VILLAIN (Hero #1.5) by Samantha Young-Review and Excerpt Tour
VILLAIN
Hero 1.5
by Samantha Young
Release Date: December 5, 2017
Genre: adult, contemporary, erotic, romance
Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo /
About the book: Release Date December 5, 2017
Nadia Ray is not just a broadcast meteorologist. She’s Boston’s morning television It Girl. Successful and independent, she’s put a past she’s ashamed of behind her and is forging a future she can be proud of. However, when her new boss discovers her secret he blackmails her, intent on using Nadia’s popularity to make them the number one morning show in Massachusetts. He wants her to be part of uncovering the city’s biggest scandal – a secret billionaire Caine Carraway is hiding.
Soon Nadia is thrown into the path of Caine’s best friend: sexy, wealthy bachelor Henry Lexington. But she doesn’t encounter the dashing high society gentleman Henry is purported to be. Instead she’s faced with an insulting and defensive villain who misjudges her at every turn.
When Henry finally realizes the truth, and decides to make amends, Nadia wants nothing to do with him. But she underestimates his determination and charm and soon they find themselves embroiled in an intense, passionate affair.
An affair Nadia knows must come to an end before their feelings grow any deeper and he discovers her secrets.
After all, Henry Lexington isn’t the only one who played the part of a villain once…
•••••••••••••••
REVIEW: VILLAIN is the second instalment and companion novella in Samantha Young’s contemporary, adult HERO erotic, romance series. This is broadcast meteorologist Nadia Ray, and successful businessman and managing director of his father’s bank Henry Lexington’s story line. VILLAIN can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story line is revealed where necessary but I recommend reading the series in order as VILLAIN is the companion to book one, and many of the events run parallel to, and cross over with book one HERO.
Told from first person perspective (Nadia Ray) VILLAIN follows the building relationship between weather meteorologist Nadia Ray, and billionaire Henry Lexington. Nadia Ray is hiding in plain sight. The latest ‘It Girl’ on the local morning show, Nadia’s ‘buxom’ body has caught the attention of too many admirers including her boss who has discovered that our heroine has a secret in her past-a secret that will be used against her in a blackmail scheme aimed at uncovering the latest scandal of the rich and famous Caine Carraway. Enter Henry Lexington, Caine’s best friend, and the man with whom Nadia will fall in love. What ensues are Henry’s attempts to stop Nadia from discovering the truth about his best friend Caine, and Henry’s seduction of a reluctant Nadia who is desperate to keep her secrets buried in the past.
Nadia has had to endure too many advances from over zealous admirers who believe the beautiful and voluptuous meteorologist is nothing more than b**bs with hair. Now that her boss know the secret in her past, our heroine struggles between keeping her secrets, or burying the secrets of the infamous billionaire. Henry Lexington doesn’t do relationships; his reputation as a player, and manwhore precedes his introduction to our story line heroine-an introduction that pushes all of Nadia’s boundaries and buttons when Henry threatens to destroy Nadia if she continues on the path of certain discovery.
The relationship between Nadia and Henry is one of immediate attraction that is tempered by Henry’s attitude with regard to his over protective nature towards fellow billionaire and best friend Caine Carraway. Henry knows that he screwed up when he verbally attacked our story line heroine-a screw up Henry intends to right before too long. The $ex scenes are intimate, intense and seductive without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.
There is a small ensemble cast of secondary and supporting characters including Caine Carraway and Alexa Holland; Henry’s parents Penelope and Randall Lexington; as well as Nadia’s boss Dick Peters, and the morning show host Barbara.
VILLAIN is an enjoyable and encouraging story line about two people pulled together by circumstance and fate. The premise is spirited and inspiring; the characters are spicy and energetic; the romance is sexy and passionate.
Reading Order and Previous Reviews
HERO
VILLAIN
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Sandy
Maybe he really did feel bad for the way he’d treated me.
Yeah, maybe he did.
But did that change anything?
He’d still treated me poorly and who was to say he wouldn’t again?
Just because people felt awful for doing something didn’t mean they wouldn’t repeat the crime.
