Friday, January 10, 2014

[Review]: "Wilde For Her"

Wilde For Her by Tonya Burrows
Publisher: Entangled: Brazen (October 28, 2013) 
Series: Wilde Security, 2
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Former homicide detective Camden Wilde has been in love with his ex-partner, Eva Cardoso, for longer than he cares to admit. Not that it matters. She’s shoved him into the friend zone, and after living through the hell of his parents’ violent deaths, Cam’s unable to give her the idyllic life she secretly desires.

Eva’s never met a person who hasn’t let her down. Cam may be sex personified, but he’s the only man she can trust, and there’s no way she’ll risk their friendship on the off-chance they could be more. Especially not after the one scintillating night she’s trying—and failing—to forget.

When a murder-for-hire contract on his head lands Eva on his doorstep, Cam knows it’s time to put up or shut up. He’s done biding his time, and he’ll be damned if he lets the delectable detective ignore what’s between them, no matter the cost.




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My Review:







Wilde For Her uses the popular friends-to-lovers trope, which I enjoy as much as the next reader. This was my first time reading Tonya Burrows, though it won't be my last. I admit I had some mixed feelings on this novel, but overall I still liked this book. Based on the sexy fun alone, I would rate it 4 stars; for the story and characters actions, more like 3. So I'll go half way and give it a 3 ½.


As I said, Wilde For Her does well in regards to the steam factor – very hot, very sexy, and Cam can be a real dirty talker. And who can resist a dirty talker? Not I! I had no complaints here, and to be honest the sex scenes were some of my favorite parts of this book. For that alone, I'd no doubt come back for another book by this author.


Now, I had a few issues with the story and the way the characters behaved.


First, within only a few pages, Cam says that he will never settle down and get married – he's just “not that kind of man”. However, only a few pages after that Eva arrives at the hotel and suddenly he's admitting how he has been in love with her for 5 years. Wait, how can you admit you love a woman, yet claim you're only a one-night stand kind of guy? It just rubbed me the wrong way, I guess. Now, true, his actions throughout the story pretty much show a guy who's secretly in love with his best friend, but I kept thinking about what he said in the first few pages of the book.


As this was a friends-to-lovers book, I expected to see more of the “friends” part of the story. Instead, I was a little disappointed. While Burrows did mention some of the ways they've been friends over the years (working out together, her crashing at his place, knowing what the other one liked, etc), I wanted to see more of their friendship during the span of the actual novel, and I felt that fell a bit short for me.


Eva . . . I just couldn't understand why she kept allowing Preston back into her life; they broke up, he cheated on her, plus he never really knew her. I know, she wanted the “perfect life” so bad, but come on, Preston was NEVER the one to give it to you, girl! When she actually considered his proposal of marriage, I was ready to throw something at her head. Hard.


And I can't believe the way she allowed her mother to keep screwing up her life and just waltzing into her house, a house she worked hard for, even if it's not exactly a mansion. Again, I know she wanted the perfect family and life that she never had as a kid, but I never would have continued to put up with it, not as an adult. Although, I guess it's easy to say these things when it's not YOU that's living this life.


See? Kind of small things, but they were enough to drag the overall story down a bit for me.



But after seeing the various Wilde brothers, I'm curious enough to come back to this series in the future. 5 sexy brothers, all of whom went into one part of the military or another, and who have various issues from losing their parents at a young age and having to raise themselves . . . Yep, I'll definitely be continuing this series! Plus, Burrows has a talent for writing a sexy romance. Win-win!


3 1/2 STARS! 


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I received an e-book copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest opinion.

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Have you read Tonya Burrows before? Do you have a favorite? 





Enjoy!


Until Next Time,


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  *TBQ's Book Palace is a member of both the Amazon and Barnes and Nobles affiliates program. By using the links provided to buy products from either website, I receive a very small percentage of the order. To read my full disclosure on the matter, please see this post!

2 comments :

Wickedly Delicious said...

Oh I have SEAL of Honor (HORNET #1) by her to review. For this novel I love friend to lovers trope but they have to be done right. I am like you I need a good mixture of the friendship first before becoming lovers. It has to have good amount of both not, one more than the other. So far I have yet to read anything bad from publisher Brazen they seem to have what I like in my Contemporary Romance. A nice mixture of sexual tension, steamy scenes but then fun and playful characters and sometimes some banter mix with just enough angst. Adding this to my over growing list.

The_Book_Queen said...

Very true; I think there have only been one or two Brazen that I have DNFed, otherwise they have a great mixture of all the right things, like you said. :)
Enjoy,
TBQ