Free In Your Wildest Dreams Generated By Toni Blake Available In EPub
Not one of her best, but was steamy, Plot ok. TBR ChallengeAugust Category: Steamy Read, In Your Wildest Dreams has been on my TBR list since June,
Mild on suspense and long on relationship development, In Your Wildest Dreams is a satisfying and sensual novel, Like many steamy reads, suspension of disbelief is a must, The reader has to buy into the almost instant attraction between the leads, even though neither one is looking for any kind of relationship, At least the male lead, Jake, isn't a horndog, The female lead, Stephanie, is sexually experienced but somewhat repressed, While trying to infiltrate the highpriced escort service in New Orleans to find her missing sister, Stephanie meets Jake, a former cop now working just enough hours as a bartender to pay his bills.
As the book progresses, it's revealed that Jake has given up on having a "life" due to a tragic event a couple of years earlier,
While the sex is the stuff dreams are made of and reality isn't, there is more to the story than just the frequent, steamy sex scenes.
Both Jake and Stephanie are good, if flawed, people, and Blake does a good job making their journey toward each other plausible, Well drawn secondary characters like the homeless girl, Shondra, round out this enjoyable novel, I checked this out as an audiobook from the library to occupy my mind while engaged in tedious chores, I really, really liked this story, loved the characters and the setting, and except for some parts the heavy sex scenes would recommend this book to almost everyone.
It is set in a place I've loved all my life and the city and supporting characters acted normal,
What I didn't like one of my Particular Pet Peeves was the exaggerated and often mispronunciation by the narrator, Amy Rubinate, for common everyday names and words used by me and mine.
It's not her fault really so I don't blame her for aggravating me, She has a really lovely reading voice and I enjoyed the parts that didn't jar very much,
So, for those that have no cajun/french speaking or listening skills:
Cher is pronounced 'Share' in Parisianne french and 'Sha' as in the first syllable of the word shadow in Cajun French.
It means exactly the same thing just pronounced different, The word was used continuously throughout the story, but pronounced 'Shar' as in the word SHARD or 'Char' as in the word CHARcoal and like a shard of glass, cut with each use.
I know this would not have bothered me at all had I been actually reading it instead of listening to it as I scrubbed algae, mold and mildew off the north side of the house, but reading and scrubbing are not good multitasking partners.
: No eBook available. . recommended to me by GR based on other books I've read, Wowza! Wildest Dreams by Toni Blake is a redhot read with a couple that has sizzling chemistry and who will steam up the pages,
Stephanie has come to New Orleans to hunt for her sister Tina, after discovering that Tina has started working as a prostitute and hasn't contacted her for some time she becomes worried and so goes undercover herself as a prostitute at Chez Sophia's where she meets the barman, excop Jake who can tell straight away that she's putting on an act and calls her on it.
Worrying that she may unintentionally get herself hurt Jake agrees to help search for Tina and use some of his old police contacts, after a past tragedy Jake has cut himself off mostly from everyone, but Stephanie seems to be wriggling herself into his life more and more, and as much as he tries to fight it, the chemistry is too strong and they soon find themselves giving in to temptation.
But when Jake starts feeling guilty about being this happy will he put an end to this love affair, can Stephanie find her sister before anything terrible befalls her, and finally will these two finally admit their feelings for one another and give love a chance together
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, Toni Blake is a new author to me and I will definitely be on the lookout for her previous books, the characters were intriguing and never dull, the location was perfect and I loved the storyline.
What do you do when your sister has seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth after she told you she was going to be an escort in New Orleans Well if you are buttoned up Stephanie, you drag your butt down to the Big Easy and start to go to those same places, passing yourself off as an escort, even though you are so far out of your element.
It in one such place that Stephanie crosses paths with Jake, an excop, who is working as a bartender, Jake is a very emotionally broken man, one who is barely living, It is only after he agrees to help Stephanie look for her sister his old cop good guy habits peeking out, that he starts to live again, I found it ironic that on the same day that he agrees to help Stephanie, he helps a homeless teen again the good guy wanting out,
From the moment Jake and Stephanie meet their attraction was so explosive, you couldn't wait for them to explode, The only downer of their unusual relationship is Stephanie's issues with sex, I have to say that there were a couple of times that I didn't like Stephanie, Her actions going so far, but then crying no at the last minute, Even after we get to the root of her problems you wonder how she managed to get as old as she was with them intact,
Aside from that their sex scenes were enough to melt the paint off the walls, Because they were focusing on sex, both of them seemed to keep reaching for the other, not realizing that at the same time they were working through their issues.
