TRULY MADLY DEEPLY (Forbidden Love 1) by LJ Shen-review tour

TRULY MADLY DEEPLY (Forbidden Love 1) by LJ Shen-review & excerpt tour

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date September 10, 2024

This old flame just might set them on fire.

Conceited, unattainable, and downright delicious, renowned Michelin-starred chef Ambrose Casablancas has one passion in life—food.

Women are a distraction, and he doesn’t do those. Especially Cal Litvin, his baby sister’s best friend. Her entire existence is a complication; she’s awkward, eccentric, infuriating…

And, much to his chagrin, hotter than his kitchen.

Ambrose has a lot on his plate: a new restaurant to open, a multimillion-dollar property deal to execute, and a violent stalker to tame.

Then Cal shows up at his doorstep, looking for both a job and salvation after their messy goodbye. His resolve, like his patience, is ebbing each day she works at his restaurant.

Because Cal is no longer a doe-eyed girl.

Now? She’s the woman he’ll do anything to conquer.

***

Quirky, compassionate ball of sunshine Calla Litvin can’t catch a break, and not just because she swore off running.

Back in her hometown to nurse her mother’s broken heart after losing her father, she finds herself jobless, hopeless, and penniless. She hopes to rekindle her friendship with her former BFF, but Dylan is attached at the hip to her cruel brother—the one Cal’s been secretly crushing on since middle school.

Falling for the bad boy the second time around would be a mistake of gargantuan proportions.

Too bad she’s always been clumsy.

••••

REVIEW: TRULY MADLY DEEPLY is the first instalment in LJ Shen’s contemporary, adult FORBIDDEN LOVE erotic, romance series. This is twenty-seven year old chef Ambrose ‘Row’ Casablancas, and twenty-three year old Calla ‘Cal” Litvin’s story line.

NOTE: Due to the nature of the story line premise, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Row and Cal) and text messaging, TRULY MADLY DEEPLY focuses on the enemies to friends to lovers relationship between twenty-seven year old Ambrose ‘Row’ Casablancas, and twenty-three year old Calla ‘Cal” Litvin. Calla Litvin had been in love with her best friend’s brother for as long as she can remember. At seventeen, before leaving for college, Calla Litvin begged Row Casablancas to take her virginity but she lost more than her innocence in the aftermath. Fast forward to present day, Ambrose ‘Row’ Casablancas has returned to his hometown of Staindrop, to open a new upscale restaurant, and complete a multi-million dollar property deal that should have aided the stagnant town where he was born but Row is now considered the town pariah, and his only ally is the woman he has loved all of his live. Enter Calla Litvin. Calla is the odd girl, having lived on the outside most of her life but Calla has secrets, dark and lonely secrets, and with the death of her father, Calla has returned home, never expecting to see the man who destroyed her heart. As his restaurant business explodes, Row’s reputation as an arrogant, abusive hard-a$$ pushes people out of his life and his restaurant. Desperate for help, Row hires Cal as a temporary server, a position that places Cal in the direct line of fire. What ensues is the building romance and relationship between Row and Cal, and the potential fall-out as Row is targeted by the people of his hometown, and his time in Staindrop has come to an end.

The world building follows several pathways including the heart breaking and dark past for both Calla and Row. The town’s history of bullying their own continues into present , as Row and his restaurant are targeted. Reconnecting with Row and his sister Dylan was difficult upon her return to Straindrop. Old memories and heart break are at the forefront of Cal’s mind whenever our heroine looked beyond the present.

The relationship between Cal and Row is an enemies to friends to lovers. Calla Litvin has been in love with Row for as long as she can remember but one fateful night ended a lifelong friendship, destroyed a young heart, and pushed Calla from the town and the people she loved. Calla is a bit of an oddball, a little left of center, eccentric in her ways, likely on the spectrum of behavior and oddities. Ambrose Casablancas had his own secrets, a past mired in darkness, yet the only light in his life is the woman he pushed away years before. Falling for Calla was easy, letting her go would be hard. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate but I dislike the use of a certain four-letter word in my romance story lines.

