Managed by Kristen Callihan
Series: VIP #2 (full reading order below)
Publication Date: November 14th 2016
It started off as a battle of wits. Me: the ordinary girl with a big mouth against Him: the sexy bastard with a big…ego.
I thought I’d hit the jackpot when I was upgraded to first class on my flight to London.
That is until HE sat next to me. Gabriel Scott: handsome as sin, cold as ice. Nothing and no one gets to him. Ever. He’s a legend in his own right, the manager of the biggest rock band in the world, and an arrogant ass who looks down his nose at me.
I thought I’d give him hell for one, long flight. I didn’t expect to like him. I didn’t expect to want him. But the biggest surprise? He wants me too. Only in a way I didn’t see coming.
If I accept his proposal, I leave myself open to falling for the one man I can’t manage. But I’m tempted to say yes. Because the real man beneath those perfect suits and that cool façade just might be the best thing that’s ever happened to me. And I just might be the only one who can melt the ice around his heart.
Let the battle begin…
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THIS is the Kristen Callihan book I was expecting to get when I read the first VIP book! Managed was such a fantastic read – I loved the endearing characters, the sweet romance, the delicious chemistry, everything! This was the perfect, fun read that had me giggling and swooning simultaneously. It’s one of the best books I’ve read all year, and I’m already dying for more. If you love romances where opposites attract and main characters who love to get each other riled up with quips and witty comebacks, then Managed will be perfect for you!
Sophie thinks she’s hit the jackpot when her plane seat is moved up to first class on her way to an interview in London, but things don’t go quite as smoothly after that when she meets her moody, grumpy, handsome seat neighbor. Gabriel Scott is uptight and unforgiving – everything that Sophie is not. So she makes it plan to annoy the crap out of him to get him to lighten up – but when she discovers that Gabriel, aka “Sunshine,” is terrified of flights, she finds herself comforting him and keeping his mind off the fact that they’re thousands of miles up in the air.
Somewhere over the Atlantic, at thirty-five thousand feet, she wrapped herself around me, and my brain decided to equate her scent, the sound of her voice, the feel of her skin, with comfort.
As manager of one of the most famous rock bands in the world, Gabriel is used to control in all things. But meeting Sophie has changed everything for him, because he finds that he can’t keep his feelings under lock anymore. The more he knows her and is around her, the more he wants her. The tension between these two is seriously delicious and the chemistry is on fire – and when these two finally come together, it’s more than they could’ve every imagined.
Home. I have not thought of any place as home for so long I’m surprised I even remember the concept. … Yet from the first night Sophie settled her things alongside mine and filled those quiet, orderly spaces with her effusive nature, wherever she is feels like home.
I loved everything about Managed. The characters were well-written and their development, especially Gabriel’s, is fantastic. I loved getting to know more about Gabriel, who seemed like such an enigma in the last book, and Sophie is the ultimate bubbly sweetheart. The rest of the band is also featured heavily, and now I’m so excited for the remaining two members to get their books. Managed is a brilliant, romantic rock star read, though it’s a little lighter on the rock star aspect than Idol was, since Gabriel is only the manager. The romance, though, will definitely melt your heart – a cold-hearted man experiencing love for the first time gets me every time!
“I’ve lived my whole life denying myself what I truly want. And yet I cannot turn from you. Haven’t you realized it yet? I am yours. I will always be yours, whether I touch you or not.”
Quotes are taken from the arc and are subject to change in the final version.
Now here’s an excerpt from Managed! ❤
In all this time, I had yet to see Gabriel without a shirt. He hides his body like a pious Victorian, never letting me see anything other than him fully dressed and polished. Now I know why. Had he let me get a glimpse, I might never have been able to form a coherent thought around him.
This man’s chest is a work of art. It’s every fantasy I’ve had about a man’s body made real. I don’t even know how that’s possible, but I’m not about to complain. God, he looks touchable. Olive skin, tight little brownish nipples, a smattering of dark chest hair over the most incredibly honed—
“You’re staring.” His tone is dry.
“Yes, I am.” I drag my eyes up and find his expression bemused.
A thick brow lifts. I try to mimic the look and fail when both of my brows lift as one. His lips twitch in amusement.
He shifts his weight, causing his abs to clench. Good Lord. He’s not some overdeveloped gym worshiper, just solid and strong, that perfect balance between defined musculature and healthy male—
“You’re still staring, Sophie.”
“You think it’s easy looking away from all this splendor?” I ask his belly button, licking my lips when he huffs out a laugh and just a little bit more of his lower abs are revealed, slanting toward the thick bulge of his cock, which is lamentably hidden behind his slacks.
“You’re impossible,” he mutters, though there is humor in his voice. He strolls farther into the room and then practically kills me when he sits in one of the low-slung armchairs. That body, sprawled out on display, those thick, long thighs braced as if to take me in his lap—it’s too much.
I want to straddle him and lick my way from the hollow of his throat to the tip of his cock.
He eyes me as if he knows what I’m thinking, and the air thickens. So many things we left unsaid. I’m remembering his lips now, surprisingly soft, but strong with purpose.
From the way his lids lower, I wonder if he’s remembering things as well. But he doesn’t move. Tension glides over his body and snakes around the room. I feel it in my throat and down my spine. We’re closing up again, retreating.
Slowly, I toe off my shoes and set my gear down, never breaking eye contact. “I was being completely honest,” I tell him. “I see you like this and I want to stare forever.”
He snorts, shaking his head even as he rests his temple on his knuckles. “What do you mean ‘like this’?”
“Undone.”
He tenses. It does lovely things to that chest. I focus on his face, mainly to maintain some semblance of decorum.
“You think this is me undone?” he asks quietly.
“It’s a start.” I reach for my camera bag. “Will you let me photograph you?”
There is safety to be found with the camera between us. A way for both of us to hide until we’re comfortable around each other again.
“You’re serious?”
“You sound surprised.” Holding my camera, I sit in the sofa opposite him. “Don’t tell me no one has asked to take your picture before.”
“They’ve asked. I never saw the point.” He shrugs. “I’m not the story.”
You’re my story. You always were.
“This is just for me,” I say instead. “No one else.”
His shrewd gaze pins me. “Why do you want this?”
So I can have a bit of you forever. “Pictures capture moments in time. I want this one—when you finally let me see a sliver of the man behind the clothes.”
His nostrils flare on an indrawn breath, and he slowly lets it out. When he speaks, his voice is a rasp. “Take the pictures.”
Reading Order: VIP series
#1 ~ Idol: My Review • Ebook • Paperback • Goodreads
#2 ~ Managed: Ebook • Paperback • Goodreads
Kristen Callihan is an author because there is nothing else she’d rather be. She is a three-time RITA nominee and winner of two RT Reviewer’s Choice awards. Her novels have garnered starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and the Library Journal, as well as being awarded top picks by many reviewers. Her debut book FIRELIGHT received RT Magazine’s Seal of Excellence, was named a best book of the year by Library Journal, best book of Spring 2012 by Publisher’s Weekly, and was named the best romance book of 2012 by ALA RUSA. When she is not writing, she is reading.
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