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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
I did nothing else but read this book all day on the 12th. I went in expecting some smutty fun, but found myself with a page turner that left me crying.
I loved the characters and I loved their dynamic. The dialogue and chemistry between the main characters was incredible. They have unique and believable conflict that comes with the sort of dynamic they find themselves in. The sex isn’t just surface level fluff, it holds a deeper meaning that makes you love the main character’s connection even more. The sex also kept me on my toes! It remained interesting and surprisingly the whole way through.
Also, if you love psychology and you’re an emotionally aware person, you’ll truly appreciate the dialogue and level of care and awareness exchanged between everyone.
ALSO, if you love stories that have elements that are referenced and given a new meaning with depth, or that are built up and have satisfying pay offs, you’re in for a good time!
All around fun and emotional read! Can’t wait to reread in the future!
I loved the characters and I loved their dynamic. The dialogue and chemistry between the main characters was incredible. They have unique and believable conflict that comes with the sort of dynamic they find themselves in. The sex isn’t just surface level fluff, it holds a deeper meaning that makes you love the main character’s connection even more. The sex also kept me on my toes! It remained interesting and surprisingly the whole way through.
Also, if you love psychology and you’re an emotionally aware person, you’ll truly appreciate the dialogue and level of care and awareness exchanged between everyone.
ALSO, if you love stories that have elements that are referenced and given a new meaning with depth, or that are built up and have satisfying pay offs, you’re in for a good time!
All around fun and emotional read! Can’t wait to reread in the future!
this book is a BIG no-no for me. So cringe-worthy, I don't even feel like explaining myself.
Find this review and more at Ramblings From This Chick
I absolutely love Roni Loren! Not only does Roni Loren never disappoint, but she continues to impress me with her captivating stories, sexy heroes and likable heroines. Just when I think I have a favorite book of hers, she comes out with a new one that takes the other's place. Off the Clock is the first book in her new Pleasure Principle series, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it! I love her Loving on the Edge series, but this was a fantastic start and I can't wait for more of these characters!
Marin Rush and Donovan West met when they were in college and shared a week together over spring break in the lab at their school. While doing research things got hot between them, but their lives went in separate directions. Now nine years later, they are once again thrown together when Marin takes a job for The Grove, a high-end sex therapy institute that specializes in experimental treatment options for their elite clientele of celebrities and rich people. Marin needs Donovan's help to land a permanent position and to help her out since she is about to become the only sex therapist that isn't having sex and is as inexperienced as they come. While Donovan has been trying to land a promotion and needs to show that he can be a good mentor after his last two therapists quit. But when Donovan gives her a list of tasks and research to help her get familiar with sex and the kind of things her clients will be coming to her for, things begin to heat up between them all over again. So when he offers to help her hands-on and off the clock, can they keep things between them so that neither of them get fired or attached?
I really liked these two. The chemistry between them was off the charts from their very first encounter and I couldn't get enough of them! Donovan and Marin were super sexy together and I loved their banter. Their relationship had a natural ease to it right away, and it was clear that they were able to talk to one another about pretty much anything. Both Donovan and Marin had some really rough times that they had dealt with, and they were able to relate to one another in a way that others didn't understand. I loved seeing them talk with one another and share their stories as well as help each other move forward. Donovan wasn't looking for a relationship and he thought that he was incapable of being someone that deserved Marin. But Marin was great with him and showed him that there was more to him than that, and I thought that she was exactly what he needed. He was great for her as well, and he really helped her to open her eyes to sex and becoming more comfortable with herself and the subjects she would be facing with her clients.
Overall, another great book from Roni Loren and I honestly cannot wait for more from her. Roni Loren writes such great stories, with each being filled with enough steam and sexy moments to keep you reading, but also enough emotional times to keep you invested in the characters and their relationship. If you are new to Roni's books, this is a great place to start, though I definitely recommend her Loving on the Edge series as well. If you are already a fan of hers though, Off the Clock is a must read and a great way to kick-off her new series.
**ARC Provided by Publisher**
I absolutely love Roni Loren! Not only does Roni Loren never disappoint, but she continues to impress me with her captivating stories, sexy heroes and likable heroines. Just when I think I have a favorite book of hers, she comes out with a new one that takes the other's place. Off the Clock is the first book in her new Pleasure Principle series, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it! I love her Loving on the Edge series, but this was a fantastic start and I can't wait for more of these characters!
