#1 Crush by Kaia Bennett (Loose Ends #1)
Erotic Romance
December 1, 2014
Self Published

Reviewed by Helyce

From Goodreads: Nicole Langley’s #1 Crush has always been Gabriel Roberts, but settling for being a friendly acquaintance has had to be enough.

Gabriel has always seen Nicole as his good friend’s very pretty, but extremely off limits baby sister.

Then a hot summer day and an even hotter discovery pushes them over the lines of friendship, over the lines of unrequited desire, and into each other’s arms.

Will they indulge and move on? Or will this crush turn into something more, something deeper? Something that leaves loose ends begging to be tied…

I think when I read the above blurb I expected a New Adult story and was intrigued enough to request the arc.  While the characters are young-ish, this is not a new adult and has quite a bit of graphic sex scenes, some bordering on a light but not quite D/s theme.

Nicole is an early 20’s aged student who is visiting her sister Jackie over a college break.  She’s secretly had a thing for her sister’s good friend and roommate, Gabriel, for as long as she’s known him.  He’d been in a relationship for a few years, but that didn’t work out and as Gabriel is once again single, Nicole allows her fantasies to run rampant one day while she’s alone in the apartment.  She goes into Gabriel’s  room and is snooping around when she hits the button on the television clicker and the sounds of sex fill the room.  Gabriel had been watching porn.  As Nicole watches the couple on screen go at it, she lets her imagination and her own hand take over-imagining herself with Gabriel as she brings herself to climax. When it’s over and she opens her eyes she sees Gabriel, standing in the doorway watching her.

Yeah, this story starts off with quite a bang as Gabriel arrives home early to find Nicole going at it in the middle of his bed, obviously thinking of him to enhance her experience.  He’s shocked, to say the least, and Nicole who is so embarrassed she can’t even form words, rushes from the apartment and stays away not knowing how she is going to be able to ever look Gabriel in the eye ever again.

Gabriel had always been aware of Nicole.  He thought she was beautiful, and he’d obviously noticed her, but he’d been with Marta at the time and so Nicole remained the younger sister of his friend Jackie. Until now; everything had changed.

I was pulled in to this story even though in it’s just under 200 pages, there is scene after scene of sex between Nicole and Gabriel.  They explore each other thoroughly over the week Nicole is in town.  At the same time, we are treated to some flashback scenes that tell us that Gabriel was not totally innocent or immune to Nicole in previous meetings.  It was just that she was too young; 17 when they first met and then he was unavailable at a later meeting. For Nicole, Gabriel was the yardstick by which she measured the boys in her life and none of her previous boyfriends would ever measure up.

I’m not a huge fan of erotica as the constant sex scenes get to be a bit repetitive if there isn’t a story of substance to carry it through.  In this story, Gabriel and Nicole go at it constantly-like they’re making up for lost time and also because they know that Nicole’s visit has an end date.  Intermixed are snippets of them getting to know each other a bit more and it was enough to help me tolerate the many, many sex scenes.

What also worked for me, was the fact that there is no HEA, more an HFN and that worked very well within the parameters of this story.  It would have been ridiculous for Gabriel and Nicole to promise forever after a few days of sex.

I’m pretty sure I would have passed this book over when it was offered if I’d realized it was erotica and not NA as I had assumed.  But Gabriel and Nicole’s story was sexy and a nice surprise. I’m not sure I’m ready for more by this author….but maybe.

Rating: C

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