Struck by Eros by Jenn Windrow
Released: July 8, 2016
Paranormal Romance
Muse it Up Publishing
Reviewed by Mandi
After a lifetime of dating losers, Noel Chase thinks she’s found love with college professor Len Holder. But Cupid’s aim sucks worse than his crap-tacular curse, sticking her with supposed soul mate, Grayson Adler. Grayson is gorgeous, Greek, and an exact replica of the man-whores of her past. No matter what the chubby cherub thinks, Noel is sure Grayson is Mr. Wrong with a capital “W.”
Forced to do Cupid’s bidding, Noel must spend her days with Grayson matchmaking the unlucky-in-loves, and trying to resist Grayson’s charm and do-me-now sex appeal. But when Cupid tries to match her fiancé, Len, with another woman, Noel must make an excruciating decision. Defy Cupid and hang on to Len? Or succumb to her fate and trust Grayson with her heart?
When the author submitted this for review, I read the excerpt and thought it looked pretty cute so I gave it a try. And it turns out there are some cute parts, but I also had a few reservations which I’ll get into in a minute. Noel gets hit with cupid’s arrow, which gives her a man named Grayson as her soul mate. Grayson is very attractive and charming, but the big problem is – Noel is engaged to a man named Len. Because Noel is now mated to Grayson, they must get together every so often to have sex, to keep Cupid happy – but Len is kept in the dark about all of this. Noel is very frustrated, as she would rather forget Grayson exists and she feels very guilty that she is essentially cheating on her fiance (although she has no choice).
Noel and Grayson must keep Cupid happy by bumping their no-no parts, but they also have another job:
As if sticking me with Grayson for eternity wasn’t bad enough, he’d saddled us with jobs as his mini-me’s here on earth. Every day he expected us to locate and reconnect lost loves. Create soul mates. Play matchmaker to the lonely and shy and desperate.
Each morning Noel and Grayson receive a text message from Cupid telling them who and where their couple is – and then it’s Noel and Grayson’s job to make sure they have a meet-cute and eventually fall in love. As they do this job, they go from not really liking each other, to starting to fall for one another. Eventually Len finds out and drama ensues with him. But as the blurb mentions, Len gets hit with Cupid’s mark to mate with a woman and Noel must decide if she will let Len get away to go with another woman, and if Grayson truly is the man for her.
I found Grayson and Noel’s relationship to be cute. Noel is required to have this hot, dirty sex with Grayson to keep Cupid happy, but she acts so exasperated about it that it made me smile. Grayson seemed to be much more on board with having a relationship with Noel than the other way around. He is all flirt and charm and knows how to push Noel’s buttons to get her all worked up. Grayson turns out to be kind and warm and a good match for Noel.
This brings me to Len. Poor Len – yes, he is in a relationship with Noel when she starts sleeping with Grayson – but if you go along with the story, they really don’t have a choice. There isn’t too much time that passes before Len starts to become suspicious and things get out in the open. The story is kind of two parts – one part Grayson and Noel helping people find their soul mates, and the other part all about Len. Will Noel stay with Len? Will Len and the woman Cupid wants him with meet and fall in love? Len seemed to be in the story a lot, and after a while I got tired of him. I wanted less drama with Len and more page time with Grayson and Noel.
I also would not have minded little more on this mysterious Cupid and how exactly his …magic…worked. I felt like he was like Charlie in Charlie’s Angels movies. He would send a text with instructions, but you would never see him. A little more back story with him would have helped my understanding more.
And I also didn’t love the fact that when Noel and Grayson had to help people fall in love, the people they helped were described as desperate. For example:
We walked down the stone path to the beachfront cafe where a purple arrow floated over a man in his late twenties with a receding hairline, pockmarks, and a shirt that read, “I’m not a geek, I’m a level nine warlock.”
…. Thank God for divine intervention, or this poor schmuck would never get laid.
This just came across kind of mean to me. Who is to say someone like this isn’t getting laid? Just based on his appearance? It rubbed me the wrong way.
I enjoyed Grayson and Noel together, but I needed more from Cupid, and less from Len.
Grade: C+
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