Friday, July 17, 2015

Turn up the Heat (Second Chances #1) by Serena Bell

I can't really explain why I didn't like this novel. Somehow I wasn't interested in both MC. Mostly I was getting tired of the constant inner dialogue so on the third mark when I realized nothing truly happened it felt the right time for me to stop. 


Lily is a chef but she is working as a waitress in a dinner in the small city her sister lives in. She plans on earning as much money as she can and return to Chicago to try her luck as a chef somewhere there. I still don't know what happened in Chicago to make her leave except she had a major fall out with her ex-boyfriend. 

Kincaid has his own problems. He was just released from jail for almost killing a man, a man who wronged his grandmother. Fresh out of jail he is still after that man who stole his grandmother's inheritance. Thing is, as an ex convict he has to be careful with his actions - not getting arrested again.. 

Kincaid frequently visits the dinner Lily works in. They are both attracted to one another. For Lily he is mysterious and she hopes he is the kind of guy who likes it rough (as she does..) and for Kincaid it's mostly the sweetness of Lily, how she takes care of everyone around her that draws him in. To be blunt here, it sounds like he is looking for his grandmother (the one who raised him) in a woman. That's not something uncommon, but for me it was a major (!) turn off. That's exactly the kind of men I take my distance from. As I often say - if I want an extra someone to take care of, I'll get another puppy. Yeah most people don't appreciate my sarcasm but that's me :D

At the mark were I stopped Lily and Kincaid actually talked twice. First was a very sweet talk in the dinner leading to hot sex - exactly the kind both of them wanted - rough around the edges. The other one was a totally accidental (with a double meaning.. him falling off a tree..) in which Kincaid was trying to reject Lily quite unsuccessfully.. 

I guess my true main problem with this book is I didn't get or like the two MC. Kincaid was a turn off because of what he was looking for and the fact that he doesn't seem to have anything to offer besides liking rough sex (good for Lily...) and maybe wanting justice for quite an altruistic purpose. Lily, well, Lily was a total bore. Yeah she likes it rough and yeah she has a backbone and knows how to take care of herself, yet when you listen to her inner voice there is little there besides the sex and the general idea of saving money to move to Chicago. Maybe later on in the story we get more of them in a way that makes them more "real", but at the point were I stopped (29%) we weren't there. They were still quite superficial, add that to nothing that actually HAPPENED (well, besides one sex scene that I actually skimmed through..) and I guess you get my point.. 

I'm so disappointed. I was really looking forward to this novel. I loved most of what I've read by Serena but this one and the previous one was simply not "it" for me. Both were "DNF". With the next one I'll wait a bit more and read more reviews before I order it (I pre-ordered, was just released a few days ago). 

I won't be publishing my review on GR and Amazon just yet. I'll wait a bit so my review won't hurt Serena during publication week.


 (DNF 29%)

Additional Details: Kindle Ebook, 219 pages, 17 July 2015 / On GoodReads

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