MINE FOR THE WEEK (Wild Love #2) by Erika Kelly-Review, Excerpt & Giveaway
MINE FOR THE WEEK
Wild Love #2
by Erika Kelly
Release Date: October 3, 2017
Genre: adult, contemporary, erotic, romance
Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / ibooks /
ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date October 3, 2017
As the top collegiate shortstop in the country, Ryan O’Donnell’s life is about discipline. But a growing restlessness causes him to bail on his baseball team over spring break to join his buddies at a singles resort. He just needs one week to escape his life, and then he’ll get back on track. But moments after arriving he meets HER, and the world as he knows it changes irrevocably. It should only be a hookup—that’s what spring break’s all about—but one taste of this sexy, vibrant woman isn’t enough. He has to have her. Even if it’s only for a week.
Sophie Valentine—yes, that Valentine—just found out her siblings want to sell off Crazy Hearts—the Peeps of the Valentine’s Day world. Upset, she takes off with her friends on their spring break vacation. She only wanted an escape—she never imagined meeting HIM. But he’s about to start a Major League Baseball career, and she’s launching a fight for her family legacy. They have no future. It’s just…she’s never felt this way for anyone before.
Are they really going to walk away from this kind of connection…this passion?
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REVIEW: MINE FOR THE WEEK is the second installment in Erika Kelly’s contemporary, new adult WILD LOVE erotic, romance series focusing on the O’Donnell siblings. This is top collegiate shortstop Ryan O’Donnell, and Crazy Hearts heiress Sophie Valentine’s story line. MINE FOR THE WEEK can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story line is revealed where necessary. We were first introduced to Ryan in book one MINE FOR NOW.
Told from dual third person perspectives (Ryan and Sophie) MINE FOR THE WEEK follows the building but acrimonious relationship between two college seniors-professional baseball prospect Ryan O’Donnell, and cookie company heiress Sophie Valentine. It’s prospect week for college baseball, the scouts are in attendance, and our hero Ryan O’Donnell is about to spiral out of control. On the verge of panic, Ryan’s best friend suggests an island retreat to Santa Grenada wherein our hero will walk away from his future, and meet the woman with whom he will fall in love. Enter Crazy Hearts heiress and college senior Sophie Valentine, a woman on the cusp of a future that is about to be pulled out from under (her). What ensues is the acrimonious relationship between Sophie and Ryan, and the fall out when Ryan’s ex-girlfriend comes back looking to rekindle what’s left of their failed friendship and love.
MINE FOR A WEEK is a story of family, friendships and facing the future. Ryan knows he is destined for the major leagues. Baseball is his life but our hero is looking for something different; something more. A past mired in heartbreak, a dysfunctional family where addiction and drama followed in its’ wake, Ryan has always fronted the epitome of perfection; the perfect son and student; the perfect boyfriend and star athlete but a man whose inner turmoil pulls our hero in another direction-a direction he is unable to decipher until the end. Sophie Valentine is in the battle of her life as her family considers selling her beloved Crazy Hearts cookie factory in the hopes of a lucrative payout and retirement. Sophie’s attempts to dissuade her siblings are met with derision, and a family unable to come to terms about the future.
The relationship between Sophie and Ryan is one of immediate attraction but from the start Sophie is unable to let go. Ryan’s seduction of Sophie begins as an island adventure, and our heroine wants nothing to do with what she believes is a $ex craved athlete letting go on Spring Break in Santa Grenada. Ryan’s pursuit of Sophie is off-putting; she is unable to look past the ‘hook up’ of spring break. Trusting Ryan grows more difficult as their ‘friendship’ blossoms letting Ryan in will cost Sophie her heart and her self-esteem. The $ex scenes are seductive and intense. Throughout the story our very independent heroine had a habit of running; misinterpreting signs and conversations; and had a difficult time accepting the truth for what it was. She is constantly looking for faults including those in her relationship with Ryan O’Donnell.
We are introduced to Ryan’s best friends Dixon and Jake; his ex girlfriend Emma, as well as the reappearance of Ryan’s father Bill, sister Nicole and her boyfriend Dylan (Mine For Now) and his troubled brother Brandon; Sophie’s friends Kat and Laura, and Sophie’s ex-boyfriend Richard aka King.
