★BOOK REVIEW + EXCERPT + GIVEAWAY★ Release Me by A.M. Walker and A.K. Rogers

MY RATING

I liked it.

It’s been quite  while since my last mogul romance and there has been some great reviews for this new trilogy by Ann Marie Walker and Amy K. Rogers so I thought I would give it a go.

I was in the mood for an alpha hero and the set up here just strung a chord in me. Second chance at love, once dirt poor hero becomes a powerful business man… Hmmm, yes!

Book infos & Purchase Links

ReleaseMe_final_hiresThe second in the “seriously sexy and sinfully steamy”* Chasing Fire series, about a pain too deep to forgive and a passion too hot to forget…

Alessandra Sinclair knows that Hudson Chase is the last man she should want. The boy from the wrong side of the tracks has grown into a man who would do anything to get ahead, even if it means breaking Allie’s heart. But whenever she’s near him, the attraction between them is undeniable. And now that they’re working together, keeping her distance from Hudson is almost as impossible as keeping her feelings in check…

Hudson already lost Allie once and he refuses to lose her again. He’s determined to use their new business partnership to rekindle the spark he knows is still there. Only the closer he gets to winning her over, the clearer it becomes there are still secrets that could tear them apart for good…

Author : Ann Marie Walker & Mary K. Rogers
Title : Release Me
Series : 
-Chasing fire #2
Publisher : Penguin Books
Pages : 256
Release date : July 21st, 2015
Genre : Contemporary.
Tour : Tasty Book Tours

Excerpt
Portrait of kissing couple
Portrait of kissing couple

When Allie turned to the mingling crowd her smile slipped from her face. Her breath caught and her steps faltered.

Hudson.

She stood motionless, unable to look away as he entered the reception area and shook hands with several people. The expression on his face was all business, and yet there was something so inherently sensual about the way he moved. He wore a black tuxedo, Ralph Lauren if she wasn’t mistaken, that fit the contours of his body in a way that made it impossible not to imagine the hard planes of muscle that lay beneath. But it wasn’t the sight of Hudson Chase in a tuxedo that caused an unwelcome tightness in Allie’s chest. It wasn’t even his dark wavy hair, perfectly messed with that sexy, just-rolled-out-of-bed look that made her fingers flex with an instinctive desire to touch it. It was the voluptuous brunette draped on his arm.

Sophia.

Allie recognized her immediately from the event at the Field Museum the night she and Hudson had first become reacquainted. She looked as stunning as she had that night. Her dress wasn’t red this time, but instead a champagne color a few shades lighter than her flawless bronze skin. And her long dark curls were piled loosely on top of her head, not cascading over her bare shoulders, but the effect was no less devastating. The woman had the curves of a centerfold and a face worthy of the cover. Hudson had insisted they hadn’t been seeing each other, but Allie got the distinct impression their arrangement was more than just a few casual dates. It was obvious the way Sophia’s hand stroked Hudson’s forearm, she was under that impression as well.

He flicked his gaze briefly to her hand, then back up. When he did his eyes met Allie’s and he stilled. A crowded ballroom stood between them, but in that moment it felt as though they were the only two people in the room.

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My Review

Although trilogies are not something I’m going for anymore, I still felt like this one could fulfill my need and mood and so I went for it.

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I read Remind Me and Release Me back to back and I must admit it did deliver on what I was primarily looking for.
Powerful and commanding alpha hero? ✔︎Check.
Second chance at love? ✔︎Check.
Sexy as hell sex scenes? ✔︎Check!!!

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What I got was satisfying in the end and maybe a little disappointing as a whole. Some pet peeves of mine triggered my no non-sense barrier and from the get go I must admit I had apprehensions…

So how to review a book when you all but love one character only? A difficult task but here are my honest thoughts. Or rambling. (Don’t mind the little rant at the end… lol!)

Obviously something kept me up reading and this something or rather someone, was Hudson Chase.

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I loved his tenacity and frame of mind. He was the relentless and focused man that won’t take no for an answer, in the office and in the bedroom. I must tip my hat off to the authors, his character alone made that book for me. I was intrigued by his motivations in book one and also wanted to read more about his brother Nick. He didn’t disappoint in Release Me, focused to help Alessandra without pushing her too hard. The authors did a fantastic job with his persona, excruciatingly un-layering secrets and morsels about the man behind the business man. I really was captivated by Hudson Chase from the beginning.

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Ten years ago, Hudson Chase, white trash but driven young man, fell for the heiress to a media empire, Alessandra Sinclair.

Back in present time, Alessandra Sinclair is to marry Julian Laurent, Frenchman and soon to be CEO of her father’s empire. Alessandra obviously got trapped into a wedding she doesn’t want but she’s so used to be controlled by her parents and to accomplish their every wishes that she can’t get herself to renege on the evident deal her father wants for her, but most importantly for his company.

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Everything is about to change upon her fortunate reunion with Hudson Chase… Passion ignites and taking advantage of Julian’s overseas business travel, Alessandra spends a few weeks rekindling with her old flame.

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Not that she had any choice in that matter as well. Hudson had his mind set and Alessandra just followed through like the good girl she’s grown up to be.

