Title: Rex
Series: Finding Love #2
Author: Beth Michele
Release Date: July 3, 2014
It all started with a simple phrase.
Love Sucks
The moment Vanessa Hilliard walked into the tattoo shop uttering those two words was the day my life began its downward spiral.
Or maybe it’s the day my life began.
My name is Rex Grayson.
And this is my story.
***
The day I met Rex Grayson, I got a hell of a lot more than I bargained for. He sparked something inside of me -- possibility. A word that never existed in my world before. He caused me to question who I was and made me want things I never dreamed were possible.
We’ve both got a mountain of shit in our past.
My name is Vanessa Hilliard. I have an affinity for the unusual and seriously twisted.
He thinks this is his story.
But it’s really mine.
**This is a full-length Adult Contemporary Romance that contains mature sexual content and language and is not intended for readers under the age of 18.**
What? Those aren’t tears you see glistening in my eyes. Nope. Allergies. And those goose-bumps? They’re from the air conditioning being set too low. Yep. That’s right. Nothing to see here, folks. I didn’t just finish reading a book that made me well up like a baby with separation anxiety and smile like a giddy teenager on their first date. Orrrrrrrrrrrr, maybe I did. Alright, I did. Rex (the book and the character) made me cry – not ugly cry, for the record, it was more gentle than that – and smile and swoon and swear. And I loved every second of it.
Rex Grayson thinks the stacked blonde that walks into his tattoo parlor is hot. Her desire to get ink that says Love Sucks isn’t the norm but then again, neither is what she makes him feel. Vanessa Hilliard has no faith in love. No hope for it in her life. All she wants is a tattoo. What she gets instead is a twisted, fucked-up bad boy that has the potential to change her life. They’ve both got pasts that are holding them back. And they’re both about to find out that the other is way more than they ever expected.
I think I felt every moment of this book. Right from the beginning, but especially when Rex and Vanessa came face-to-face, I could tell that I was going to get attached, invested and emotional. Neither of them were perfect characters – they’re both holding on to shit that fills their past and clouds their future – but both of them were relatable in their own way. Their respective hurt made them real, human and flawed and I really enjoyed seeing them struggle to recognise and accept the changes that finding that someone can bring. I loved the structure of this book. The major moments weren’t all crowded at the end of the book, forcing and rushing the ending. Rex and Vanessa’s moments of realisation were well-spaced and well written – no sudden personality changes or insta-love. But my very favourite moment, however, didn’t belong to Rex or Vanessa, but to a young woman getting a tattoo as a memorial to a lost loved one. Her sentiment, her words had tears streaming down my face. I re-read that passage several times, and highlighted it because it. was. perfect. So that explains the tears. But the smiles? There wasn’t one single moment that had me grinning – there were several throughout the book. Little passages that made me happy and hopeful. Sweet interactions that made me want to fall in love again. And an ending that made the romantic in me swoon. I haven’t read the first story in this series yet, but I will. I’ll just make sure to take some of that allergy medicine and bump the a/c temp first...
Rex is the second book in the Finding Love series and can be read as a standalone. No cliffhanger.
~ Review by Beth
I subtly open my legs, hoping he might take the hint and move his hand where I really need it. Instead, he continues to drive me crazy with his calloused finger circling just above my knee.
His warm breath fans my neck, and I bite back the noise that wants to escape when his tongue makes contact with that sensitive spot behind my ear. “You taste so good,” he murmurs, “and I bet you’re already wet for me.”
“Beyond wet,” I whisper back, not wanting the taxi driver to hear and think that I’m a sex-crazed freak, even though I feel like one.
Rex inhales a jagged breath, his hand finally wandering higher up my thigh. “I can’t wait until my tongue can find out just how much,” he says quietly. And when I glance up at him, his eyes denote a hunger that lights a flame inside of me. One that’s been buried for quite some time.
I press my lips together, staring out the window in an attempt to distract myself. My skin tingles with anticipation as I try to rein in my breathing that is currently out of control. But I don’t have to wait too long. Within minutes, the taxi pulls up in front of his building.
Rex pays the driver and practically jerks me from the seat, latching onto my hand as we fly into the building like two sex-starved lunatics. He hesitates the moment we enter the glass door, glancing up at the flight of stairs then back to me. With a devious grin, he scoops me up under my knees and I let out a yelp of surprise.
“Ahh! What on earth are you doing, Rex?” I laugh, my head dropping back.
He continues striding up the stairs with purpose. “What does it look like I’m doing?”
“Why are you carrying me? I can walk, you know.”
“Blondie, shut up and kiss me,” he demands. “I need motivation for climbing.”
His warm breath fans my neck, and I bite back the noise that wants to escape when his tongue makes contact with that sensitive spot behind my ear. “You taste so good,” he murmurs, “and I bet you’re already wet for me.”
“Beyond wet,” I whisper back, not wanting the taxi driver to hear and think that I’m a sex-crazed freak, even though I feel like one.
Rex inhales a jagged breath, his hand finally wandering higher up my thigh. “I can’t wait until my tongue can find out just how much,” he says quietly. And when I glance up at him, his eyes denote a hunger that lights a flame inside of me. One that’s been buried for quite some time.
I press my lips together, staring out the window in an attempt to distract myself. My skin tingles with anticipation as I try to rein in my breathing that is currently out of control. But I don’t have to wait too long. Within minutes, the taxi pulls up in front of his building.
Rex pays the driver and practically jerks me from the seat, latching onto my hand as we fly into the building like two sex-starved lunatics. He hesitates the moment we enter the glass door, glancing up at the flight of stairs then back to me. With a devious grin, he scoops me up under my knees and I let out a yelp of surprise.
“Ahh! What on earth are you doing, Rex?” I laugh, my head dropping back.
He continues striding up the stairs with purpose. “What does it look like I’m doing?”
“Why are you carrying me? I can walk, you know.”
“Blondie, shut up and kiss me,” he demands. “I need motivation for climbing.”
Beth Michele is the author of Love Love, Lovely, Scarred Beautiful, and Finding Autumn. She is a Connecticut native who loves spending time with her husband and two children. If you can’t find her, though, she’s probably hiding out with her laptop or her kindle somewhere quiet, preferably a spot overlooking the ocean. She has an affinity for Twizzlers, is a hopeless romantic, and a happily ever after fanatic.
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