MINE FOR THE WEEK was a bit of a struggle for me. I didn’t like the heroine. Some would call her strong and self-reliant but it is this part of her personality that I battled because of the way it is presented-an over the top need to be independent, and separate from the whole. Neither character was perfect; their personality quirks made for some uncomfortable situations. The premise is entertaining; the romance is passionate and intense; the characters are colorful and charismatic. MINE FOR THE WEEK is a well written, and engaging story line.
Click HERE for Sandy’s review of book one-MINE FOR NOW.
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Sandy
It was them. Combustible.
He remembered tucking his face into her neck, being surrounded by her scent, her silky hair. Her hands reaching under his shirt—her touch so hungry. Oh, Christ.
His heart pounded. Need burned a fiery path through his limbs. Where the hell had she gone?
He scanned the empty pool, the chaises, and the path to the terrace grill. Stalking towards the hotel, he peered through the glass doors but didn’t see anyone inside. She couldn’t have made it to the elevator that quickly.
The sound of water hitting pavement snapped his attention to the side of the building. To the outdoor showers.
An image sprang to mind. Sophie, naked, water glistening on that peachy skin.
Desire charged through him. Don’t do it. If he went in there, he’d touch her. And he couldn’t do that. She didn’t want it.
Go to your room.
To hell with that. Go to the gym. Work this crazy energy out of you.
He stood outside the hotel, every muscle tensed. A worker rolled a cart of clean towels out a side door and wheeled it toward the wicker towel stand.
But all he could focus on was the water splattering on concrete. Had she taken off her bikini?
None of your damn business. He turned away from the worker, but instead of opening the door to the hotel, he found his feet eating up the path, taking him toward the row of outdoor showers.
He’d just give her the key card and cover-up, and then he’d go. Leave her alone.
Water pooled outside a stall. “Soph?” He knocked, and then called for her again.
The door swung open, and she stood there in her red bikini, soap suds streaming down her gleaming body. Her features softened when she saw the cover-up and phone he held out to her.
Taking them out of his hand, she set them on a wooden shelf. “Thank you.” Then, she stepped under the spray and tilted her head back, her long dark hair streaming over her shoulders.
Desire rushed him so hard his breath went choppy, his knees weak. He closed and locked the door, heading right for her. Her eyes flared with surprise, but she didn’t stop him. The look in her eyes set his blood roaring. Heat, need, want burst inside him.
(can stop here if too long)
Her chest rose and fell with her rapid breathing. He moved toward her, crowding into her space, needing to touch her more than he needed air.
“I can’t believe you pirated my boat.”
Water splattered his calves, and his spine tingled with a lust so crazy he could barely control it. “It was too windy to be out there.”
She gave him a defiant look. “I don’t like people telling me what to do.”
Or she wasn’t used to it. No one in her family seemed to bother with her. “I’m not going to apologize for worrying about you.”
“Why?” Her voice sounded thin, shaky. Water beaded on her skin.
He wanted her so badly he hurt, but even though he could barely think, he knew she deserved an answer. “Because I like you.”
She let out a shaky breath.
“Sophie.” Leaning in, he watched the desire in her eyes turn fiery. Her fingertips traced a path down his chest, making him shudder. He licked the water droplets off her lips, and she sighed into his mouth.
He kissed her—yes—tongue stroking into her mouth, fingers sliding into wet hair, shoving it off her face. Cupping the back of her head, he shifted her so he could kiss her more deeply. Her mouth, so lush and hot, opened to him, and he lost himself in all the lusciousness that was Sophie Valentine.
Award-winning author Erika Kelly has been spinning romantic tales all her life–she just didn’t know it. Raised on the classics, she didn’t discover romantic fiction until later in life. From that moment on, she’s been devouring the genre and has found her true voice as an author. Over three decades she’s written poems, screenplays, plays, short stories, and all kinds of women’s fiction novels. Married to the love of her life and raising four children, she’s lived in two countries and seven states, but give her pen and paper, a stack of good books, and a steaming mug of vanilla chai latte and she can make her home anywhere.
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