There is a large ensemble cast of both likable and unlikable secondary and supporting characters. We are introduced Row’s best friend and business manager Rhyland Coltridge, his sister Dylan Casablancas, professional soccer player Kieran Carmichael; town mayor Allison Murray; both Cal and Row’s widowed mothers; property developer and investor Tate Blackthorn; and a town filled with angry, annoying and destructive residents.

TRULY MADLY DEEPLY is a story of secrets and lies, power and control, betrayal and vengeance, family and friendships, relationships and love. The premise is edgy, dramatic, tragic with some light moments sprinkled in between; the romance is impassioned, spicy and erotic; the characters are sassy, quirky and determined.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

 

 

Age EighteenIf someone told me an hour ago that I would be pinned beneath Row Casablancas, partially naked and writhing against the hood of his black Mustang, I would have guessed he’d gotten himself into some kind of trouble and had resorted to drugging me and harvesting my organs to make a quick buck.

Row didn’t hate me. He didn’t love me either. I would guesstimate his feelings toward me were somewhere on the spectrum between look at this adorable little moron and shit, I forgot she existed.

I was his baby sister’s best friend. The awkward klutz who suffered from bouts of verbal diarrhea and extremely questionable fashion sense.

Fine. I didn’t suffer from the questionable fashion sense. I owned it. Sue me for celebrating my individuality.

I always figured he liked me in the same way people liked puppies—because they were cute, dumb, and adored the ground you walked on, even if you were a terrible human who peeled clementines in public places. But I digress.

Harboring a small, totally manageable crush on your best friend’s brother was a cliché. However, I was obsessed with the nineties, an era that celebrated true and tested formulas. Ergo, pining after him fit me like a tattoo choker.

In my defense, Row made it impossible for my adolescent self not to lust after him on account of him: 1) being six foot four inches of lithe, corded muscles, having floppy onyx hair, and a jawline stronger than my lifetime of New Year’s resolutions combined, and 2) having the entire bad-boy vibe down to a T—including a sports car, athletic genes, witty one-liners, a dimpled smirk, and unlaced combat boots with tight-fitting jeans stacked upon them.

To sum it up, he was a morally gray hunk who was a total red flag—my age group’s favorite color scheme. So, yes. Of course I, too, wanted to be ruined by Dylan Casablancas’s older brother. Who didn’t? Our entire high school worshipped at his altar. Fenna McGee once even made a sticker that said, I’m not saying that Row Casablancas and God are the same person—but have you ever seen them in the same room?

Point was, Row’s tongue was currently shoved so far down my throat, we were playing tonsil hockey. His ballistic missile–sized erection pressed against the buttons of my yellow plaid skirt, threatening to snap them and send them past the Milky Way. And all I could think about was how I was doing Dylan dirty.

Bile coated the back of my throat. Dylan hated it when her friends fell at her brother’s feet. She’d make gagging sounds every time someone we knew flirted with him, which made what was happening right now completely inexcusable. But I was semi-drunk, exceptionally raw, and uncharacteristically reckless. Plus…Dylan was so used to seeing Row ruining her friends like it was an Olympic sport, what was adding one more into the mix?

I was also a people pleaser, and I really wanted to please Row. So I made complimentary moaning sounds I’d learned from the Pornhub University of Fake Orgasms. This included head lolling, enthusiastic panting, and girly gasps.

Row took this as an invitation to move to second base, coiling his calloused fingers around the front of my throat and flattening me against the hood of his car. The hood still exuded heat from the engine, and I wondered if I’d sport second-degree burns tomorrow morning. My butt cheeks were squeezed together to accommodate his lean waist between my thighs, my heartbeat thrashing against my eyelids like an angry woodpecker.

We were parked on a rocky cliff overlooking the glacial-tipped Maine mountains. The ocean stretched like a tight, black sheet across the horizon. The briny scent floated into my nostrils, and goose bumps coated my arms.

It felt so good and yet so wrong, I didn’t know whether to burst into giggles, tears, or flames.

