Wicked Winter Saturdays 1/19: All In (The Blackstone Affair 2) by Raine Miller Review

Wicked Winter Saturdays is our weekly post created by The Autumn Review,The Bookish Babe, Hackaroos Reviews, Insightful Minds Reviews, My Secret Romance Book Reviews, Paranormal and Urban Fantasy Reviews and Sim-Sational-Books. Feel free to join in. (let us know so we can add a link to your post that week) 

Baby, it's cold outside! Time to snuggle up with a mug of hot chocolate (or a glass of wine!) and fall into a steamy, sexy book.

All In (The Blackstone Affair 2) by Raine Miller-Erotic Contemporary Romance

Kindle format given by Atria Books for review

THIS IS BOOK TWO IN The Blackstone Affair TRILOGY. THE BOOKS ARE NOT STAND ALONE. If you have not read Naked (Part 1) then you need to go back and do that first. *Raine is just looking out for you to insure you a positive reading experience*

All In, The Blackstone Affair, Part 2

Ethan Blackstone has problems. He's broken the trust of the woman he loves and she's left him because of it. Ethan isn't giving up though--he's determined to get his girl back. Their passion together was explosive, but their secrets are even darker and more frightening. With political threats directed at Brynne, Ethan has no choice but to fight for her, to win her love, and to protect her from the very dangers that could take her away from him forever. He’s willing to risk everything to have Brynne and to keep her safe. He’ll go all in… 

My Take:

I'm not quite sure what I want to say in this review. I liked the first book enough to want to read the second. I liked the second book enough to read the third. But here's the thing, this second book had the potential to be reallllly good. Unfortunately, it fell short of fabulous for me. However, there were some good points to the story that I will highlight. 

Once again, Raine Miller delivers on the steamy sex scenes. What's interesting this time around is that this book is told in Ethan's POV. Reading sex scenes from a male's perspective can be really hot. I think I would have liked to have seen more sex in this book. I know that sounds bad, but it's true. This is a hot couple and they have good chemistry. Work with what you have. The story did develop a bit further, but I just didn't feel like a whole lot happened in this one. 

My hope is that this book just suffered from the second book syndrome. You know what I mean? Sometimes the second book in a series is more of a builder for the big finale. I'm going to hang on and cross my fingers that that is the case here. 

You may be wondering what the appeal is. Well, Ethan is intriguing. While Brynne has a tragic past, which we learned about in this book, I really have more interest in Ethan's character. I also liked the sex. My panties didn't combust, but it was still pretty sexy. Sometimes you just need a good sexy book. 

Overall, I liked it enough to read the next book. I liked the ending and see the potential for this series to wrap up in a great way. If you like sexy contemporaries with a little bit of suspense, check this series out. 

Quotes:

~I stared at my image in the mirror as my face was revealed. Naked, wet, and miserable. Alone.-Loc 155

~"All of your things are still there waiting for you. Just know this..." I spoke directly just a few inches from her face, boring into her soulful eyes. "I have no intentions of letting you go." I swallowed hard. "If you come with me you're signing in for all of me, Brynne. I don't know any other way to be with you."