Own Me / Risk Me by Lexi Scott – Reviews

Own Me / Risk Me by Lexi Scott – Reviews

 

Own Me
Silver Strand Series – Book #3
by Lexi Scott
Release Date: 8/17/15

Own MeAmazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / BAM

Description:
Limits were made to be broken…

Genevieve Rodriguez’s life isn’t panning out the way she’s always envisioned. At all. Not only is she exactly one “D” away from getting kicked out of school, but her heart is in pieces after her long-time crush marries someone else. For Genevieve, sunny Silver Strand has never felt more dismal.

Then Adam Abramowitz, her super-cute, super-smart physics tutor-who never seems to notice even her sexiest tops-tells her his visa is about to expire and he’s going to have to return to Israel.

Suddenly the words pop out of Genevieve’s mouth before she can stop them. “Marry me.”

At first, it’s a joke…until it’s not. Because in that brief, unexpected moment, everything changes. The rules. The boundaries. And Adam and Genevieve are about to discover what happens when you push the limits.

 

Review:

Own Me by Lexi Scott is book three in the Silver Strand series. Genevieve Rodriguez’s life isn’t going quite the way she has planned. Her long-time crush Deo has recently married someone else. Her college career is about as close to failing as it could possibly be. She is working in her families furniture store and life as she knows it couldn’t get anymore bleak. The one highlight she has is her tutor – Adam Abramowitz. While they have become close friends, he is all by the books, scientific guy. And while she flirts with him and plays with his intellect she secretly is completely and totally into him.

But Adam’s student visa is about up and with the deadline looming he is worried he will be deported. Gen quickly devises a plan for her best friend to stay in the states and for her to move out of her overbearing families house. She will marry Adam and move into the married dorms with him. But will Adam go for the plan? Will he accept the gift of staying in the states since he desperately does not want to return to Israel and his disapproving father. And if they do go through with this – will immigration believe them and let Adam stay?

Genevieve Rodriguez is a spitfire of a woman. While she is struggling to find herself in not only her family but her own life – she knows one thing is for certain. She would do anything to keep her best friend in the United States. And anything may include a sham marriage that may get Adam deported and her thrown into jail. Gen is an amazing woman with so much potential, and the only person that really can see it at the moment is her best friend Adam. He encourages her to be the best person she can be. He makes her want to be a better person. And she will not let that be taken away by some stupid expired student visa. Will Gen’s family accept Adam on such a short courtship? Will they find out the truth? And will her fake marriage change the one friendship she is fighting to keep?

Adam Abramowitz is all books and science. He has his life experiment he has been slaving over and he completely forgot about renewing his visa. With the expiration date looming he isn’t sure what he is going to do. His best friend comes up with a solution – but can he be so selfish as to take her up on her offer. Especially knowing that one day their fake marriage will end and she will divorce him to be with someone she truly cares about.

Each book in this series is wonderful and thought provoking. This one truly hit home. I absolutely loved both Gen and Adam’s characters. They truly complete each other – fulfilling each other, making each other better people. But both their pride and stubbornness get in the way of either of them telling the other how they truly feel. I wouldn’t even begin to pick a favorite so far in the series – but this one is up there. I found myself laughing out loud and smiling to the universe at this one.

The sub-characters and intertwining of all of the stories may be my favorite of any series. They truly are mingled each one in the others stories and the continuation of each story is magical. Probably the best continuing series I have read… Truly enjoyable!

 

Risk Me
Silver Strand Series – Book #2
by Lexi Scott
Release Date: 7/28/2015
Risk MeAmazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / BAM / The Book Depository

Description:
You can never judge the depths by the surface…

For Cohen Rodriguez, getting dumped by his girlfriend was bad enough. Being told he’s “not impulsive enough” was just the cheap parting gift. Still, he takes a break from his über responsible ways and dates his way through Silver Strand. Except it’s not exactly turning out the way he thought…

On top of that, there’s Maren Walshe, whose combination of sexy and down-to-earth is everything Cohen wants in a girl. But while they’ve recently been talking on the phone and texting every day, they’ve never actually met. Now Maren wants to meet. In person.

Faced with turning his oh-so-safe fantasy girl into an uncertain reality, Cohen and Maren are both about to dive head first, ready or not.

Review:

Risk Me is book two in the Silver Strand series. Cohen Rodriguez does everything by the book. Never stepping outside his comfort zone. He works at his families furniture store – always reliable and dependable. He has had the same best friend, Deo – since they were in diapers. Never faltering. He seems quite content with his life and his girlfriend until she decides to dump him and to add insult to injury she tells him that he is just too predictable for her. After attempting to get over the break-up. He decides that he is just going to step out of his comfort zone and date girls he would never normally pursue.

After one disastrous date after another the one constant in his life, he realizes has been Maren Walshe, an employee at his fathers furniture company. While they have only ever spoken on the phone and never met in person, he has a fantasy in his head of this amazing girl who has been there for him through the tough times.

But Maren isn’t content with just sitting back and keeping everything over the phone. In a moment of complete impulse she asks Cohen to meet her – in person. Will Cohen’s fantasies of the girl on the phone meet up to his expectations of what she really is? Or will this be the end of the amazing phone conversations they have had over work discussions for so long?

Cohen Rodriguez plays everything by the book. His life is planned, although working at his parents furniture store is a side step, he doesn’t mind taking it. Everything is the way it should be. But, after the recent break up with his girlfriend he plays the field, and each date becomes more disastrous than the last. All the while he is confiding in his super sexy, sultry voice on the other end of his work phone – Maren. She is hilarious, sexy and makes him laugh – something he hasn’t been doing much of lately. But when she asks him to step outside of his comfort zone and meet her – he isn’t sure he wants to take things to the next step.

