Pretty woman retelling

I liked the premise of this story and I devoured the book in a day and a half. Don't get me wrong, this is a pretty good book, but I sat for a long while tonight and pondered between three and four stars.

The FMC was extremely likable and relatable as was her cousin. The MMC was troubled and unemotional much of the book, which given his history is to be expected. The book, as sex forward as it was took the utmost care in regard to consent and being informed which I appreciate.

I think my issue really lay within the pacing of the plot. This character driven plot needed all of these elements, don't get me wrong. But I feel like we got a lot of sterile interaction, again totally needed. A brief tango with what could be. Then the catalyst and the 3rd act not-real-break-up. Then a lot of misunderstanding and miscommunication. At 70% I thought the book was over and to my surprise I still had 30% to go, and that content, I would have preferred to be placed before them getting together for good, in the plot line. Totally my preference, I don't think it took away from the story as I was reading it. But as I pondered my feelings on it after finishing it.

Likewise, I feel like the intimate scenes once we moved out of the sterility of the beginning didn't really evolve and they felt extremely generic.

I would have liked this as a dual POV, but that's totally my preference and not a reflection of the Author or her writing. I was very excited for this Reverse Pretty Woman retelling, but it fell short for me.

idk why i keep doing this to myself

I really enjoyed this book and I've come to wonder if it is really the author I love. Some people can write so that you have no choice but to give a crap. This author pulls this off. The jumps in time and situation threw me just a bit but they are purposeful and move the story so I never had to skim.

I recommend this one, which I got free on amazon...but definitely worth whatever they are charging now

This was surprisingly good. A great build up. I actually didn't skip most of the sex scenes as, by necessity, that's where most of the plot happened. Haha.

The end was both too slow and too much tell rather than show. Trust your readers to have understood what was happening in previous scenes!

But overall, a great time.

Oh - also, thanks for the line that indicated that not all people in the sex business felt like Ander did. That was the only thing I really disliked--the tired plotline of a sex worker devaluing themselves. But I understood Ander's background.

This was so different, and frankly I felt very awkward for Lori the entire first half of the book. How weird it would be to hire someone to take your virginity. I would be mortified to have someone instructing me throughout the process. It was very interesting though, to say the least, and it is a good thing Ander was so sweet, not just professional but really, really sweet.

Well, let me start off first by saying that this had a few editing issues... mainly missing words or verb tense, as if the sentence had been edited, but the verb was left the old way. Despite that, I really enjoyed this story. It was a little reminiscent of [b:Damaged Goods|11520968|Damaged Goods|Lauren Gallagher|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1307408122s/11520968.jpg|16457981], yet it was different enough. This is a story where I would absolutely love to have Ander's point of view. He's such a stoic character, giving very little away. Knowing what I know now, I bet I could read some into how he reacted in certain situations, but it would still be great to actually read it.

Lori is a 26-year-old who is still a virgin. Originally, she held onto the v-card because she was in love with her best friend throughout high school and college. He didn't return her feelings. Then, once she realized she had no chance with him, nobody really intrigued her. Or if they did, she'd clam up whenever it came close to having sex. So she's still a virgin and feels a bit like a faker since she's a bestselling romance writer. She decides to hire an escort to take her virginity, and when they meet, there's chemistry, though of course she feels like it's because she's paying him for that chemistry. When he shows up, he realizes she's extremely nervous. Part of the way she tries to deal with it is to ask non-sexual questions of him. My guess is that none of his clients actually viewed him as a person, and I'm sure he felt she was different just by that alone. He's able to put her at ease enough to get the deed done and she ends up setting up more appointments with him. You know, so she can learn more. About sex, of course. And if she happens to learn more about him in the process, well.... more bang for her buck, right? She can keep it professional, right? Hmmm....

The reader can kind of see where this is going, and it does, but not quickly. Heck, they don't actually even admit their feelings for one another for a really long time! I won't say this was exactly a realistic story, though it wasn't so far-fetched, and how things progressed felt really natural. And their chemistry... wow. He was teaching her, but it was really hot. It was *really* hot when he lost his control over his professional persona.

And what's really interesting to me... I complained that the book I read before this had way too much sex, but honestly, this one had a LOT of sex as well. And this one didn't bug me. I couldn't tell you what the difference was. Maybe I like Lori and Ander better right off the bat? Maybe it was just more sensual? Maybe the author didn't use the word "quim"? :-)

Everything worked out really sweetly in the end, even with a quasi-fight in what was basically the last scene. Again, it seemed to naturally work out really well. And I was really glad to see

Spoiler

that he had just collected the payment envelopes, so by giving it back to her, he sort of absolves her of her guilt for ever paying him for sex

.

Now I just need to hear from Ander. Ms. Kent? Can I have Ander's story, please? I see that there was a sort of sequel, but I don't think it's what I'm looking for. I'm more looking for something like [b:Hudson|21417430|Hudson (Fixed, #4)|Laurelin Paige|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1398700779s/21417430.jpg|40718843] was to the [b:The Fixed Trilogy: Fixed on You / Found in You / Forever with You|22038733|The Fixed Trilogy Fixed on You / Found in You / Forever with You (Fixed, #1-3)|Laurelin Paige|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1413132002s/22038733.jpg|40725766]. More info, including how he grew up/what made him into what he is when Lori finds him, but also somewhat parallel to the Fixed trilogy. Pretty please?

I liked this a lot more than I expected to! There were a lot of sex scenes which I'm usually not a huge fan of, but the romance ended up being really cute. I liked how you could see Ander falling for Lori even though she didn't see what was going on. I liked how the sex scenes became less clinical and more passionate as their relationship developed. My only major complaints were that the end seemed kind of rushed, like it seemed like she decided to end the client relationship and become friends and then all of a sudden they had been just friends for a couple months, and then again all of a sudden they're making out. I feel like that part could've been drawn out a little longer? Instead of skipping the beginning awkward part of them transitioning into becoming friends, because I would've been into that. It just went so quickly that it was like, why even bother going through that step instead of just jumping straight to the relationship? But I did love all the stuff after they get together for real and Ander starts revealing how ridiculously in love he was with her the entire time. My other complaint which is just a minor one was, why would the author make her main character have the same romance novel pen name as the actual author??? I assume it's the real author's pen name and not real name as well, but it's just… odd?? It took me out of the story because I was like, wait no, this is the author of THIS book's name, this is not this fictional character's pen name! I think it was supposed to be like a wink to the audience or something but it ended up annoying me. But anyways, overall this was very enjoyable.