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A review by tita_noir
More Than Crave You by Shayla Black
4.0
3.5 stars,
Quick little read. I liked how the author crafted both Evan and Nia. I also like it when the author makes the heroine more sexually experienced than the hero. Nia had what was probably a fairly typical sexual history when talking about IRL, but too often in romance novels I have found that authors try hard to make the heroine's sexual history either rather spare. So the frank and unapologetic acknowledgement of past sexual partners (plural), especially for the heroine is rather welcome.
The chemistry and dialogue between them was also very well done.
a few quibbles tho -
1) I know saying 'I love you' is something of a requirement in romance novels. But Nia was a bit hard headed about Evan in that regard imo. If she knew him as well as she was supposed to she would know how his mind works. How he processes emotions. Even as a reader I could tell that everything he said was about loving her even if he didn't know enough to say the words. It felt like rather a strange hill to plant your flag on given everything else they were experiencing with each other.
2) the 11th hour conflict. I hate these because very rarely do they feel organic, they oftentimes feel like just yet one more road block to throw up before you decide to finalize the HEA. This was already a high conflict romance, so adding one more just seemed like overkill. And how it developed, from Evan discovering something about his first wife and then taking the word of a stranger he just met over what he knew about Nia and then conveniently overhearing a damning snippet of a conversation -- just felt like plot contrivance dialed up to 10.
3) I like a good twist. But when it isn't convincing or feels too convenient then it fails. Nia's background revelation wasn't a surprise (I suspected it early on) but it didn't work for me the way it unfolded (see #2 above).
Even so, the strong parts of the book -- Evan and Nia's chemistry and their characters -- overshadowed the more problematic parts for me.
Quick little read. I liked how the author crafted both Evan and Nia. I also like it when the author makes the heroine more sexually experienced than the hero. Nia had what was probably a fairly typical sexual history when talking about IRL, but too often in romance novels I have found that authors try hard to make the heroine's sexual history either rather spare. So the frank and unapologetic acknowledgement of past sexual partners (plural), especially for the heroine is rather welcome.
The chemistry and dialogue between them was also very well done.
a few quibbles tho -
1) I know saying 'I love you' is something of a requirement in romance novels. But Nia was a bit hard headed about Evan in that regard imo. If she knew him as well as she was supposed to she would know how his mind works. How he processes emotions. Even as a reader I could tell that everything he said was about loving her even if he didn't know enough to say the words. It felt like rather a strange hill to plant your flag on given everything else they were experiencing with each other.
2) the 11th hour conflict. I hate these because very rarely do they feel organic, they oftentimes feel like just yet one more road block to throw up before you decide to finalize the HEA. This was already a high conflict romance, so adding one more just seemed like overkill. And how it developed, from Evan discovering something about his first wife and then taking the word of a stranger he just met over what he knew about Nia and then conveniently overhearing a damning snippet of a conversation -- just felt like plot contrivance dialed up to 10.
3) I like a good twist. But when it isn't convincing or feels too convenient then it fails. Nia's background revelation wasn't a surprise (I suspected it early on) but it didn't work for me the way it unfolded (see #2 above).
Even so, the strong parts of the book -- Evan and Nia's chemistry and their characters -- overshadowed the more problematic parts for me.