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To the question “Is there cheating in this book?”, the answer is yes. 

This really didn’t set well with me. Yes her fiancé appeared to be a real douche, it’s actually pretty obvious he is the villain in this story, but any form of cheating is difficult to swallow for me, even more so that I never really warmed up to Alessandra. Her reasons were her own but she didn’t seem to take Hudson’s feeling in this equation.

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I think I could have accepted this a little better if Alessandra had pulled her head out of her tight and mighty ass sooner! lol! (The cheating pretty much goes on until the very end of book one. o.O ) The fact that she waited that long to come clear really annoyed me, but most of all it made my heart hurt for Hudson, still having to hide from everyone to please little Miss Sinclair. As for her relationship with Julian, the french asshat, it was obvious it was all for show and that no feelings were involved. The man was described as a real jerk and there is no way any reader would believe their story was going somewhere.

I found it a little too easy that the authors chose to get rid of him the way they did, one day the golden fiancé, the world’s biggest scum the other. The worst part was to observe Alessandra being clueless during the whole book, only to realize way too late how bad and disgusting her future husband was.

I wasn’t impressed by the twist at the end of book one, and a little voice in the back of my head was shouting : “You run right into this one, Alessandra!” (I said already I didn’t like her, didn’t I?)

What really failed to impress and to please me was the female lead herself. She revealed to be with no backbone at all, only good at taking cock and backlash high and proper. 

I liked that she would act differently with Hudson, but didn’t like her actions and indecisiveness at all when faced with her parents or fiancé. To me it was manipulative and inconsiderate.

Miss Sinclair cleaned her act a little in Release Me, but her attitude in book one was still too fresh of a memory for me to accept her still. Book two starts right back where we’ve been left in book one, and as much as it pains me to say, I felt like book 2 was mostly uneventful. Off course we are left with another huge cliffhanger but even this doesn’t really motivate me to start the upcoming book three… 

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This book most certainly delivered steam and sex scenes were frequent, graphic and of a good quality, but for the reasons given above, I couldn’t understand the attraction toward the heroine. So as much as the tension was palpable between Hudson and Allie, I couldn’t enjoy their passionate encounters to the fullest. I couldn’t involve myself in another way but enjoy the smut and I missed the romance and second chance at love part. 

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What I did enjoy was Hudson controlling vibes in these scenes, alluring and seductive, you have no choice but to be enthralled and captivated by this man. 

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Something really bothered me in book one and I had hoped I wouldn’t read it again in Release Me. The authors took the party to describe Hudson luxury possessions as the proof of his wealth and power.

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Like describing his Jaeger-Lecoultre watch, his Tom Ford suit, his Montblanc pen, the Jura coffee maker… It really annoyed me and I felt like I was browsing a giant advertising magazine for luxury brands. There’s no need to tell me which brand of toothpaste my hero uses and there are other ways to convey power and prestige than detailing each label he wears. (And I’m not impressed by either Jaeger Lecoultre or Montblanc, I got a couple of these and I’m definitely not a millionaire, Hudson could be as poor as me for all I know! )

French skills

Another of my pet peeves that didn’t help me appreciate this book more than I did… The French.

It must be my absolute and strongest pet peeves of all in romance books(Yes, I’m very picky). Bad translation. Google Translate is not accurate. To translate a single word? Yes. To translate a sentence? NO.

“Arrêter cette incessante de frapper” <— This means NOTHING at all. But I guess Julian wanted to say : “Arrêtez de frapper de façon incessante!” 

“Enfer de Putain” <— Obviously the authors meant to convey the much appreciated “Fucking Hell” (seriously, I love cursing in English) but there is no equivalent to Fucking Hell in French, much to my dismay. Something that could be a close translation would be : “Putain de merde” which literally means “fucking shit”…

Sorry for the French lesson, but as a native French speaker this is something that I really find annoying and who knows if the Russian tidbits I read in some books are accurate of not… I know my english is not perfect, but then I’m not publishing a book out there. If I was, I would at least hire a decent translator or ask someone who actually knows French, Russian or whatever foreign language a character is speaking. This can really ruins a character for me and puts me off from the book entirely, knowing research was brushed off.

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Both books end on a cliffhanger, and I must say it really pushed me to start book 2, as I really wanted to know what would happen to Hudson and Allie. She does get her acts together in book 2 but I cannot honestly say she’ll leave a memorable imprint on my mind…
Book 2 ends up with another giant cliffy, and although I want to know what will happen in the third and last book, I’m not sure the answer is worth it for me. I can predict an HEA, and this is enough for me at the moment.

All in all Remind Me and Release Me were satisfying, delivered sexy times in spades, the right amount of angst and mystery with a minus on the heroine and the French translations.

Authors Bio

Though thousands of miles apart, Ann Marie Walker and Amy K. Rogers are in constant contact, plotting story lines and chatting about their love of alpha males, lemon drop martinis and British supermodel, David Gandy. You can find them on twitter as @AnnMarie_Walker and @Amy_KRogers.

Ann Marie Walker Social Links
Amy K. Rogers Social Links
More books from the authors

Reading Order and buy Links

Giveaway

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