The tl;dr is:
I really loved the writing, I really loved the premise, I really loved all the Japanese culture mixed into the story. I enjoyed reading the book, every minute of it. But overall, it felt unpolished, and I think it could have become even more amazing if elements of the story had been more fine-tuned and/or expanded on.
July 18, 2021
Milo and Kaz clearly have baggage and father issues, but what could have been great bonding material and delving into back stories were only briefly-mentioned hardships that were rarely shared between the two characters (or even with the reader). The Japanese was a little jarring for me, personally, only because I recognized the sentence structures weren't correct (Japanese is not a language you can directly translate, and the fact Google Translate spat out perfectly coherent English translations tells me a translator was, in fact, used). But this probably wouldn't have stuck out to most people.
The reason I didn't rate this well was because I had an issue with almost all the relationships (whether they're love relationships, or family relationships) in this book. They were all toxic to some extent and the MC just kinda shrugged them all off.
For the first few pages Milo's aunt/boss slapped him at work and the MC just sort of took it, smiled, and moved on with life and it was never mentioned again. It's also clear his parents use intimidation and high expectations on their son, and it would have been interesting to know how that sort of upbringing affects Milo now. Instead, we just see him cowed and feeling awkward around his mother, and referring to his father like a mob boss who floats around the periphery.
Later his supposed best friend/roommate, Tommy, took him to a sex party without saying what sort of party it was, left him alone, and Milo ends up being drugged and leaves--Tommy didn't ask where he had gone, never worried about him, and honestly I don't think Milo ever mentioned being drugged to Tommy--and Milo recovered from the whole debacle fairly quickly. Tommy later tried to sexually assault him while drunk, moped when he was denied, and the two were okay again the next day. Excuse me? At the end of the story, Tommy is still pining after Milo and low-key threatened Milo he'd step in once Kaz messed up. Um, no.
I would have liked Kaz more if we actually got into his character vs. being the controlling aloof person he was portrayed as. Even when Milo was drugged we went from being alarmed for a split second then straight to sex as a means of "helping" Milo. As a side to this: aphrodisiacs do NOT work that way. The book makes them sound like Viagra x2000 meets a pot brownie. Aphrodisiacs are, by and large, a placebo effect, beyond maybe providing extra zinc or amino acids that can help increase sex hormone levels but not with such significance you'd be acting like a dog in heat. Plus the fact Milo can’t give consent if he’s drugged but it’s written off as okay since he was getting it in with his story love interest.
Milo and Kaz I think actually only met twice before making out on the third encounter and the MC was beyond head over heels for the guy and knew little more than the man's name for half the book. Overall the relationships were just...odd.
The reason I didn't rate this well was because I had an issue with almost all the relationships (whether they're love relationships, or family relationships) in this book. They were all toxic to some extent and the MC just kinda shrugged them all off.
For the first few pages Milo's aunt/boss slapped him at work and the MC just sort of took it, smiled, and moved on with life and it was never mentioned again. It's also clear his parents use intimidation and high expectations on their son, and it would have been interesting to know how that sort of upbringing affects Milo now. Instead, we just see him cowed and feeling awkward around his mother, and referring to his father like a mob boss who floats around the periphery.
Later his supposed best friend/roommate, Tommy, took him to a sex party without saying what sort of party it was, left him alone, and Milo ends up being drugged and leaves--Tommy didn't ask where he had gone, never worried about him, and honestly I don't think Milo ever mentioned being drugged to Tommy--and Milo recovered from the whole debacle fairly quickly. Tommy later tried to sexually assault him while drunk, moped when he was denied, and the two were okay again the next day. Excuse me? At the end of the story, Tommy is still pining after Milo and low-key threatened Milo he'd step in once Kaz messed up. Um, no.
I would have liked Kaz more if we actually got into his character vs. being the controlling aloof person he was portrayed as. Even when Milo was drugged we went from being alarmed for a split second then straight to sex as a means of "helping" Milo. As a side to this: aphrodisiacs do NOT work that way. The book makes them sound like Viagra x2000 meets a pot brownie. Aphrodisiacs are, by and large, a placebo effect, beyond maybe providing extra zinc or amino acids that can help increase sex hormone levels but not with such significance you'd be acting like a dog in heat. Plus the fact Milo can’t give consent if he’s drugged but it’s written off as okay since he was getting it in with his story love interest.
Milo and Kaz I think actually only met twice before making out on the third encounter and the MC was beyond head over heels for the guy and knew little more than the man's name for half the book. Overall the relationships were just...odd.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 22, 2022
Fifty Shades of Grey meets the fashion world in this hot, spicy and beautiful gay billionaire romance. It was everything I ever expected when I picked up the book. I really can't wait for the sequel.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews