Lush: Lauren Dane
USA Today bestselling author Lauren Dane delivers a second serving of sexy in her new Delicious novel, in which taste and temptation make up a sweet recipe…
Mary Whaley has her hands full running a successful catering company and overseeing her supper club. She has everything she ever wanted—or so she thought. When she meets ridiculously hot and very dirty rock star Damien Hurley at her friend’s engagement party, the attraction she feels is overpowering—and she isn’t about to deny herself.
Damien is used to a hard and fast life. He and two of his brothers started a band when they were fresh out of high school—then they hit the big time and stayed there. He’s also a legendary madman on the stage and in the bedroom. But when he meets Mary, something clicks, and the bad boy starts thinking he may have finally found something good.
What begins as a series of fleeting trysts soon gets much more complicated. Damien can’t figure out why Mary doesn’t want more from him. And before long, it’s Damien who wants more from Mary. But it turns out Mary is no stranger to celebrity news, and he’s got a very big job ahead of him: proving that he’s worth more than a one-night stand…
"This sweet, good-girl-on-the-outside, hot-as-hell-in-bed
thing was hotter than anything he'd had in a very long time."
I liked Lush. It was a slow read for me at first, but I
think a lot of that was the formatting on my Nook (ARC) because about half way
through I was invested in the characters without even realizing it. Mary and
Damien had good chemistry but I would not call it sizzling like some of
Lauren's other books. I found they made great friends, and by the end of the book,
I was keeping my fingers crossed when the small amount of drama hit that they
would make it through. I adored them both, but was not in love with either one.
I think it was hard to connect with them as a couple, because Mary was always
catering or cooking somewhere and Damien was always away on tour, so they spent
little time "physically together" as a couple. They made a great hero
and heroine. Mary had backbone, and Damien was a bad boy rock star turned good
boy by the woman who stole his heart. The premises were there, the plot was
fun, but overall I just found something was missing. I cannot really put my
finger on it, I really think it was the fact that there was not much face time
between the two and when there was they spent most of that time in the bedroom.
Lush was the third book in the Delicious series. I have not
read the first two; I would suggest that you do if you have not. For me it was
not hard to follow along, as I knew a bunch of the characters in it from
Lauren's Brown Siblings series, so I was comfortable with the gang. I am
definitely going to go back and read books 1 and 2.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this
book in exchange for an honest review.
Mary is a sweet small town girl with a busy catering business and supper club. She is stubborn, strong, and independent. Damien is a hot drummer in a famous rock band with the bad boy past to prove it. He is a charismatic, party boy, and is used to living the rock star life. Mary is fine just having a fling with Damien, but soon he is trying to prove to her that they could be more. It was kind of fun for the man to be the one trying for a more permanent relationship. You really get to see his vulnerable and sweet side and realize that he wants something real with Mary. Sometimes I wanted to smack Mary for making him work so hard. But they really grew on me as a couple. They are sarcastic and play off each other well. And as usual in Lauren Dane's there are hot, steamy, sex scenes and good sexual chemistry. But distance, misunderstandings, differences in lifestyles, and other people's judgment get in the way and make things more difficult.
I enjoy Lauren Dane's series since you get to revisit the characters and have a whole sense of family and community. I loved catching up with friends from the previous books: Daisy and Levi, Gillian and Adrian and Cal, Jules and Gideon. They are always a strong support system for each other even when they are meddling in each other's business and sometimes causing more trouble. And I like that she gave us both Mary and Damien's POV in the story. I love getting into the character's heads. And I would like to see Damien's brothers possibly get their own books in the future.
Thanks to netgalley and Lauren Dane for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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