Marin Rush and Donovan West met when they were in college and shared a week together over spring break in the lab at their school. While doing research things got hot between them, but their lives went in separate directions. Now nine years later, they are once again thrown together when Marin takes a job for The Grove, a high-end sex therapy institute that specializes in experimental treatment options for their elite clientele of celebrities and rich people. Marin needs Donovan's help to land a permanent position and to help her out since she is about to become the only sex therapist that isn't having sex and is as inexperienced as they come. While Donovan has been trying to land a promotion and needs to show that he can be a good mentor after his last two therapists quit. But when Donovan gives her a list of tasks and research to help her get familiar with sex and the kind of things her clients will be coming to her for, things begin to heat up between them all over again. So when he offers to help her hands-on and off the clock, can they keep things between them so that neither of them get fired or attached?
I really liked these two. The chemistry between them was off the charts from their very first encounter and I couldn't get enough of them! Donovan and Marin were super sexy together and I loved their banter. Their relationship had a natural ease to it right away, and it was clear that they were able to talk to one another about pretty much anything. Both Donovan and Marin had some really rough times that they had dealt with, and they were able to relate to one another in a way that others didn't understand. I loved seeing them talk with one another and share their stories as well as help each other move forward. Donovan wasn't looking for a relationship and he thought that he was incapable of being someone that deserved Marin. But Marin was great with him and showed him that there was more to him than that, and I thought that she was exactly what he needed. He was great for her as well, and he really helped her to open her eyes to sex and becoming more comfortable with herself and the subjects she would be facing with her clients.
Overall, another great book from Roni Loren and I honestly cannot wait for more from her. Roni Loren writes such great stories, with each being filled with enough steam and sexy moments to keep you reading, but also enough emotional times to keep you invested in the characters and their relationship. If you are new to Roni's books, this is a great place to start, though I definitely recommend her Loving on the Edge series as well. If you are already a fan of hers though, Off the Clock is a must read and a great way to kick-off her new series.
**ARC Provided by Publisher**
Very hot! I put it down only because my life had become focused on non-romantic stuff and i couldn't get in the right head place to finish it. I will be looking for the next in the series.
adventurous
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Overall: 1.4
Book Breakdown —
Characters: I didn’t like any of them. The FMC was a dumb lust filled idiot and the MMC was an arrogant ass who slept with whoever whenever.
Pacing/ length: fairly fast but I expected that so it didn’t bother me that much.
Interesting Plot?: nope. It could have been. I liked the idea of reading about the profession of a sex therapist, but it was poorly executed and was actually a very small aspect of the plot.
Reading Medium: ebook.
Spice (?/5): 1.5; there was a lot of spicy scenes in this, but they weren’t that fantastic. Although, I think I was in the minority on this. The fantasies the characters were into weren’t to my liking and so there was nothing particularly interesting or enjoyable about it. I also got extremely annoyed with the tropes used in the spice, which I touch on more later, and that hindered my enjoyment of the spice a lot.
Detailed Review—
I disliked how she gave her virginity to him. One would think you’d want it to be a bit more gentle or caring than that; I know that’s not everybody’s preference, but it didn’t vibe well with me. But more than her first time, I hated how they both handled it afterwards; he half heartedly offered to take her to dinner but made it clear that he wasn’t going to enter into a relationship and she walked out on him like an immature woman trying to reject him before he rejected her. If she tried to deflect his rejection with her own first, then I don’t understand why she would sleep with him in the first place?
But to top it all off and make it even worse, when they come back together nine years later we discover that — unshockingly — he has slept with a ton of women and she has slept with exactly zero people since him. Ew. At least make her appear to have a life outside of him; make her seem like she hasn’t been obsessing over him for years on end. I mean, c’mon. You expect me to believe that nine years later she’s never had even one more sexual experience or relationship? It makes it seem like she’s waiting around for him again because no one else could possibly live up to him. Ugh. Even given the history of her last nine years, it still didn’t add up; I could see a few years passing between her first time and second time, but nine years, and not even one relationship to boot? Really? It was ridiculous and I loathed it.
That trope made it seem like the author loved the idea of Marin being a virgin, and loved the idea that even once she had slept with Donovan, she would choose to remain chaste until she could be with him again, regardless of wether that was a conscious or unconscious decision, and regardless of the fact that nine years had passed between giving her virginity to Donovan and sleeping with him again. Please. This is extra unbelievable when you remember that Marin is a trained sex therapist. Its hard enough to accept the fact that Marin waited nine years to have a sexual encounter/ be in a relationship, but it’s made even worse by the fact that she is a trained sex therapist. She was constantly talking about, researching, and watching things about sex. For someone that was trained in that field, you would think that she would be more comfortable with her own sexuality and would have had more experience one way or another. It made it seem like the author prized virginity and used it as a trope, which made the spice less interesting. Made the spice less enjoyable. It also made the characters less likable.
