Follow by Tessa Bailey
Released: October 30, 2017
Erotic Contemporary
Self Published
Reviewed by Mandi
In general, I love Tessa Bailey books. This is her first venture into self pubbing and I say, give it all to me! But this was a time that one of her books did not work for me.
The quick set-up – Teresa is our heroine and growing up her dad was involved with mobsters/crime lord – he eventually gets out of that life and heads west with his family, but unfortunately for Teresa, now as adults, with her parents gone, her brother has gone east, back to the bad crime guy. And he is in trouble, and needs help escaping. Teresa will do anything to keep her brother safe. Her ultimate goal is to go to film school, but when she gets the call from her brother, she leaves LA and heads straight to the big baddie boss in New York. After strutting in and trying to act bad ass, the guy gives her an option: if she can get his son, Will, to come back to New York, then her brother will be allowed to walk free.
Will is a high-powered hedge fund manager who after learning horrible secrets about his own life and family, and learning his dog in terminally ill, takes a road trip with his dog, and just enjoys every day as they come. His father wants him home, but Will says no.
Enter Teresa. With only a week or two to get Will to come home, without him knowing that his father sent her, she sneaks into his hotel room without her shirt on. One look at her nipples, and Will is in love. No really. He sees nipples on a stranger, and his dick then takes over for the rest of the book. I wouldn’t say it was Insta-love, but the Insta-lust is strong. For Teresa too. Will must have her. There are boners and foreplay and sex and more sex and more sex.
Look – Tessa Bailey can write a freaking hot sex scene and dirty talk. We know this. But in this one, I just didn’t like Will. He is so arrogant and bossy – and not in the fun/good way. He never softens or gets a little mushy romantic on top of being controlling. I felt a disconnect between his lust and his love. They lacked chemistry together. You can put in twenty sex scenes, but if I don’t feel the spark or the growing love between the hero and heorine, they just don’t work for me. Which was the case in this book. While Teresa may have found that dominant man she was craving in life, he didn’t do a single thing for me. It all felt too cold. You can read a sex scene from yesterday’s post here to get a taste of how Will is in bed.
I also thought the set-up was silly. Teresa is supposed to woo Will back to New York with her naked body? Obviously you know Will is going to find out that his father sent her. It’s all too predictable.
On a stressful note – you learn the dog has a terminal illness at the beginning of the book. To find out the dog’s fate, click the spoiler tag.
This was a miss for me
Grade: C-