Summary
One bed.
Two stranded strangers.
Three wildly passionate nights.
A thousand secrets between them.
After getting trapped in a blizzard, my private jet grounded, with no hotel room available within miles, I met a woman at the bar.
Rowan.
A knockout blessed with killer curves, gorgeous emerald eyes, and a mouth that should be illegal. She triggered all the primal and possessive emotions I’d never known I had.
Not the typical Cooper Spade that the world had come to know.
What followed was a fiery, unforgettable, wildly explosive weekend of sizzling touches, passionate nights, and intense chemistry.
The rebel had finally fallen …
But when the storm cleared, I returned to LA and learned that the woman I’d just spent seventy-two carnal hours with was the enemy, and I’d loved every minute of it.
Excerpt
“Don’t fuck this up,” my uncle, Walter Spade, hissed from the head of the conference room table, his salt-and-pepper hair glistening from the fluorescent lights above.
As he looked at me, squinting, the lines around his eyes deepened. His hands gripped the back of his chair as he stood behind it, refusing to sit.
When Walter was disconnected from work, he was the nicest guy in the world.
When it came to anything related to Spade Hotels—the company he had founded with my father, where my brothers and I worked—he was one nasty motherfucker.
Today was certainly no exception.
“You have nothing to worry about,” I replied. “The land will be ours as soon as I see it, assuming I deem it worthy enough to add to our collection.”
“You’d better act fast,” Macon, my youngest brother, said from the seat next to mine. His dark brown beard was coming in thick, longer than I’d ever seen him grow it. Since spending all those months in Hawaii building one of our latest properties, he’d developed a more relaxed, surfer-like appearance. He’d also come home with a woman—something I never anticipated. “Since you know we’re not the only ones looking at it, right?”
The land he was referring to was supposedly a slice of paradise along the shoreline of Lake Louise—a lake within Banff National Park, nestled in the Canadian Rockies.
Until I saw it in person, I wouldn’t be able to confirm just how perfect it was.
“I bet all the big names are eyeing it,” Brady, my oldest brother, said from the other side of me. His hair was freshly spiked, like he’d just stepped out of the shower. If I had to guess, he’d probably fucked a woman in the backseat while his driver brought him to work this morning, then showered in his en suite once he arrived in his office. That man wasn’t just a player. When it came to women, he was a goddamn sinner. “If the realtor reached out to us, then she reached out to everyone. That means all our competitors will be viewing that property tomorrow.”
“I fully expect a bidding war,” Jo, my cousin, said with a smile, clasping her hands and aligning each finger before she tapped them together. Her white nail polish caught the light above, reflecting the illumination and shining like a mirror. “This is going to be fun.”
Walter’s daughter thrived on the anticipation of the fight and the win.
Even though she was a Dalton now—her wedding to Jenner, my best friend, who happened to be sitting beside her, was less than a month ago—she was full of Spade blood.
And the Spades always won.
Review
(audiobook) It’s possible I was expecting too much, so of course I was kind of a tiny bit disappointed. But it was still a good book.
My main problem was with the fact that both Rowan and Cooper claim they don’t know what love is. Until they find each other, of course. I suppose that makes for a powerful revelation when they finally admit their feelings. For me, it’s unbelievable at best. And if it’s denial, I don’t find it sexy or romantic. Mostly it’s proof of emotionally stunted characters, which Rowan and Cooper were anything but. It could also be a way for them to keep their relationship on the casual side, but it contradicts the fact that they risk a lot by being together and yet they can’t keep their hands off each other. Either you’re committed, or you’re not.
Also, a tiny ridiculous thing I didn’t like: the title. It’s great as it is, nothing wrong. Except that I never got how Cooper was a rebel. Unless it’s explained in the previous book in the series. That’s probably it.
Anyway, I loved the characters. I loved how invested they were in their businesses and in their families. How, despite a family feud, they find a way to work together–and almost against their families–for the best possible outcome. Not an easy journey, plenty of obstacles, and intense scenes and hostility, but they get there. There’s also some interesting struggles, like when Rowan is wondering whether she should go back to her previous business and leave the family company, and Cooper convinces her.
And they’re fire together. Sure, there’s a lot of attraction right from the start, and that could lead nowhere. But in the first chapters, they ignite the pages, it’s logical they couldn’t let it go.
The book isn’t exactly structured in three acts. It’s more a crescendo with a few short calmer moments before new life changing events. A bit soap-opera-ish maybe. It sure keeps the reader interested.
The narrators were well cast. Rowan’s assertiveness was reflected in the female narrator’s voice, while the male narrator did a good job with Cooper’s intensity. This audiobook was a great way to enjoy Cooper and Rowan’s love story.
Quickie
- Series: Spade Hotel #2 (can be read as a standalone)
- Hashtags: #billionaire romance #enemies to lovers #secret identity #forced proximity #surprise pregnancy
- Triggers: mention of illness
- Main couple: Rowan Cole & Cooper Spade
- Hotness: 4/5
- Romance: 3/5
- + interesting characters
- – don’t tell me you don’t know what love is…
Stalker mode
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