If I had to read about Marin blushing or Marin rolling her lips together one more time I was going to scream. The fact that Marin gets so embarrassed, flustered, and scandalized about sex is so unbelievably unrealistic given that she was one year past earning her PhD to become a licensed sex therapist. The amount of research, classes, papers, projects, and tests that she would’ve had to take about sex and sexuality in order to become a PhD in that field made her embarrassment less plausible; it just didn’t make sense that she would be so scandalized by sex, even if she was a virgin, given her academic and career path.
In continuation, Marin literally blushed at everything! It was maddening; so to remedy this Donovan — her boss and past “kind of” lover — offers to (as quoted by Renaes 2 star review on Goodreads) “fuck the blushes straight out of her”. Isn’t that beyond classy? Our “heroine” seems to think this was a wonderful idea and takes him up on it. Yet she continues to blush for the remainder of the book!
One of the requirements Marin set forth for Donovan when they entered into their agreement to have sex was to be his old self around her. I don’t see how that is a reasonable request. It had been nine years since they’d last known each other — known each other for a whopping week, mind you — and since then they had grown up, graduated, found careers, and had other things going on in their lives; people change and grow — sometimes for the worse — but they never stay the same and to ask someone to regress for you seemed funky to me. Seemed improbable. I know she was just trying to say “be a the good guy I know you can be” but it didn’t come off that way. I’m probably just reading into it too much though.
I saw the Golden Gate Bridge storyline coming from a mile away. Not shocking at all. Everything in the climax of the book was predictable. I saw it all coming from leagues and leagues away: Henry breaking up with Nate, Nate eventually exploring his sexuality with Blaine, Nate accusing Marin of turning into their mother, Elle being the driving force behind Donovan and Marin being caught by their boss, the reveal that Donovan almost committed suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge years earlier, and finally Nate accusing Marin of forgetting him.
Moving on from the predictability, I didn’t understand Nate’s reaction when he thought he might be bisexual. He said he “didn’t want that”? Given Marin’s openness and caring attitude towards him and sexuality, I don’t see why it would have been a problem for him to be bi. It just didn’t make sense. Nor did brushing past the comment and then at the very end of the book revealing to the reader that Nate had a found a nice guy to date. So I guess he wasn’t bi and was instead gay? We didn’t really get shown a resolution on this, we were just told one. Anyway, I didn’t get any of it, along with some other off the wall reactions regarding other things.
Speaking of poor reactions, I don’t get why Marin was so shocked Donovan was on antidepressants and anti-anxiety pills? I mean, why was that a bad thing? I didn’t understand her disappointment when she found his pills. He had a rough and traumatizing experience when he was younger, there was no reason to not get help if that’s what he needed. And I figured that bit of information would bring them closer once she found out. I did not think it would bother her at all given that she was a trained therapist and knew how damaging it could be to not take meds even though it could help. She had learned that through her training to become a therapist, and when her mom went off her meds, killed herself and attacked her younger brother. If her mom had been medicated correctly then none of her traumatic past would’ve happened. It’s a good thing he was helping himself by reaching out and getting medicine, if that’s what he needed.So why she would be upset by the “revelation” that after years of suffering under an intense trauma, he would be on some antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds is beyond me. It was kind of a gross reaction. Especially considering she was a licensed therapist.
Also, I thought it was hilarious that when Donovan first ran into her nine years after their rendezvous, he didn’t remember her. He recognized her but couldn’t place her. It paints him as an asshole for not remembering her, but what makes it funny occurs later in the book: he points out to her — and has inner dialogue about the fact — that from the moment he ran into her again, he wanted her. He loved her from that very moment of their run in. Really? You couldn’t even place her but apparently you loved her from that moment on? It’s laughable.
I liked the beginning quite a bit. It set the story up well and felt well developed and written, but once we fast forward nine years it looses all of that. It becomes weaker writing and faster everything. I was skipping over multiple paragraphs and never even missed a beat. I shouldn’t be able to do that.
