Showing posts with label Lauren Layne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lauren Layne. Show all posts

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Only With You by Lauren Layne

Only with You (The Best Mistake, #1)*** 1/2
Love is the Biggest Gamble of All . . . 

Cocktail waitress Sophie Dalton doesn't exactly have a life plan. She's perfectly happy being everyone's favorite party girl. But when a Las Vegas bachelorette party goes awry and an uptight businessman mistakes Sophie for a prostitute . . . well, Sophie wonders if it's time to reevaluate her priorities. Swearing off her thigh-high boots for good, Sophie slinks back home with damaged pride-and a jackpot of a hangover.

Yet what happens in Vegas doesn't always stay there. On a trip to Seattle to open a new office, Grayson Wyatt meets his latest employee-who turns out to be the same woman he recently called a hooker. Wealthy and gorgeous, Gray is a man used to getting what he wants. And it doesn't take long to figure out that smart, sassy, sexy Sophie is everything he's been looking for. As their late nights at the office turn into hot morning-afters, they realize their Vegas misunderstanding may lead to the real thing . . . 










Review:


Who would have thought that choosing to wear a pair of trashy sparkly boots left over from a Halloween costume could be so life altering?  Certainly not Sophie Dalton.  Sophie has pretty much been coasting through life after dropping out of Harvard Law School.  And up until now she’s been fine with that.  But when she gets stuck in an elevator with an uptight jerk who mistakes her for a prostitute she starts wondering if maybe she needs to make some changes in her life.

Fast forward to a Sunday dinner at the Dalton house.  Sophie’s sister, Brynn, walks in with her new boyfriend.  Surprise, surprise….it’s Grayson Wyatt.  The guy who changed Sophie’s life when he told her he wasn’t looking for an escort service.  As a hilariously awkward dinner progresses Brynn accidentally tells their parents that Sophie has quit her job without lining up a new one in advance.  In an effort to take the negative parental attention off Sophie, Brynn suggests that Gray hire her to be his assistant.  Being the gentleman he is, Gray offers her the job while also giving her an easy out.  But Sophie gets one look at the fear and discomfort on Gray’s face and decides that taking the job will be the perfect revenge for bringing a lifetime of insecurities so close to the surface that she feels the need to change her life.

When I saw this cover, I was expecting a steamy confident romance.  And it is both of those things.  But it’s also more.  Sophie is a wonderfully humorous and complex character.  Her conversational skills (which are lifesavers to both her family and Gray throughout the book) provide lots of witty dialogue and also allow the reader to see all of Sophie’s amazing potential while she is struggling with a significant amount of insecurity.  Gray is perfect in everything he does.  At least that’s what the world sees.  What the public doesn’t see (and what Sophie quickly learns) is that Gray has his own insecurities.  After a failed engagement, he finds it difficult to trust women and embrace romance.  He also has a strained relationship with his brother and sister who he has been responsible for since he was very young.

One of my favorite characters in this book was Sophie’s best friend William.  He was funny and kind and the chemistry between him and Sophie’s sister was off the charts.  It was also fascinating considering Brynn is as uptight as Gray.   You can be sure I’ll be reading their story soon (Made For You). 

This was a fun and sweet romance.  Not only a perfect read for when you want to get away but also a great comfort read.  It’s definitely one that I will be picking up again. 


~Nat

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Made for You by Lauren Layne Blog Tour


Our stop on the Made for You Blog Tour has a fantastic excerpt and a giveaway!  Don't forget to enter via the Rafflecopter below before you leave.  Check out this cover - holy scruffy hotness!




About MADE FOR YOU
Three years ago, Brynn Dalton made a rare error in judgment and had a one-night stand with the one man she swore would never get into her designer panties. Will Thatcher was exactly the type of sexy playboy that good girls like Brynn stayed away from. And when Will moved across the country just days after their fling, Brynn vowed to put him behind her, even as the memories haunt her.

Now Will Thatcher is back, and just in time to see Brynn's perfectly structured life begin to crumble. Her job is dull, her social life is tedious, and Brynn's perfect cardiologist boyfriend doesn't seem to be in any hurry to get to Tiffany & Co. More than ever, Brynn needs her childhood nemesis to keep his distance.

But Will isn't content to be Brynn's dirty little secret any longer. This time, he's out to show Brynn Dalton that the imperfect man might just be the best mistake of her life.  

About Lauren Layne
Lauren Layne writes contemporary romance for Grand Central Publishing (Forever) and Random House(Loveswept).

After dabbling in an e-commerce career in Seattle and Southern California, Lauren moved to New York City where she now writes full time.

Lauren graduated from Santa Clara University with B.S. in Political Science that she has yet to put to good use. She lives with her husband and plus-sized pomeranian in a tiny Manhattan studio. 

Excerpt:


He.
Was.
Back.
Look away. Look away now from The Enemy.
But she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the tall man with dark blond hair who was ogling a redhead in a killer black dress. His dark jeans and white shirt should have been too casual for the occasion. But nobody would notice that he was underdressed. They’d be too busy basking in his wide smiles and hot gazes.
He was back.
Why was he back?
“Brynn, are you listening?” Sophie asked. “I was just explaining how maybe if you would slip up every now and then you wouldn’t have to hide in the bathroom on your birthday.”
Sophie couldn’t have been more wrong about Brynn not making mistakes.
Because not so long ago, she’d made the most elementary of all mistakes.
And he was staring right at her.

Will knew exactly the moment she’d seen him. He felt it like a shock to the balls, and he wanted a shot of whiskey. Now.
It had taken a full fifty-seven minutes since he’d walked into the room until her ice-blue eyes had locked on him, and that was including the ridiculous amount of time she’d spent in the bathroom.
She made him wait another twenty minutes before seeking him out.

But what was seventy-seven minutes when you’d already waited a lifetime?


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