Stop this right now, Cal. Dylan is going to strangle you.

Actually, my BFF was more the type to steal my clothes and go on a killing spree. Dylan Casablancas was creative, innovative, and delightfully hilarious. I loved her so much. She deserved better than this.

Row’s hand snuck under my beige turtleneck and my yellow plaid vest, cupping my left boob as his mouth trailed along my jaw, leaving wet, hot kisses in its wake, making my spine tingle. His lips were sinful, his tousled hair as soft as silk between my greedy fingers.

Dammit, I’m only human.

We were grinding against each other, and I was in awe of how different his body was from mine. Hard to my soft. Tall to my short. Tan to my pale. He was doing everything right. The way he swirled his tongue over my sensitive spots, drawing happy whimpers from me. The way his thumb rubbed the tip of my hard nipple, making it tingly and sensitive and desperate for more, felt like some kind of dark magic.

“Fuck, you’re beautiful.”

What a terribly un-asshole-y thing to say. Then again, Row never directed his infinite wrath at me. Probably because I was like a sister to Dylan.

There was a bonfire happening in the moorlands below the cliff where we were parked. A farewell bash for us seniors before we all scattered away to our respective colleges. Row had dropped by to pick Dylan up—he was in town for a couple weeks, visiting from his fancy culinary school in Paris—but Dylan had wanted to stick around a little longer. Meanwhile, I’d wanted to go home, eat pickled eggs, and binge-watch Riverdale.

Yet we’d ended up on the notorious Make-out Mountain, where couples went to lose their virginity, and sometimes lacy thongs, without being interrupted.

Row and I were friendly. He was always protective of me. I’d asked him to drive up to the cliff so I could take one last look at the ocean before I moved to New York. I definitely hadn’t planned on attacking his mouth with mine like a rabid raccoon when we’d both stared at the yolky sun crawling up the sky.

Yet…it had happened. It had happened, and now I was in his arms, the cold recipient of his kisses and licks and roaming hands. I froze, yet again feeling guilty about Dylan. She’d forgive me, surely. It wasn’t like he was her boyfriend.

Row ripped his mouth from my skin, staring me down through a disapproving scowl. “Are you still alive?”

“Hmm-mm.”

“Should I stop?” His fingers immediately loosened around my waist and back, and I suddenly remembered what had made me want to have sex with him in the first place.

“No!” I wrenched him closer and pressed my lips to his, doubling down on that rabid-wildlife conduct. “You…you can’t stop.” But maybe he should? My mind and my body were definitely not in sync.

“Sure I can.” His mouth moved over mine again, his voice velvet and smoke. “Consent is a real thing. Google it.” I was blushing so furiously, it was a medical miracle my head didn’t explode. His mouth grinned against mine, teeth grazing my bottom lip. “Fuck. You’re so sweet. So innocent. I want to eat you out.”

“I want to eat you out too.” Wait, what? That didn’t sound right. Having social anxiety and literally zero filters when I was nervous sucked.

“Do you, now?” I could hear the smirk in his smartass tone.

Dammit, Cal. “Not, in, like, a cannibalistic way—”

“Show me, then. Use plenty of examples. I’m a slow learner.” He growled, deepening our kiss. Our teeth brushed together, and a wave of pleasure rolled along my spine. My skin was cold, but my insides were ablaze. I pushed my palm against his groin over his black jeans. I couldn’t believe I was touching him, really touching the guy who literally made women melt into a pool of hormones just by glancing at him.

He ripped his mouth from mine, eyeballing me hard. We stared at each other, panting. I had no idea what I was doing.

 


 

L.J. Shen is USA Today, WSJ, Washington Post and #1 Amazon Kindle Store bestselling author of contemporary romance books.

She writes angsty books, unredeemable anti-heroes who are in Elon Musk’s tax bracket, and sassy heroines who bring them to their knees (for more reasons than one).

HEAs and groveing are guaranteed.

She lives in Florida with her husband, three sons, and a disturbingly active imagination.

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