Even the smut wasn’t well written. I can’t pin point exactly why but it just… lacked something. I may be in the minority on this one but it was just not that great. It didn’t make me feel anything and I think a lot of this has to do with the lack of character development and chemistry. The scene where he “pleasured” her with a wine bottle didn’t help the realism or character development either. I just never thought their relationship was cute or sweet and so the smut was just kinda eh.
In addition, this was definitely geared to more of a dominant/ submissive type of relationship, and though I don’t seek those types of books out, I can appreciate that sort of dynamic when it’s well executed (like in Fever by Maya Banks) but this one just didn’t hit the right notes for me and I could never appreciate what the MMC/ FMC had together.
I didn’t like how almost all of Donovan‘s character development happened off page. At the end, he just left and went through a therapy program for 30 days while taking a sabbatical from work and then came back totally fixed. We don’t get to see the work. We don’t get to see him become someone who is worthy of our heroine. It made it feel a little flat.
I understand that this is an erotic novel and for many people the plot wouldn’t matter to them, but it does to me. Whenever I pick up a book – no matter the genre – I still want a decent plot to follow along to. And I just didn’t feel like I got that in this book.
The time jump caught me off guard. I don’t know if I just didn’t read the book blurb carefully enough but I wasn’t expecting a nine year fast forward. But at the same time, even though we fast forward nine years, the characters didn’t seem all that different from when we met them in college. Outside of graduating and starting their careers, they were basically the same people. Donovan was a man whore who was emotionally stunted and Marin was an almost-virgin who had waited to be with anyone romantically for nine years. Both characters fall flat for different reasons; Donovan was an asshole, granted he did have a lot of trauma to deal with but still, and Marin… Well I just didn’t really know anything about her. Outside of wanting to take care of her younger brother, I had no idea what she wanted out of life.
There is one more book in the series which depicts the relationship between Lane and Elle. Though I like Lane and would have been willing to read a story about him, I don’t think I can get through a story depicting Elle, who was the antagonist in this book. She didn’t seem normal to me. It actually made me very uncomfortable when she slept with Donovan. It almost painted her to be predatory, and how she behaved with Marin made her seem petty on top of it. I have no interest in getting to know her character more. If you’re going to make a sequel that depicts the antagonist, at least make the antagonist somewhat likable. So, though I finished this book, I honestly don’t have many things I liked about it – outside of a few quotes that are written below – and I will not be continuing the series. I don’t even think that I will be picking up anything else from this author. But these are all of my thoughts as I read and I really needed to get them down before I moved onto my next read.
Character List—
Marin: FMC. A virgin when she meets Donovan during her freshmen year at University. He is a senior in the graduate program, studying to be a sex therapist. They end up having sex and parting ways immediately afterwards. Nine years later — after the death of her mother, raising her younger brother, and graduating from college as a sex therapist — she starts a new job. Unbeknownst to her, she will be trained by Donovan. She takes him up on his offer and falls in love with him.
Donovan: MMC. Meets Marin during his last year in the masters program. They have sex and part ways immediately afterwards. Nine years later, Marin is hired in his department without his knowledge, and he is instructed to train her. He offers to teach her how to not blush by teaching her how to be more comfortable with sex. He falls in love with her before he goes to therapy to deal with his childhood trauma of his parents murder.
Nate: Marin’s gay younger brother.
Elle: One of Donovans hook up partners. Always provides copious amounts of alcohol for Donovan so he can “perform” with her. Feels slighted by Donovan when she sees him comforting Marin. Threatens and is passive aggressive towards Marin once Donovan ends things with her. Exposes the inappropriate relations between Marin and Donovan to the department head so they get in trouble.
Lane: sexual surrogate that works with Donovan and Marin. Likes Marin but keeps his distance knowing she is interested in Donovan and Donovan is interested in her. It is revealed he is a Dom in his personal life.
Memorable Quotes—
“Telling a perfectionist not to be afraid to mess up is like telling the grass to stop being green.”
- Marin
She slid into a chair at an empty table and set her tray down with more force than necessary, rattling the silverware. Lack of sex was how this had happened. Sex was like sugar. When you cut it out of your diet, you hit a point where you stopped craving it altogether. But as soon as you ate that one little Skittle or licked some icing off a spoon, all you could think about were Skittles and icing. Or naked skin and tangled sheets as the case may be….. She’d tried to take care of things herself this past week, researching some of the brands of vibrators they kept stocked. But if anything, the nightly orgasm had only amped her up more, making her want the real thing. She was craving more than a release. She was craving experience. With him.
