Release and Review Tour: SEX, Not Love: Vi Keeland

by - Monday, January 15, 2018

SEX, NOT LOVE
Vi Keeland
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Release date January 15, 2018


From #1 New York Times Bestseller Vi Keeland, comes a new, sexy standalone novel. 

My relationship with Hunter Delucia started backwards. 

We met at a wedding—him sitting on the groom’s side, me sitting on the bride’s. Stealing glances at each other throughout the night, there was no denying an intense, mutual attraction. 

I caught the bouquet; he caught the garter. Hunter held me tightly while we danced and suggested we explore the chemistry sparking between us. His blunt, dirty mouth should’ve turned me off. But for some crazy reason, it had the opposite effect on me.

We ended up back in my hotel room. The next morning, I headed home to New York leaving him behind in California with the wrong number.

I thought about him often, but after my last relationship, I’d sworn off of charming, cocky, gorgeous-as-sin men. A year later, Hunter and I met again at the birth of our friends’ baby. Our attraction hadn't dulled one bit. After a whirlwind trip, he demanded a real phone number this time. So I left him with my mother’s—she could scare away any man with her talks of babies and marriage—and flew back home.

I’d thought it was funny, until the following week when he rang the bell at Mom’s house for Sunday night dinner. The crazy, gorgeous man had won over my mother and taken an eight-week assignment in my city. He proposed we spend that time screwing each other out of our systems. 

Eight weeks of mind-blowing sex with no strings attached? What did I have to lose?

Nothing, I thought.
It’s just sex, not love.
But you know what they say about the best laid plans…


Natalia Rossi is a woman whose previous relationship made her untrusting, pessimistic, and uninterested in getting close enough to someone to get hurt. She is focusing on work and her step daughter, but would not mind a casual hook up or easy-going relationship with a stable, safe man. She is funny, sarcastic, and has a big heart. 

Fortunately or unfortunately for her Hunter Delucia enters her life when she meets him at her best friend's wedding. He is sexy, charming, confident, cocky, successful, tempting, and persistent. He appears to be a playboy not looking for love...just the kind of guys she has vowed to avoid.

They have off the charts chemistry from even small touches. They seem like opposites in a lot of ways, but also have some similarities. But she is smart enough to know that keeping him at a distance is probably safer for her. She's good at running, but he is determined and persistent to explore the chemistry they have and keeps pushing the "Sex, not love" angle. But anything between them would come with a planned expiration date. And although he knows what has made her guarded, she has no idea what has affected Hunter in his past. 

It is told in Natalia's and Hunter's points of view in present, and also parts of his past are revealed gradually in flashbacks providing further insight into what shapes his decisions. The building of their friendship and relationship is a slow burn from antagonism, flirty and dirty rapport, frustration, mixed signals, support, and sexual tension. But can two people with such chemistry and compatibility really keep feelings out of it? Is "Sex, Not Love" even a real possibility?

Like many of Vi Keeland's books there is more to the story than you initially realize and figuring it out is part of the fun while often adding some pain, drama, and emotional turmoil. This was sexy, witty, angsty, and fun, but also heartfelt and full of feels. I loved their feisty dynamic. They both had such good hearts. My heart hurt for both of them at times. Hunter  was a complex hero with many layers and I got really attached to him. And Nat was spunky and caring. I liked their best friends Anna and Derek and her step daughter, Izzy that rounded out this group. This was more of a gradual build, but the characters and story did draw me in and keep me interested til the end.

I was gifted a copy

She is looking for easy, no strings, no future. Natalia Rossi is focused on rebuilding her career and centering her life. She has a type, one that she has decided it would be best to avoid, so at her best friend’s wedding she is looking for something safe, something easy, something almost boring.

Hunter Delucia is all about the good times. He isn’t looking for love, only sex, but he is exactly the kind of man Natalia is trying to avoid. It doesn’t help that he is closely connected to her best friend’s new husband, so even if she had a one-night stand with him, she would have to see him anytime she saw her best friend.

Neither of these two is interested in a relationship, but the sparks fly immediately between them. Natalia’s last relationship left her distrustful, while Hunter’s reasons are less clear. Between the long distance and the fact that each of their best friends is married to the other, Nat is hesitant to have even a one-night stand with Hunter. But he is persistent, and she can’t deny the chemistry that runs between them.

This was more of a slow burn than I think we’ve seen from Vi Keeland. I was expecting the sparks and the chemistry between Natalia and Hunter, but I was surprised by the amount of time that passed with little or no between the sheets action. That slow burn meant that the chemistry between them was very solid before they took anything to the next level, and their actions spoke loudest.

Along with the slow burn came a vulnerability that I wasn’t expecting from Hunter. The present day plot is peppered with flashbacks from his teen/early 20’s years and readers slowly learn why he is hesitant to offer more than fun to any of his partners. While one aspect of his reluctance was not surprising, there was another thread that surprised me and had me looking back on other conversations with a new light.

This was filled with so many emotions. From fun and flirty, to pain and turmoil, Sex, Not Love has it all. There were a few threads at the end that left me with minor questions, but nothing that truly impacted either of the main character or detracted from the overall story. I was by turns entertained and moved by the characters and their journeys and enjoyed every moment of the book.

I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.


Vi Keeland

Vi Keeland is a #1 New York Times Bestselling author. With more than a million books sold, her titles have appeared in over fifty Bestseller lists and are currently translated in twelve languages. She resides in New York with her husband and their three children where she is living out her own happily ever after with the boy she met at age six.

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