The real problem was my attraction to him.
I could admit it.
I was attracted to the son of a bitch.
There was something deeply wrong with me that I could be attracted to a man I didn’t even like.
Turned out that lunch with my colleagues was a terrible distraction idea. Because Henry was dining at The Bristol Lounge with none other than Caine Carraway.
“Maybe we should go somewhere else,” I said as we stood in the lobby outside the restaurant. Henry hadn’t spotted us yet.
Barbara frowned. “This is your favorite place. You love the Bristol Burger.”
I did love the Bristol Burger.
And for the first time in weeks, I was hungry.
Dammit.
No man was chasing me away from my goddamn burger.
“You’re right.” I nodded, sounding more assured than I actually felt. “But I’ll walk on your left side.”
My friend eyed me in confusion as I huddled at her side, trying to hide behind her as the host led us up the few stairs onto the main floor of the restaurant and right past Henry and Carraway’s table near the bar area, to a larger table at the back of the restaurant. As far as I could tell, he hadn’t spotted me and there were now pillars between us that I could hide behind.
Relieved, I slid into my chair beside Barbara.
“Drinks?” the waiter asked.
We’d finished giving him our orders when the sight of Henry Lexington walking into view around one of those aforementioned pillars and toward our table made my pulse skitter.
He gave me a soft smile as if we hadn’t been enemies up until twenty-four hours ago. “Miss Ray, what a pleasant surprise.” That soft smile grew into a roguish grin. “Are you stalking me?”
I arched an eyebrow, wondering what the hell kind of game he was playing now. “A burger. I’m stalking a burger.”
“The burgers are very good here.”
“Mr. Lexington,” Barbara said beside me, sounding delighted to see him, and awfully familiar. “What a pleasure to see you.”
“You too, Barbara. And please, I’ve told you before—smart, beautiful women should call me Henry.”
I didn’t know what to do first: be surprised they knew each other or gag at his flirting with her.
“You know each other?”
“I know everyone worth knowing.” He winked at Barbara and she tittered like a schoolgirl.
Dear God.
And then I was the focus of his attention. He leaned against Andrew’s chair who was, as always, oblivious to anything but himself. “So this burger … will it put you in a good mood?”
“Excuse me?”
Those blue eyes were too intense, much too intense. “A good enough mood to agree to have lunch with me tomorrow?”
I was going to kill him.
How dare he put me on the spot in front of my colleagues, in front of Barbara! What? Did he think I’d be civil to him because we had an audience? I scowled. “No.”
“Are you seeing someone?” he persisted.
“No, she’s not,” Barbara interjected, giving me an “Are you crazy?” look. “And yes, she’s free for lunch tomorrow. You can pick her up from the station at one.”
“Fantastic.” Henry gave her a grateful, gorgeous smile before turning it on me. “See you tomorrow.”
He was gone before I could even get past the shock that had sealed my lips.
Samantha Young is the New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of adult contemporary romances, including the On Dublin Street series and Hero, as well as the New Adult duology Into the Deep and Out of the Shallows. Every Little Thing, the second book in her new Hart’s Boardwalk series, will be published by Berkley in March 2017. Before turning to contemporary fiction, she wrote several young adult paranormal and fantasy series, including the amazon bestselling Tale of Lunarmorte trilogy. Samantha’s debut YA contemporary novel The Impossible Vastness of Us was published by Harlequin TEEN in ebook & hardback June 2017. Play On is an adult contemporary romance and the first in a brand new series set in Scotland. Villain is a companion novella to the New York Times bestselling romance HERO.
Samantha has been nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award 2012 for Best Author and Best Romance for On Dublin Street, Best Romance 2014 for Before Jamaica Lane, and Best Romance 2015 for Hero. On Dublin Street, a #1 bestseller in Germany, was the Bronze Award Winner in the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2013, Before Jamaica Lane the Gold Medal Winner for the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2014 and Echoes of Scotland Street the Bronze Medal Winner for the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2015.
Samantha is currently published in 30 countries and is a #1 international bestselling author.
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