- Marin
Donovan’s gaze held hers, something pained there. “And I’m sorry that I crossed the line tonight with what I said. I want you to feel safe and respected in this position. And I want you to be able to come to me with questions and learn without any other kind of pressure on you. The fact that we slept together before or that I’m still attracted to you now are moot points. I’m sorry those things invaded tonight. The wine was probably a bad idea.”
- Donovan
Her lips compressed like she was struggling to find the right words, but he didn’t fill in the silence for her. When you filled in for people, you chased off the truth.
- Donovan
She took a sip of the wine. “No, I guess not. Your parents sound like they were pretty great, though. I’m sorry you lost them.”
He stepped over to the stove and turned his back to her. He grabbed a pizza cutter and ran it through the pie, his shoulders stiff. “I guess I should be thankful I had them at all. I know many aren’t that lucky. It was just hard to accept that two people could be wiped out of existence that easily. Parents seem like this permanent fixture when you’re young. But obviously, nothing’s permanent. Anything and anyone can disappear at any time.”
- Marin & Donovan
We do what we need to do to keep moving forward.
- Marin
We fight. Everybody fights. Every single person out there in the world has something to deal with. And people still find happiness and success and love and live full lives.
- Marin
“…Love isn’t a strong enough word for what I feel for you, woman. New words need to be invented. Maybe whole languages.”
- Donovan
Summary—
Borrowed and edited from here.
Marin Rush is studying to be a sex therapist and meets a graduate student, Donovan, doing the same. The two have a week of late nights studying sexual fantasies together and wind up sleeping together. He makes it clear he’s not looking for a relationship when he realizes that it was her first time. She says that’s fine and walks out immediately afterwards. When she gets home she sees her bipolar and unstable mother has killed herself, but didn’t want to go alone, and so also tried to kill her son — Marin’s younger brother — as well. Marin gets home in time to save her brother from death, but her mom dies. She spends the next nine years raising her younger brother, keeping a roof over their heads and food on their table while she finishes her degree to become a sex therapist. All the while not involving in any romantic or sexual experience since her first and only encounter.
Her one night stand on the other hand has his own tragic past; he can’t sleep in his home — and sleeps in his favorite professors office nightly — because he is terrified an intruder will break into his home and murder him in his sleep, just like his parents had been the night he forgot to set the alarm.
In the research lab, Marin’s lack of practical knowledge didn’t matter, but now that she’s landed a job at The Grove, a high-end, experimental sex therapy institute, she can’t ignore the fact that the person most in need of sexual healing may be her.
Dr. Donovan West, her new hotshot colleague, couldn’t agree more. Donovan knows that Marin won’t do well in her new role given the fact that she blushes aggressively at literally everything. And if she fails at the job, he can say goodbye to a promotion, so he assigns her a list of R-rated tasks to prepare her for the wild clientele of The Grove’s X-wing.
But some of those tasks are built for two, and when he finds Marin searching for a candidate to help her check off her list, Donovan decides there’s only one man for the job—him. They hook up and start to fall for each other. As long as they keep their erotic, off-the-clock activities strictly confidential and without strings, no one will get fired. They are discovered eventually but manage to smooth things over with the company. By the end of the book, Donovan works through the traumatic past he had through therapy and Donovan and Marin get together.
Book Breakdown —
Characters: I didn’t like any of them. The FMC was a dumb lust filled idiot and the MMC was an arrogant ass who slept with whoever whenever.
Pacing/ length: fairly fast but I expected that so it didn’t bother me that much.
Interesting Plot?: nope. It could have been. I liked the idea of reading about the profession of a sex therapist, but it was poorly executed and was actually a very small aspect of the plot.
Reading Medium: ebook.
Spice (?/5): 1.5; there was a lot of spicy scenes in this, but they weren’t that fantastic. Although, I think I was in the minority on this. The fantasies the characters were into weren’t to my liking and so there was nothing particularly interesting or enjoyable about it. I also got extremely annoyed with the tropes used in the spice, which I touch on more later, and that hindered my enjoyment of the spice a lot.
Detailed Review—
I disliked how she gave her virginity to him. One would think you’d want it to be a bit more gentle or caring than that; I know that’s not everybody’s preference, but it didn’t vibe well with me. But more than her first time, I hated how they both handled it afterwards; he half heartedly offered to take her to dinner but made it clear that he wasn’t going to enter into a relationship and she walked out on him like an immature woman trying to reject him before he rejected her. If she tried to deflect his rejection with her own first, then I don’t understand why she would sleep with him in the first place?
