Series: The Original Heartbreakers #2 (full reading order below)
Publication Date: July 28th 2015
Links: Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
Source: I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter is back with a sizzling Original Heartbreakers story featuring a troubled playboy and the woman he can’t resist…
Beck Ockley is ruthless in the boardroom…and the bedroom. He’s never been with the same woman twice, and vows he never will. With a past as twisted as his, meaningless sex keeps the demons at bay. His motto: One and done. No harm, no foul.
Harlow Glass is the most hated girl in town. The beautiful artist is penniless, jobless and homeless. When she sneaks into Beck’s home—her ancestral estate—for food, she’s shocked by his early return…and her immediate, sizzling and intense attraction to him.
For the first time in Beck’s life, he can’t get a woman out of his mind. All too soon, friendship blooms into obsession and he’ll have to break her heart…or surrender his own.
Um, WOW!!!! I went into The Hotter You Burn without having read the previous book or prequel, since it can be read as a standalone, but O.M.G. – I unexpectedly adored everything about this book so much!!! I LOVED this book – it almost felt like it was tailor-made for me. Everything about this just WORKED, brought so many emotions out of me, and I loved it. Props to you, Gena Showalter, for writing such a gem of a book! Hilarious, wickedly sexy, and heartwarmingly sweet, The Hotter You Burn has just become one of my favorite reads of the year!
“You’ve got me tied in so many knots I’m not myself anymore.” He nipped at her ear. “And damn me, but I’m starting to think that’s a good thing.”
Billionaire playboy Beck Ockley is a serious manwhore – he’s never been with a woman twice and his painful past keeps him from ever falling in love. But the second he lays eyes on Harlow Glass, stealing a pie right from his home, this woman becomes his, even though he tries to believe that he can’t fall in love with her. Beck honestly should’ve been a clichéd hero, but to me, he wasn’t. He was just such a lovable character and I connected with him right from the start. While he can be sweet, funny, and charming, what made me fall in love with him was the intensity of his emotions for Harlow. He’s the kind of guy who refuses to believe he’s in love, but it’s so clear to everyone else through every word and action he makes that he’s completely head-over-heels in love with her.
”You want to know another secret? You are one of the best things to ever happen to me, Harlow. So sweet.”
Harlow was a heroine I completely ADORED. I can’t remember the last time I loved a heroine this much! Gena Showalter wrote her in such a way that Harlow had my heart breaking and my stomach hurting from laughing all at the same time. Harlow used to be the town bully back in high school. It was a sad cycle for her – her father verbally abused her, so she verbally abused the people around her to make herself feel better. But after something tragic happens to her, she changes her ways for good. She’s now the most hated girl in Strawberry Valley, but she puts on a brave face when people hurt her for what she did to them, and she makes amends to everyone she’s wronged. My heart was aching for this girl – she’s done such a 180 that it’s hard not to admire her for changing her life, ending up homeless, jobless, and penniless, and still carrying on. After being caught breaking and entering and stealing in Beck’s home, which used to be her childhood home, things start to look up. Beck does the complete opposite of punishing her and instead gives her a job and a home. But what Harlow really wants from Beck is his heart, and she’ll do anything to have it.
I fell so freaking hard for the both of them. Harlow was just a gem of a heroine, and I was falling madly in love with Beck. What was completely unexpected was the amount of humor in this book. I was laughing so hard at so many things that Beck and Harlow say and do – funny characters make it that much easier to love them, and I loved both of them something fierce. And oh my, Beck and Harlow are also incredibly HOT together! There’s a fierce chemistry between them that had me fanning myself. Beck is definitely an alpha-male, and Harlow was putty in his hands.
“There is nothing I won’t do for you, and nothing I won’t do to keep you. You’re it for me. My one. My only.”
Now that I think about it, the intensity of the book kind of reminds me of Tessa Bailey’s books (which I LOOOVE), but without so much dirty talk (not that there ISN’T any…). But not to worry, even if you haven’t read any of Tessa Bailey’s books, I’m here to tell you that you need to get to reading The Hotter You Burn ASAP. It’s an AMAZING read that I fell so hard for. I loved the characters and the writing and all the emotions this book brought out of me. Gena Showalter has written an absolutely delightful, feel-good, heartwarming romance that I can’t recommend enough!
“Beck,” she whispered.
“Yes, baby.”
“My favorite thing about you is your heart. It’s softer than I ever realized, and I treasure it.”
Quotes are taken from the arc and are subject to change in the final version.
Reading Order: The Original Heartbreakers series
#0.5 ~ The One You Want: Ebook • Audible • Goodreads
#1 ~ The Closer You Come: Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#2 ~ The Hotter You Burn: Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#3 ~ The Harder You Fall: Ebook • Paperback • Goodreads (Nov. 24, 2015)
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