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Blurb
What happens when the kink between the pages leads to heat between the sheets?
All Blake Crawford wants is to pass his creative writing course, get his university degree and take over his dad’s ailing family business. What Amanda Newland wants is to graduate at the top of her class, as well as finally finish her novel and prove to her family that writing is a respectful career.
What Blake and Amanda don’t want is to be paired up with each other for their final project but that’s exactly what they both get when they’re forced to collaborate on a writing piece. Since Amanda thinks Blake is a pushy asshole (with a panty-melting smirk and British accent) and Blake thinks Amanda has a stick up her ass (though it’s brilliant ass), they fight tooth and nail until they discover they write well together. They also might find each other really attractive, but that’s neither here nor there.
When their writing project turns out to be a success, the two of them decide to start up a secret partnership together using a pen name, infiltrating the self-publishing market in the lucrative genre of erotica. Naturally, with so much heat and passion between the pages, it’s not long before their dirty words become a dirty reality. Sure, they still fight a lot but at least there’s make-up sex now.
But even as they start to fall hard for each other, will their burgeoning relationship survive if their scandalous secret is exposed or are happily-ever-afters just a work of fiction?
Review
Smart, sexy, and laugh-out-loud funny, I loved it! 4.5 smutty stars.
This is such a fun read! Smart and sexy with brilliant banter, fantastic sexual chemistry, a wonderful and sexy romance and laugh-out-loud humour all based around the world of writing erotic romance, it’s a gem of a read. It’s something a bit different from Karina Halle but once again she proves her versatility with her foray into romantic comedy and she totally nailed it!
Amanda Newland has just (spectacularly) ended a stifling, long-term relationship with her high school sweetheart. Out from under the wings of her oppressive fiancé, she embraces her freedom and throws herself into her passion of writing. She longs to be an author, no matter how much her stuck-up parents disapprove, and is writing her own fantasy novel in between her writing classes at university, which she takes very seriously. Which is why she is devastated when her end-of-year assignment sees her paired off with the class playboy, Blake Crawford.
Blake is just as unhappy to be forced to work with Amanda. He thinks she has a stick up her ass and wants nothing to do with the teacher’s pet. They make no secret of their contempt for each other but much to their surprise, they actually work well together, and as they start to relax around each other they develop a friendship, with a healthy dose of attraction simmering away underneath, and their assignment turns out to be a huge success.
Meanwhile, Blake is looking for ways to save his father’s struggling bookstore. And when he learns that the biggest market in books is romance – in particular indie erotic ebooks, he approaches Amanda with a proposal to co-write erotic romance.
“We just need to write the dirtiest, sexiest short story ever and I promise you if you want to quit after that we can, but I bet you won’t want to.”
OMG, I love Blake! He is all charm and arrogance, but with a huge heart. He has no qualms about letting Amanda know how much he wants her, and with the added thrill of pushing her out of her comfort zone, he takes great pleasure in flirting and riling her up every chance he gets.
You should probably begin reading some of the stuff in the Top 20, at least the samples, just to get a feel for the flow and prose. If you end up jacking off over it, please let me know.
With details.
And Amanda is such a fantastic heroine! She is funny, relatable – and her interactions with her roommate Ana, are fabulous! She is totally committed to her passion, and is also a bit of a nerd-girl, and I can fully appreciate that.
My idea of romance is a guy who will take me to see an Avengers film and doesn’t mind dressing up like Loki afterwards.
The planning for their venture into writing erotica is absolutely sensational! The story pokes a bit of fun at the erotic romance genre, and as a mad fan of romance (and yes, erotica), I loved their tongue-in-cheek approach to it as they discussed pen-names, character names, book titles and plotlines. OMG, it was absolutely hilarious! I laughed harder than I have in ages and had tears streaming down my face! I had to take a break from my kindle just to get myself back under control. It’s gold!
And of course writing together means spending time together, and as they heat things up between the pages, the sexual tension builds to epic heights, and the banter and flirting becomes super dirty as their attraction becomes something neither of them are able to deny.
“Keep it in your pants.” I pause, trying to keep my eyes from staying on his crotch. “Wait, are you saying you’re hard right now?”
He scratches at the scruff of his chin, eyes dancing. “Pretty much, considering what I’m writing. Just say the word cock again.”
“Fuck you.”
“Well what do you know,” he says lazily. “The word fuck works too.”
From there it’s only a matter of time before the smut moves from their book into real life, and holy hell, it’s hot! The connection between Amanda and Blake is intense, and the sexy time is steaming! But it’s more than just sex. And as Amanda and Blake explore everything that is happening between them (and exploring it anywhere, everywhere, anytime… *fans self*), they start to fall for each other. But can they turn their sizzling chemistry into something lasting? And what will happen if their smutty secret is ever exposed?
