“You’ll never be able to find yourself if you’re lost in someone else.”
There's probably a lot of superb reviews going around for thi4 STARS! ★★★★
“You’ll never be able to find yourself if you’re lost in someone else.”
There's probably a lot of superb reviews going around for this book already, so I'll just keep mine to a short and simple one :)
I've been a huge fan of CoHo since her Slammed series and while her recent work had been huge misses for me, I'm glad that November 9 has reminded me again why I loved her work in the first place. With CoHo, you can always expect her to produce a read that is original and creative and filled it with words that could pull at your heartstrings.
November 9 is a story within a story and I thought it was brilliant at how she incorporated references of common story tropes that most of us book lovers could relate to. The witty banters shared between Ben & Fallon cracked me up and I was really enamoured by the idea of them meeting up every year on the same day. It only made for their moments to be memorable each time.
Being said all that, this book was a clear-cut 5 stars for me right up till the 70% mark. I had my hunches on the plot-twist but I have to say I'm a little disappointed that it still happened. While I can understand why it happened, I can't help but feel that it ended up undermining Ben & Fallon's relationship from the start. (view spoiler)[Part of me wondered if Ben would have taken an interest in Fallon in the first place if he didn't feel responsible for the fire that he started and see past her scars. As much as I sympathise for Ben for what happened with him and how much he grovel back to make amends with Fallon, I guess I was a little disappointed that their relationship was started based on this. (hide spoiler)] The book would have been perfect enough for me without this plot twist but I guess that's just me.
Overall CoHo still delivered a heartfelt and inspiring read, one that she puts a creative spin to it and managed to put her readers through the wringer of emotions.
I don't even know where to begin with this book because honestly, there were so many things that could go wrong in a book and this w2 STARS! ★★
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I don't even know where to begin with this book because honestly, there were so many things that could go wrong in a book and this was just one book that everything DID go wrong. From character stupidity to clichés to worst of all, the truckload of drama that came one after another; I don't know if I'm more annoyed or flabbergasted by what I've just read in entirety.
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Overview For the seasoned readers of RK Lilley's books, The Other Man is a spinoff read of The Wild Side whereby Lourdes and Heath have been briefly introduced in that universe. This book is now their story and runs in parallel with The Wild Side timeline. Not only that, you will get glimpses of characters from her other series making cameos (Danika, Tristan, Bianca etc.).
What is this book about? We have Lourdes who is a 41-year old mum with two boys and one douche of an ex-husband. She's a freelance photographer and doesn't have much going on in her life. Until one day in a grocery store, she got turned on when she realized she was being checked out by a random young muscular dude by the name of Heath. A day later, he appears again, she invites him over to her house and they totally had hot sex together.
Now if this plotline sounds familiar to you, it's because it does sound like The Wild Side except that the roles have been reversed. Older heroine getting it on with the younger hero, proceeds to have tons of hot sex even when they barely knew shit about each other. Hero is all mysterious and is hiding some huge secret from the heroine and comes and goes as he likes. Heroine is fixated on this mysterious hero. Ringed a bell, anybody?
Yeah that's because he's Iris's <- (heroine from The Wild Side) brother. I'm taking it runs in the family.
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What I liked about the book Only Heath, if I'll be perfectly honest. Okay maybe the hot sex too. This lady can surely write some damn panty-melting sex scenes. Heath surely was a nice refreshing hero from this author's usual reads. He was a broken hero and there was just an air of mystery with him everytime he appeared in the book. I loved the broodiness of it and although he rarely spoke, it's when he does speak that really wins you over. The silent hero surely has my heart here.
"Do you love me, Heath?” “Of course I do. What do you think all of this is, if not love?”
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What ticked me off Basically everything that ISN'T Heath or the scorching sex scenes.
1) Lourdes In her defense, I though she had some great potential as an older heroine. Although by the 2nd chapter, she lets a total stranger into her house out of the blue to have a good quick fuck, I was still willing to overlook that (there's a first time for everything, right?). But then, it just kept happening like it got stuck in a loop and FFS they barely knew each other! For a 41-year old lady, I honestly expected better from Lourdes and not being completely hypnotized by Heath's bedroom skills.
And you know how I mentioned Heath just comes and goes as he likes? Well yeah, by the 3rd of 4th visit, there was no need for common pleasantries as he feels it's okay to barge into her house and shagged her. Lourdes of course, is totally okay with this. I don't know about you but me thinks Heath has a magic penis. Or he fucked the common sense outta her.
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2) The common cliché/drama-llama train Someone call in the drama police please because hol-ee-shit. The last 30% of the book was byfar the most jam-packed dramallama stretch that I've ever encountered in a read. I couldn't even-- seriously that was one ridiculous amount of clichéd dramatic scenes lined up and may I add, ONE AFTER ANOTHER. I feel compelled to spoiler-tag this because it does reveal a fair bit. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
(view spoiler)[First up, we have the foreshadowing of the preggers plot because the couple had unprotected sex (go figure). Then after numerous shagging and Lourdes realizes how she wants more of the relationship, Heath had to pull out the "I'm sorry but I can't see you anymore because I'm on a deadly dangerous mission. I'm leaving now" line. Fastforward to Lourdes going through a withdrawal phase, meets THE OTHER MAN (aha!) to get over the Heath funk but it's not working very well. Later, she finds herself preggers.
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Cue in a suddenly dead ex-husband. Then followed by a worried Lourdes who tries to contact Heath. It's also when she realizes her house has been sorta ransacked and her favorite things have been stolen (which includes a vibrator, please don't even ask).
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Next thing you know, she has been kidnapped! By the other man of course (yeah the one she tried to date but didn't work out). Turns out he's quite the psychopath doctor who gets off by carving random words on her body (again, don't ask me why). Heath comes to the rescue of course and all is well again.
Thereby after, followed by a series of events that tie-in with parallel to Iris's story from The Wild Series. And everyone gets their HEA. (hide spoiler)]
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What sucks is that the book was actually going quite well for me up till somewhere past the halfway mark. I mean, surely I didn't quite buy the whole 'strangers to fuck-buddies' idea at first but I genuinely felt their connection getting stronger when Heath opened up to Lourdes. That was done quite well and it just had so much potential moving forward but I felt like it was completely downplayed by the truckload of drama that was seriously unneccessary. It could have easily been a solid 4 stars had it not been for that last stretch.
Now I know one thing everyone wants to know is this: Do you need to read The Wild Side before reading this?
Technically no. But do I advise you to read it before this? That would be a yes.
Basically there is no direct correlation with her other series that would leave you in a state of confusion as you read this. BUT it does help A LOT if you know the background story of Iris and Dair (The Wild Side couple). Due to the fact that the story runs parallel to that, a couple of referencing scenes are made in this one that may or may not throw you off. It helps a lot if you do know but I'm pretty sure it doesn't completely leave you befuddled if you don't.
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