When Jake finally tells the tale of why he is so remote you want to cry for him, Especially as you see him caring more for Stephanie and the homeless girl,
I really liked how things were all wrapped up at the end of the book, Everyone found the ending they needed, I was disappointed in this modern, romantic suspense set in New Orleans written just before Hurricane Katrina, As much as I tried to like it, the story didn't move fast enough for me and the heroine Stephanie became very annoying, She started out okay, but eluded to having a sexual hangup that prevented her from getting intimate with Jake who was a neat character, A lot of leading up teasing really and she would break off with "I'm sorry, " When she finally revealed her problem, I was rolling my eyes, What a sappy excuse! She commenced to do a series of stupid things that she was very lucky in the outcomes,
Jake was a former police officer in New Orleans who quit two years ago because of something bad and became a bartender for a highend escort service.
His character grew from rough and tough to very nice pretty quick, He picks up a homeless girl living on the streets and takes a homeless dog in then agrees to help Stephanie find her prostitute missing sister,
For me, the book dragged in many places, The suspense was minimal. Stephanie's sister, Tina Tiana was no brighter and the stupidity of the females just annoyed the heck out of me, Sensual, touching, romantic a classic keeper of a contermporary romance, and also an unforgettable picture of New Orleans before Katrina! This was an okay book, like a typical Toni Blake it had loads of sexy moments.
The heroine Stephanie pretends to be an escort to find her sister Tina, who came down here following her boyfriend, but after being dumped told her she was going into the escort business.
Stephanie hasn't heard from her in a while and fears her disapproval may be the reason for that or something bad may have happened, The hero Jake is the bartender of the club she goes to and he can tell straight off she doesn't fit there, a
conversation reveals what she is really after and he warns her she is playing a dangerous game and to stop, she doesn't listen and he is forced to intervene and save her and despite not wanting to agrees to help her.
Jake is a former cop sleepwalking since his big loss two years ago, he shut down and shut everyone off after losing his wife Becky.
He doesn't want to get involved but kind of does helping a teenage runaway Shondra and even the heroine,
The heroine has a great career but is kind of weird about sex, she gets hot and heavy and then stops the hero.
I was never really that involved in the book, The heroine's sister is shacked up with a married guy who swears he will leave his wife, but you know he won't, she wises up and needs a rescue.
The heroine time and again does foolish things, like go off on her own dressed as a hooker, loves sex with the hero and then him, when he says he can't becomes all pissy.
My quip, hello you were the one who wanted casual sex and now you call him a bastard for giving you just that In the end I felt things got tied up way too neatly, the hero gets his wife killer, an epiphany that he can move on and viola we get a HEA.
This isn't Toni Blake's best work, I will recommend trying other books by her first, also known as, WILDEST DREAMS by Toni Blake, very, very good!! I think I'm suffering from a case of "hero worship" with Toni Blake, Has she ever written a bad book Her heroes are sexy, sultry, swarthy, lusty, brooding hunks that are written with enough faults and shortcomings to give us readers hope that men like them actually exist somewhere on this planet.
Jake Broussard fits the TB hero package perfectly, He's a bartender in a New Orleans private club that caters to topdollar hookers and the rich men who desire their company, Jake is also a dead man walking, for life as he once knew it ended when a bullet meant for him struck and killed his pregnant wife,
Stephanie Grant is on a mission to find her little sister and get her out of New Orleans and the callgirl lifestyle she has adopted, Acting on the advice of an exhooker she met online, Stephanie dresses up in her "come fk me" best and cruises into the private club, . . hoping to get some insight on the whereabouts of her sister, Jake, warring between not giving a damn and not wanting to see the girl get hurt, succumbs to the latter and promises Stephanie he will help her find her sister.
How could he not help her It was so blatantly obvious that she was not what she appeared to be, Jake figured the least he could do was keep her from getting herself killed.
His soul may have died but his libido was alive amp kicking, and Jake put the moves on Steph earlyon, Steph, for God only knows what reason, prickteases Jake to the point of no return and then thwarts his advances at the last minute several damn times! Her reason was so lame it didn't warrant thepages it took to work up her confidence.
However, they finally get on the same sexual page and, once Jake coaxes Steph out of her shyness, she totally connects with the hidden nasty wanton within and.
rabbits they become!
Ok, we are all aware this is nothing more than a fling, Steph has a life and another guy back in Chicago and Jake wasn't even in the market for sex with the same person twice, So who burst the bubble C'mon, Jake is beyondthisworld sexy with his dark good looks and huskyvoiced Cajun accent, Steph commits THE SIN by blurting out thoselittle words guaranteed to send the majority of single men running for cover, . . in another country. And Jake, being that realistic hero Toni does so well, says "I'm sorry beb, but I can't love anyone else but her" meaning his dead wife.
Ugh. Would that be devastating or what
The book definitely had some Hallmark moments, and I was swiping at my eyes more than once, But all problems are nicely resolved and there is a sweet HEA as well as the coveted "epilogue", which seems to be on the verge of extinction lately And as usual, TB's characters are so real that when Jake starts talking that lusty Cajun sex talk.
well, just keep your legs crossed and count tobackwards, LMAO Have I sold you on this one yet
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