But to top it all off and make it even worse, when they come back together nine years later we discover that — unshockingly — he has slept with a ton of women and she has slept with exactly zero people since him. Ew. At least make her appear to have a life outside of him; make her seem like she hasn’t been obsessing over him for years on end. I mean, c’mon. You expect me to believe that nine years later she’s never had even one more sexual experience or relationship? It makes it seem like she’s waiting around for him again because no one else could possibly live up to him. Ugh. Even given the history of her last nine years, it still didn’t add up; I could see a few years passing between her first time and second time, but nine years, and not even one relationship to boot? Really? It was ridiculous and I loathed it.
That trope made it seem like the author loved the idea of Marin being a virgin, and loved the idea that even once she had slept with Donovan, she would choose to remain chaste until she could be with him again, regardless of wether that was a conscious or unconscious decision, and regardless of the fact that nine years had passed between giving her virginity to Donovan and sleeping with him again. Please. This is extra unbelievable when you remember that Marin is a trained sex therapist. Its hard enough to accept the fact that Marin waited nine years to have a sexual encounter/ be in a relationship, but it’s made even worse by the fact that she is a trained sex therapist. She was constantly talking about, researching, and watching things about sex. For someone that was trained in that field, you would think that she would be more comfortable with her own sexuality and would have had more experience one way or another. It made it seem like the author prized virginity and used it as a trope, which made the spice less interesting. Made the spice less enjoyable. It also made the characters less likable.
If I had to read about Marin blushing or Marin rolling her lips together one more time I was going to scream. The fact that Marin gets so embarrassed, flustered, and scandalized about sex is so unbelievably unrealistic given that she was one year past earning her PhD to become a licensed sex therapist. The amount of research, classes, papers, projects, and tests that she would’ve had to take about sex and sexuality in order to become a PhD in that field made her embarrassment less plausible; it just didn’t make sense that she would be so scandalized by sex, even if she was a virgin, given her academic and career path.
In continuation, Marin literally blushed at everything! It was maddening; so to remedy this Donovan — her boss and past “kind of” lover — offers to (as quoted by Renaes 2 star review on Goodreads) “fuck the blushes straight out of her”. Isn’t that beyond classy? Our “heroine” seems to think this was a wonderful idea and takes him up on it. Yet she continues to blush for the remainder of the book!
One of the requirements Marin set forth for Donovan when they entered into their agreement to have sex was to be his old self around her. I don’t see how that is a reasonable request. It had been nine years since they’d last known each other — known each other for a whopping week, mind you — and since then they had grown up, graduated, found careers, and had other things going on in their lives; people change and grow — sometimes for the worse — but they never stay the same and to ask someone to regress for you seemed funky to me. Seemed improbable. I know she was just trying to say “be a the good guy I know you can be” but it didn’t come off that way. I’m probably just reading into it too much though.
I saw the Golden Gate Bridge storyline coming from a mile away. Not shocking at all. Everything in the climax of the book was predictable. I saw it all coming from leagues and leagues away: Henry breaking up with Nate, Nate eventually exploring his sexuality with Blaine, Nate accusing Marin of turning into their mother, Elle being the driving force behind Donovan and Marin being caught by their boss, the reveal that Donovan almost committed suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge years earlier, and finally Nate accusing Marin of forgetting him.
Moving on from the predictability, I didn’t understand Nate’s reaction when he thought he might be bisexual. He said he “didn’t want that”? Given Marin’s openness and caring attitude towards him and sexuality, I don’t see why it would have been a problem for him to be bi. It just didn’t make sense. Nor did brushing past the comment and then at the very end of the book revealing to the reader that Nate had a found a nice guy to date. So I guess he wasn’t bi and was instead gay? We didn’t really get shown a resolution on this, we were just told one. Anyway, I didn’t get any of it, along with some other off the wall reactions regarding other things.
Speaking of poor reactions, I don’t get why Marin was so shocked Donovan was on antidepressants and anti-anxiety pills? I mean, why was that a bad thing? I didn’t understand her disappointment when she found his pills. He had a rough and traumatizing experience when he was younger, there was no reason to not get help if that’s what he needed. And I figured that bit of information would bring them closer once she found out. I did not think it would bother her at all given that she was a trained therapist and knew how damaging it could be to not take meds even though it could help. She had learned that through her training to become a therapist, and when her mom went off her meds, killed herself and attacked her younger brother. If her mom had been medicated correctly then none of her traumatic past would’ve happened. It’s a good thing he was helping himself by reaching out and getting medicine, if that’s what he needed.So why she would be upset by the “revelation” that after years of suffering under an intense trauma, he would be on some antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds is beyond me. It was kind of a gross reaction. Especially considering she was a licensed therapist.