Maren Walshe has put her life on hold to take care of her alcoholic, has-been rock star father. She quit college, works full time – all to try and keep their life together. When she forms a bond with the bosses son, Cohen, over the telephone, she isn’t quite sure where she is treading. She is completely shocked when she asks him to meet her. Once she meets the man that has filled her thoughts for quite some time, she realizes that she has nothing to offer him in terms of a relationship. She can’t bring this amazing man into her chaotic life. She doesn’t even know if they will have a place to live from one moment to the next and she certainly can’t let him know that she is drowning in the life her father has dragged her into.

In a thought provoking turn of events, Cohen gains her trust and offers to help her with her father and with her life. But her every instinct is telling her to run and to protect this man from the chaos of her life. I truly liked the character of Cohen. He has strong family beliefs and bonds and he is just what lost soul Maren needs. She has no family since her mother and sister basically turned their back on her for choosing to stay and help her father! Maren is a true and relatable character. You just want her to have her happy ever after ending. But is she willing to allow someone into her life, a life that she has worked so hard at protecting and shielding from everyone in the outside world?

The sub characters of Cohen’s family – Enzo, Lydia, Gen, and Cece were truly enjoyable and I absolutely love the family dynamic that was the Rodriguez clan. I loved that Deo and Whit were so involved in this story and played a huge part in bringing Cohen and Maren together. I am truly enjoying the intermingling of stories and I hope that the series just continues to play out like this. Such an enjoyable, easy read. Highly recommend this series.

Reviews by Erin

Copies provided by Publisher

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Hide Me by Lexi Scott – a Review

Hide Me by Lexi Scott – a Review

 

Hide MeAmazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / BAM

Description:
Sometimes it’s easier to run…

Ripped apart by guilt and grief, nineteen-year-old Whit Conrad grabs her stuff and runs from her super-conservative home and family in Pennsylvania and hauls ass for sunny California. All she wants is escape. Now she has a craptastic apartment, a job at a tattoo parlour, and even a friend-who’s-mostly-benefits. Then she meets a sexy, inked, surfer-dude who has the potential of capsizing everything…

Deo Beckett is adrift. Underemployed and over-boozing, Deo knows he should be doing something more with his life. Being something more. All it takes is a pin-up hottie with a smart mouth—and a bruised soul—to force Deo to start looking below the surface. To wonder if there’s more to life than being a beach bum. Now he’s falling for Whit…and hard.

But Whit ran from home for a reason, and she’ll go to any lengths to keep Deo from learning the truth…

Review:

Hide Me by Lexi Scott is book one in the Silver Strand Series.  Whit Conrad is a small town Pennsylvania girl that has recently moved to California.  She brings with her a haunted past and a troubled soul.  She came to California to be closer to her brother, Wakefield.  To the brother she so tragically lost.  And with her she brought a box of pictures – and she goes to the places that her brother has taken pictures of just to be closer to him.  She needs to be as near to the memory of him as possible. Hence, she gets a job at the tattoo shop where her brother got his first tattoo.   Bullheaded and stubborn – she wants to do things on her own, her own place, college, anything and everything without the help of anyone else.  What she wasn’t bargaining for was Deo Beckett.   He came into her life when she needed him most; unfortunately she wasn’t ready to see that.  Deo is your typical California aimless, slacker surfer.  He is content living out his days in his grandfather’s house, spending the days surfing and the nights partying and having a good time.  Deo isn’t anything that she is looking for – despite him being good looking, charming and funny.  That is until he comes into the tattoo shop looking for a new tattoo.  He wasn’t exactly bargaining for what he found in the tattoo shop either.   Bull-headed and stubborn – Whit is resilient in her thought processes.  No one needs to know about Wakefield, in fact the less she speaks of him the better.   But when her relationship with Deo starts to get even the slightest bit serious – and he wants to know more and more about her and her past.  She not only shuts down, she bails.  And falling back into his old ways – Deo is content that when things start to get tough – its time for him to bail too.   Little did they know that the things there were fighting the most to stay away from is the exact thing that both of them need.

Whit Conrad is pig-headed and stubborn.  She doesn’t want to open up and let anyone in.  It hurts to much when she does that.  The tragedy of her brother’s life is just too much for her to deal with.  And she needs to deal with it in the worst way.  The more that you find out about Whit between the pages the more I started to relate with her.  And her pain is palpable.  You want nothing more that to make things right for her and to show her stubbornness the way. 

Deo Beckett is that loveable jokester that likes to have fun and just hang out.  He can do that because he has no responsibilities and nothing he is committed to.  He makes you laugh and as the story progresses you can see him evolve into a wonderful young man with so much to offer.  Once he began to open his heart and soul to Whit you want nothing more than for her to do the same.  But this isn’t your normal fairytale romance.  No, this is tragic, heart breaking and truly moving.  As you watch as Whit finally finds her true self and what she truly wants and needs – you begin to feel a connection like you have been friends for a long time.

This book was moving.  It makes you think about those things that you hold inside.  That you don’t allow another to see or feel or know. And what exactly that can do to the other person that you are holding back from.  The passion between the two main characters is wonderful and when they are good – they’re great. And when they are bad – it’s heart breaking.  But will Whit finally open up to Deo and explain to him the pain and tragedy that is her life?  Or will Deo get his act together and be the kind of man that Whit wants and needs.  This was one of my favorite read so far of 2015.  The banter back and forth between Whit and Deo is hilarious and jovial.  And the passion – on fire!

Reviewed by Erin

Copy provided by Publisher

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