Didn’t Follow Through

Sharing Hailey by Samantha Ann King
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Started off great but the last 25% just went downhill and I have to admit I did not care at all for the ending. I am a huge fan of menage stories so when I saw this one I thought it sounded great. I was really into it at first but soon I found myself skimming it close to the end I even skipped a few pages.

The story in theory was good, I liked the idea of three friends who have had feelings for each other forever finally coming together. Hailey has had feelings for Tony and Mark for as long as she can remember but has never pursued anything for fear that it will wreck their friendship and she will be forced to choose one over the other and that is impossible. Mark and Tony have waited for Hailey to come around and finally choose one of them but of course she hasn’t shown them that she has any intentions of that so they have decided to take matters into their own hands and will share her.

While on vacation in Hawaii the three finally explore their feelings for one another. But there are too many things going on that get in the way of what should be a great time for the three of them. First her brother finds out and is not happy, after-all this is his baby sister and Mark and Tony have been his best friends since they were kids. Second Hailey has just broken up with her abusive boyfriend and now he wants her back.

So here’s what I liked about it:

*The way the guys took care of Hailey. They really loved her and were very quick to show her any way they could.

*The fact that both of these guys were strong Alpha types without over doing it. I loved that there weren’t any BDSM scenes or elements (I am getting tired of every book having to be about that).

*All three were equals in the relationship.

What I hated about it:

*There was a scene in which the guys have an intimate moment, it’s brief and then nothing ever comes of it again nor do they ever have another. They were too close to have never had another moment or to have experimented in some way. It would have been better if they had, especially since Hailey mentioned quite a bit how much it turned her on. It felt as if the author was leading up to it but it never happened.

*The way Hailey handled the Daniel situation. If I had to read her go on and on about how domestic violence didn’t happen to women like her I was going to hurl. She is supposedly a smart, mature woman. She should know that domestic violence can and does happen to all types of women, there is not a type.

All in all I wanted more from this book. It was okay but really didn’t completely do it for me.

Exquisite by Ella Frank
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Her heart was guarded…

Tormented by self-imposed guilt, Dr. Lena O’Donnell has spent the last nine years in survival mode. Struggling through days that seem to blend together and battling her way through each horrifying night, she’s determined that this is what she deserves…

Until he tore down the walls…

Mason Langley’s life is going exactly the way he planned it, until her. A confirmed bachelor and the successful owner of the hottest restaurant to hit Chicago, he never expects to be blindsided by an angry woman in a pair of scrubs. No matter how hard he tries, he can’t seem to shake the doctor, and he finds himself liking the way she makes him feel.

Almost over night Lena finds her world turned upside down by Mason and the sexual desire they discover together. Slowly, she lowers her guard and invites him inside but when tragedy strikes she begins to believe that sometimes it’s better to be alone and safe than to love and lose…
(Goodreads)

---

“I’m going to say this once, and then we’re going to go home and I’m going to take you to bed and show you how much nicer it is to feel and be with someone than to be numb and alone.” He paused, leaning over to lay his lips on hers. “It’s time to feel again. Let me save you from yourself. You were drowning when I found you, but I’m not letting you go without a fight.”

There are so many parts of this book that are Hot! Hot! Hot! About a 1/4 of the way in I was going on and on to my BFF about how great this book is and the fact that she needed to get it. Then *sighs* it went downhill for me (there were still some really hot scenes in it and I love Mason but it seemed to lose something for me) and drag.

Finally around 70% it picked up again and I was into it. This is one of those stories where I find myself not really liking the MC. She pretty much got on my nerves throughout most of the story. I think between that and the fact that I just couldn’t connect with the plot it was hard for me to really enjoy it. I didn’t find the attraction and emotional connection between Lena and Mason believable and personally if I were him I probably would have cut my losses in the very beginning.

All in all I really am not as impressed with this one as I thought I would be. It had excellent reviews and I feel a little bad that I seem to be one of only a few who didn’t enjoy it. There was something I was missing I am just not sure what.