Also, I thought it was hilarious that when Donovan first ran into her nine years after their rendezvous, he didn’t remember her. He recognized her but couldn’t place her. It paints him as an asshole for not remembering her, but what makes it funny occurs later in the book: he points out to her — and has inner dialogue about the fact — that from the moment he ran into her again, he wanted her. He loved her from that very moment of their run in. Really? You couldn’t even place her but apparently you loved her from that moment on? It’s laughable.
I liked the beginning quite a bit. It set the story up well and felt well developed and written, but once we fast forward nine years it looses all of that. It becomes weaker writing and faster everything. I was skipping over multiple paragraphs and never even missed a beat. I shouldn’t be able to do that.
Even the smut wasn’t well written. I can’t pin point exactly why but it just… lacked something. I may be in the minority on this one but it was just not that great. It didn’t make me feel anything and I think a lot of this has to do with the lack of character development and chemistry. The scene where he “pleasured” her with a wine bottle didn’t help the realism or character development either. I just never thought their relationship was cute or sweet and so the smut was just kinda eh.
In addition, this was definitely geared to more of a dominant/ submissive type of relationship, and though I don’t seek those types of books out, I can appreciate that sort of dynamic when it’s well executed (like in Fever by Maya Banks) but this one just didn’t hit the right notes for me and I could never appreciate what the MMC/ FMC had together.
I didn’t like how almost all of Donovan‘s character development happened off page. At the end, he just left and went through a therapy program for 30 days while taking a sabbatical from work and then came back totally fixed. We don’t get to see the work. We don’t get to see him become someone who is worthy of our heroine. It made it feel a little flat.
I understand that this is an erotic novel and for many people the plot wouldn’t matter to them, but it does to me. Whenever I pick up a book – no matter the genre – I still want a decent plot to follow along to. And I just didn’t feel like I got that in this book.
The time jump caught me off guard. I don’t know if I just didn’t read the book blurb carefully enough but I wasn’t expecting a nine year fast forward. But at the same time, even though we fast forward nine years, the characters didn’t seem all that different from when we met them in college. Outside of graduating and starting their careers, they were basically the same people. Donovan was a man whore who was emotionally stunted and Marin was an almost-virgin who had waited to be with anyone romantically for nine years. Both characters fall flat for different reasons; Donovan was an asshole, granted he did have a lot of trauma to deal with but still, and Marin… Well I just didn’t really know anything about her. Outside of wanting to take care of her younger brother, I had no idea what she wanted out of life.
There is one more book in the series which depicts the relationship between Lane and Elle. Though I like Lane and would have been willing to read a story about him, I don’t think I can get through a story depicting Elle, who was the antagonist in this book. She didn’t seem normal to me. It actually made me very uncomfortable when she slept with Donovan. It almost painted her to be predatory, and how she behaved with Marin made her seem petty on top of it. I have no interest in getting to know her character more. If you’re going to make a sequel that depicts the antagonist, at least make the antagonist somewhat likable. So, though I finished this book, I honestly don’t have many things I liked about it – outside of a few quotes that are written below – and I will not be continuing the series. I don’t even think that I will be picking up anything else from this author. But these are all of my thoughts as I read and I really needed to get them down before I moved onto my next read.
Character List—
Marin: FMC. A virgin when she meets Donovan during her freshmen year at University. He is a senior in the graduate program, studying to be a sex therapist. They end up having sex and parting ways immediately afterwards. Nine years later — after the death of her mother, raising her younger brother, and graduating from college as a sex therapist — she starts a new job. Unbeknownst to her, she will be trained by Donovan. She takes him up on his offer and falls in love with him.
Donovan: MMC. Meets Marin during his last year in the masters program. They have sex and part ways immediately afterwards. Nine years later, Marin is hired in his department without his knowledge, and he is instructed to train her. He offers to teach her how to not blush by teaching her how to be more comfortable with sex. He falls in love with her before he goes to therapy to deal with his childhood trauma of his parents murder.
Nate: Marin’s gay younger brother.
Elle: One of Donovans hook up partners. Always provides copious amounts of alcohol for Donovan so he can “perform” with her. Feels slighted by Donovan when she sees him comforting Marin. Threatens and is passive aggressive towards Marin once Donovan ends things with her. Exposes the inappropriate relations between Marin and Donovan to the department head so they get in trouble.