This is a fantastic read! Smart, funny, sexy and romantic, and so, so dirty, this book had me madly flipping pages. Amanda and Blake are relatable and I instantly loved them both, and together they are a powerhouse of banter, flirting, and epic sexual tension that effortlessly becomes a gorgeous romance that is full of fun, funny moments, and of course lots and lots of sex! There is a bit of drama – both for Amanda and Blake individually, and with them together as they figure out everything that is happening between them – and it adds some nice emotion to the story, and with no real angst or stupid behaviour from either of them, you can sit back and happily lose yourself in it all. It’s a hugely entertaining read that will have you laughing out loud, fanning yourself and falling in love all at once, leaving you with a huge grin on your face.
I loved it! 4.5 stars.
An Advanced Reader Copy of this book was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
Quotes used in this review may not appear in the final version of the book
Excerpt
She holds my gaze for a moment and something passes over her. Regret, maybe. Then she nods. “Sit down. Let’s work.”
And so we do. And for the first time in a long time, it’s strained. I’m about to suggest maybe we need the Estonian vodka anyway when she lets out an exasperated sigh over something she’s reading.
It happens to be something I wrote.
“What?” I ask, wondering what I did wrong.
She gives me the are you kidding me? look. “Okay, I was ignoring it earlier but I think you need to get a grip on some of this shit. This simply does not happen.”
“Explain, please.”
“I just think it’s unrealistic for there to be so much talking, let alone the fact that the first time they do it it’s in a public place.”
“Too much talking?”
“Yeah.” she scans over the document. “You know, give me your cock, oh you feel so good, harder, harder, you’re so big, fuck me harder big boy.”
“Have you even had good sex?” I ask incredulously.
She flinches. “Of course I have. And it’s none of your business.”
“We’re writing about sex. It’s completely my business. I’m not letting you interject your edits based on your personal experiences about sex because believe me, if the sex is good, you’re moaning my name.”
She raises her chin. “Maybe all those girls were faking it.”
Oh, brilliant.
“Excuse me?” I say, hands pressed against the table, nearly getting out of my chair. “You have no idea. I pride myself in giving a girl as many bloody orgasms as she can handle.”
“Bloody orgasms don’t sound like fun,” she jokes softly.
“They can be if you’re into knife play,” I tell her, even though that’s not exactly what I meant. Still, she scrunches up her nose. “Don’t knock it until you try it, but that’s neither here nor there. When you were with Alan, he must have made you come at least a few times.”
If he didn’t, I feel like finding the guy and showing him a thing or two for wasting four years of her life.
“Yeah,” she says flatly.
“And in the middle of that orgasm, didn’t you want to yell a few things?”
“Sometimes.”
“And why didn’t you?”
She looks at her nails as if they’re suddenly fascinating. “It didn’t seem right. It was…too intimate. I would have felt dumb. He didn’t like any of that stuff.”
The plot thickens. “Any of what stuff?”
“Sex that didn’t involve the missionary position or the bed.”
My mouth drops open. My brain and penis can’t compute this. “I feel so sorry for you.”
We must remedy this.
She glares at me. “It’s not like I didn’t want to do it. I did. And he did try it. Most of it. But it always went back to the same old.”
I knew it. She’s a nerd on the streets and a freak in the sheets.
“I don’t mean to brag,” I tell her in all seriousness. “But you do realize that I could give you an orgasm in thirty seconds.”
Her eyes widen. I can’t tell if she’s horrified or intrigued. “I don’t believe you and I don’t want you to try.”
She’s not getting it. I frown, trying to explain. “If you’re having good sex and it’s with someone you’re comfortable with, you won’t worry about holding back. You’ll cry out all the nonsense you want, you’ll make noises like a pig and scream like you’re on fire because you truly can’t have a good orgasm unless you’re letting go on all accounts.” I lean back in my chair and study her, running my fingers along my jaw. “I would venture that every time you came with your ex, you were only experiencing half of what you should have been. How is it with your vibrators?”
I expect her to tell me to fuck off, that I’m getting too personal but to my surprise she gives me a small smile. “It’s better. But I do have a roommate with exceptionally good hearing.” She clears her throat. “Anyway, so I guess I’m wrong. The heroine can make all the noise she wants.”
“And have first time sex in public.”
“I don’t know…”
“Believe me, when you finally get a chance to fuck, you don’t care where it is. That’s why I always have a condom in my pocket. And the more public the sex, the sneakier you have to be, the hotter it is.”
“But in the book you would never get caught.”
“You don’t always get caught in real life too.”
I can see she wants to ask me where I’ve done it but she loses her nerve. “Okay.” She looks back to the document. “I accept defeat.”
But I don’t want her to. I want to prove to her I’m right and not have her take my word.
Is there a non-creepy way to show her just how amazing good sex can feel? I’m thinking not.
Or…maybe there is.
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About the author
Karina Halle is a former travel writer and music journalist and The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of The Pact, Racing the Sun, Sins & Needles and over 25 other wild and romantic reads. She lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband and her rescue pup, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails and devours a lot of books.
Halle is represented by the Waxman Leavell Agency and is both self-published and published by Simon & Schuster and Hachette in North America and in the UK.
Hit her up on Instagram at @authorHalle, on Twitter at @MetalBlonde and on Facebook. You can also visit www.authorkarinahalle.com and sign up for the newsletter for news, excerpts, previews, private book signing sales and more.
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