Fake Love by Claire Contreras & Heavy Equipment by Skye Warren (Mini-Review)

Series:N/A
# of Pages: 69
Publication: November 19th, 2018
Source: Read Me Romance Podcast
Genre: Erotic Romance
Goodreads | Amazon 

In the twenty-five years I’ve known Cory York, the only thing I didn’t fake with him were my orgasms. In seventh grade, I faked a stomach flu to stay home and keep him company while he was sick. I ended up with a virus that kept me out of school for an entire week. In twelfth grade I faked an injury to avoid going to prom by myself. He took pity on me, dumped his original date and escorted me to the dance where the spurned girl dumped an entire pitcher of red punch over my head. In college, I faked being in a relationship with him to get him out of a bind with a classmate. Most recently, I faked a proposal, an engagement, and wedding date. Between the ring on my finger and the home cooked meals every night, I fell for him. So I left, because Cory York is a good friend, but a terrible boyfriend. I had to leave before he broke my heart. We went from best friends to silent strangers. Now that I’m back in town, he wants me to be his plus one for his cousin’s wedding. This time I’ll have to fake not loving him.

Fake Love by Claire Contreras is the third book in the Read Me Romance Podcast. It features a friends to lovers romance between Cory and Evelyn who have been friends for 25 years. They make the decision to fake an engagement; however, Evelyn seems to have acquired real feelings for Cory along the way. Normally I'm a huge fan of friends to lovers romances. The romance is usually a slow burn and it's exciting rooting on two characters who should be together but do everything not to be together. This story was anything but enjoyable and fun. I really thought that we would receive a quick novella that would illustrate the development of a romance between Cory and Evelyn; however, I simply felt as though we were thrown into the middle of a book. There wasn't any real character development and it felt as though the plot was all over the place. While things were rushed because it is a short novella, I could not even seemingly connect with the characters the way I connected with characters in the previous two novellas. The lack of enjoyment did not turn me off from Contreras as a writer; however, I felt as though she could have written a much better novella.

Series: N/A

# of Pages: 49

Publication: November 26th, 2018
Source: Read Me Romance Podcast
Genre: Erotic Romance
Goodreads | Amazon

I've been raised as the good, obedient daughter, but I never expected to be sold to pay my father's debts. Cold. Rough. Merciless. The foreman of the construction crew is going to make me pay every last cent. Author's Note: The hero is Asher Cook, the construction foreman from Survival of the Richest, though this is not part of the series and can be heard as a standalone.

Heavy Equipment by Skye Warren was a difficult book to rate. As the fourth book in the Read Me Romance podcast series, I found the premise to be interesting: a woman being "sold" to a foreman because her father was incapable of paying off a debt. This would also be my first step into reading a romance featuring BDSM. What I did not enjoy about this story was the feeling that the sex was forced. It did not add up that the main character June Li was scared of any sexual encounter with the man and then over the course of an hour she becomes sexually confident. She also exhibited two conflicting personas which didn't really add up or make sense for such a short period of time. One part of her was loyal to the traditional ways of her culture and another part of her was defiant. It did not seem like she should be able to go from one to the other so quickly. This was my first experience with Skye Warren and while I did not particularly enjoy this story, I think I may give some of her other books a try.