Lane: sexual surrogate that works with Donovan and Marin. Likes Marin but keeps his distance knowing she is interested in Donovan and Donovan is interested in her. It is revealed he is a Dom in his personal life.
Memorable Quotes—
“Telling a perfectionist not to be afraid to mess up is like telling the grass to stop being green.”
- Marin
She slid into a chair at an empty table and set her tray down with more force than necessary, rattling the silverware. Lack of sex was how this had happened. Sex was like sugar. When you cut it out of your diet, you hit a point where you stopped craving it altogether. But as soon as you ate that one little Skittle or licked some icing off a spoon, all you could think about were Skittles and icing. Or naked skin and tangled sheets as the case may be….. She’d tried to take care of things herself this past week, researching some of the brands of vibrators they kept stocked. But if anything, the nightly orgasm had only amped her up more, making her want the real thing. She was craving more than a release. She was craving experience. With him.
- Marin
Donovan’s gaze held hers, something pained there. “And I’m sorry that I crossed the line tonight with what I said. I want you to feel safe and respected in this position. And I want you to be able to come to me with questions and learn without any other kind of pressure on you. The fact that we slept together before or that I’m still attracted to you now are moot points. I’m sorry those things invaded tonight. The wine was probably a bad idea.”
- Donovan
Her lips compressed like she was struggling to find the right words, but he didn’t fill in the silence for her. When you filled in for people, you chased off the truth.
- Donovan
She took a sip of the wine. “No, I guess not. Your parents sound like they were pretty great, though. I’m sorry you lost them.”
He stepped over to the stove and turned his back to her. He grabbed a pizza cutter and ran it through the pie, his shoulders stiff. “I guess I should be thankful I had them at all. I know many aren’t that lucky. It was just hard to accept that two people could be wiped out of existence that easily. Parents seem like this permanent fixture when you’re young. But obviously, nothing’s permanent. Anything and anyone can disappear at any time.”
- Marin & Donovan
We do what we need to do to keep moving forward.
- Marin
We fight. Everybody fights. Every single person out there in the world has something to deal with. And people still find happiness and success and love and live full lives.
- Marin
“…Love isn’t a strong enough word for what I feel for you, woman. New words need to be invented. Maybe whole languages.”
- Donovan
Summary—
Borrowed and edited from here.
Marin Rush is studying to be a sex therapist and meets a graduate student, Donovan, doing the same. The two have a week of late nights studying sexual fantasies together and wind up sleeping together. He makes it clear he’s not looking for a relationship when he realizes that it was her first time. She says that’s fine and walks out immediately afterwards. When she gets home she sees her bipolar and unstable mother has killed herself, but didn’t want to go alone, and so also tried to kill her son — Marin’s younger brother — as well. Marin gets home in time to save her brother from death, but her mom dies. She spends the next nine years raising her younger brother, keeping a roof over their heads and food on their table while she finishes her degree to become a sex therapist. All the while not involving in any romantic or sexual experience since her first and only encounter.
Her one night stand on the other hand has his own tragic past; he can’t sleep in his home — and sleeps in his favorite professors office nightly — because he is terrified an intruder will break into his home and murder him in his sleep, just like his parents had been the night he forgot to set the alarm.
In the research lab, Marin’s lack of practical knowledge didn’t matter, but now that she’s landed a job at The Grove, a high-end, experimental sex therapy institute, she can’t ignore the fact that the person most in need of sexual healing may be her.
Dr. Donovan West, her new hotshot colleague, couldn’t agree more. Donovan knows that Marin won’t do well in her new role given the fact that she blushes aggressively at literally everything. And if she fails at the job, he can say goodbye to a promotion, so he assigns her a list of R-rated tasks to prepare her for the wild clientele of The Grove’s X-wing.
But some of those tasks are built for two, and when he finds Marin searching for a candidate to help her check off her list, Donovan decides there’s only one man for the job—him. They hook up and start to fall for each other. As long as they keep their erotic, off-the-clock activities strictly confidential and without strings, no one will get fired. They are discovered eventually but manage to smooth things over with the company. By the end of the book, Donovan works through the traumatic past he had through therapy and Donovan and Marin get together.
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content
3.5! I liked it!! Very interesting and fleshed out characters. I love that mental health and healing from trauma to build healthy relationships was spotlighted. I swear I love books with conflict wish it had more but at the same time it was just enough.