A review by booksabrewin
Lips on My Heart by M.J. Marino

1.0

Who knew the man that Josephine randomly had a tryst with on a hiking trail after being literally swept off her feet by him would be the new client she was hoping to land to get herself back on top? After she was blackballed from her previous firm after her fiance at the time took credit for her work, she needed to land the multimillion dollar job with the local biker club in hopes of turning a profit and keeping her crew employed. When she walked into the diner to meet with the President of the club she was shocked to find her hiking lover sitting there grinning at her across the way. She has no choice but to keep the job or she would go broke, but when she is put back in Maceo's orbit he will do anything to keep her there. But she has other issues rather than a determined biker President. It seems someone is out to ruin her life and danger is lurking around every corner. Can the Mercy Ravens keep her safe?

Overall, I found this book to be a slog. I struggled to keep myself on track of reading it because I was cringing so hard over certain situations and events in the timeline that just seemed forced.

The romance was incredibly fast pace. They met and were sleeping together within minutes and then living together within days. It only went faster and faster to the point where none of it was believable. You're telling me a biker who had rules and regulations to keep himself detached from females to avoid entanglement just decided on a whim to throw it all away without any trepidation? You're telling me that she would provide zero push back and only a moment's hesitation? None of that fits with the characters personalities that the author presented them as in the beginning and so it felt forced and made me roll my eyes. I couldn't throw myself into their romance because it all felt generic and fake.

Another issue was a pet peeve of mine. This couple's sex life was grotesque. I am not a prude to copious amounts of sex but they were doing nothing but having sex for most of the plot! It was like everything else from the threats to Josephine to Maceo's chaotic life was just afterthoughts to them getting to bang any chance they could. And some of things they were into made me grimace. Like their obsession with scent. Him smelling her arousal and her smelling his manly scent down there. Him incorporating that scent kink into his dirty talk. "I can smell how much you want me". Ew. Just... ew. It was the biggest cringe I have read in a while and it made me put the book down over and over to gag. It was one of the defining moments for me in my overall opinion of the book, it was that bad for me.

And finally, it was just predictable. It was easy to pinpoint who the baddies were and what they were after. While the characters were all scratching their heads I'm wanting to throw my Kindle because they're annoyingly clueless. I found myself skipping over passages when they were trying to puzzle it out and that was the first sign that the book was a goner for me.

I really wanted to like this book and if there had been less sex, less sniffing each other like dogs looking for the perfect fire hydrant, and more twists and turns in the mystery it might have scored higher with me. I know there are two more books with these characters in mind and another mystery to solve but I don't think I can keep going. I was lucky to have finished this book, I can't face two more of them sniffing and doing nothing but having sex.