Blog Tour: Hostile Takeover: Lucy Lennox

by Reviews by Tammy and Kim - Wednesday, October 27, 2021

Hostile Takeover
Lucy Lennox

Add to Goodreads
Buy Amazon | Amazon Worldwide | Apple | Nook | Kobo | Audible

Release Date October 26, 2021

It was supposed to be a prank. A silly frat boy dare.

One hot moment in a hidden storage closet. One kiss. No consequences.

But if you get that close to a man with fire in his eyes, you’re gonna get burned, and I was no exception. One taste of Grey Blackwood ruined me for life.

The way Grey sees it, I was the one who did the ruining. I humiliated him. Wrecked his life. Destroyed his future.

Doesn’t matter that he’s clawed his way back and then some. Doesn’t matter that he’s already top of the Wall Street food chain. The man’s ruthless. Heartless. And he likes his revenge served cold.

Now he’s taking down the companies owned by every frat boy who did him wrong. And when he comes for my family’s company, the quiet life I’ve built for myself far away from Manhattan comes crumbling down, too.

But when Grey’s standing in our boardroom, threatening a hostile takeover and demanding I negotiate on behalf of my family, I don’t see an enemy. I see the chance I’ve been waiting for.

The chance for another night in his arms, and hopefully a whole lot more.

Let the negotiations begin.

Hostile Takeover is a full-length, standalone novel.

Fifteen years ago, one dare and an impulsive decision changed the course of two men's lives forever and had ripples of consequences years later.

Ellison Warren grew up in a wealthy family with a controlling father and plenty of expectations. But one thing he did just because he wanted to and it ended up blowing up.

Grey Blackwood was a scholarship kid but had great instincts, intelligence, and drive. He was in the process of building contacts and steps towards a future when it was all ripped from him. And from then on, motivated by hate and revenge, he worked tirelessly to make it on his own and take down those that wronged him.

In his mind, Ellison is just one of those same rich, country club boys who took pleasure in humiliating him. And now he is going in for the kill to his family business. But Ellison has been dealing with his own consequences and just when he thinks he may be able to break away and live life on his own terms, his regretful past is coming back.

Now Ellison is at Grey's mercy. But what starts as a hostile takeover of a company leads to so much more. There is a lot of unresolved anger, hurt, guilt, bitterness, regret, and misinformation about their past. And as they deal with the present there is still mistrust, uncertainty, fear of rejection, and hurt mixing in with continued attraction, respect, feelings, jealousy, and power exchanges. New deals and plans lead to hidden agendas, questionable motives, outside manipulation, and the need to trust in each other and themselves. But old wounds do not always heal and it is easy to make assumptions and mistakes.

I loved Grey and Ellison. Grey is such a smart, methodical, determined fighter. He has thrived under the idea of getting his revenge, but he really just longs for acceptance and respect. He tries to be stoic and controlling and keep his walls up, but Ellison is his Achille's heel. And Ellison is just this good, charity-minded, loving man who just wants to do right by everyone even when he has to sacrifice himself. But he can also push back and stand on his own. These two have so much chemistry and just this buzzing of want and need between them., but they are also stubborn and easily triggered due to their deep feelings and history.

I liked getting more with Grey's assistant, Marcel, and his husband, Luca from the free prequel short story. I enjoyed this witty, sexy, unpredictable, second-chance, enemies-to-lovers, bi-for-one-guy story with tactical maneuvers, power plays, scorching sexual tension, passion, and swoon.

Within seconds, he’d pulled me down the hallway to a closed door. Once he opened it, I saw the storage room everyone talked about. Shelving reached all the way to the ceiling, and most of it was covered in pristine club hand towels folded into neat stacks. A large ice machine hummed in the corner, and right next to it was an old-fashioned water cooler.

Grey grabbed a paper water cup shaped like a cone from the stack on top of the water cooler and filled it before handing it to me. I sucked it down greedily, if only to get that godforsaken butterscotch flavor out of my mouth.

“Thanks,” I mumbled before moving forward to refill the cone. I brushed my shoulder against his chest as I stepped past him. Suddenly, the room seemed much smaller than it had before. The scent of coffee and laundry detergent surrounded me, but it was overlaid with the barest hint of apple shampoo.

I turned my head to see if that smell was coming from him, but at the same moment, he turned his head toward me to ask me something. The words died on his tongue as we found ourselves nose-to-nose. From this close, I could see his hair was hundreds of different shades of blond. A hank of it had fallen down over one eyebrow. It made him look vulnerable, unlike the proud man who seemed to have his shit together on the golf course and in class.

“Hi,” I breathed.

“What are you doing?” he asked in a weary voice. The air between us was thick and heavy. If I’d been any more sober, I would have chickened the fuck out and run out with my tail between my legs.

But I wasn’t sober.

“I just…I…”

“Ellison.” He spoke my name like a warning.

“You’re smart as shit,” I said stupidly.

“I know,” he replied, meeting my eyes in challenge.

“Why do you work here with all these rich assholes around you? It’s unbearable.”

His face widened in a reluctant grin. “Spoken by one of the selfsame rich assholes.”

I frowned, and Grey’s eyes followed the movement of my lips. My cock liked that. A lot.

“Why?” I repeated breathlessly.

“Good money, better connections. I want to be an investment banker, and the only way to do it well is to work for one of those rich assholes one day. The men in that room control eighty percent of the country’s investment capital. I want a piece of it.”

“But—”

He cut me off with the barest brush of his lips against mine. It was so light, so nothing, he could have written it off as an accident, but it was enough of a spark to light the whole damned stack of fireworks between us.

I lunged for him with both hands, grabbing his face and smashing my mouth against his. He grunted at the impact, but then Grey’s arms came around to hold me tight while he kissed me back.

He kissed me back.

I could barely breathe. It wasn’t enough. My heart hammered in my chest with something like panic. What if he stopped? What if this all stopped and I couldn’t have it anymore? This awkward, grappling kiss was everything. Everything. And I knew right away it was only the beginning.

I wanted more. I wanted him. I wanted to be naked and ready for whatever came next. My dick was out of fucking control right now, and I couldn’t even figure out how to go about getting off. I just knew I wanted to get off with him. With Grey.