Read with Me

4 Stars

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, Loveswept

Date of publication: July 17th, 2018

Genre: Romance

Series: Lightning

Down & Dirty – Book 1 (review here)

Hot & Heavy – Book 2

Where you can find Hot & Heavy: Amazon | Barnes and Noble

Book synopsis (from Goodreads):

When a daredevil football stud tries to get into your yoga pants, you know class is about to get interesting. The New York Times bestselling author of Down & Dirty returns with Hot & Heavy.

Sage: Although I come from a long line of free-spirited yoga teachers, sometimes I wish my life could be just a little more normal. More ordinary. More boring. Easier said than done, especially since it’s on me to keep my family’s studio up and running every time my mother wanders off to find herself. But that’s when my best friend sends me a sexy new student: Shawn Wilson, a slick wide receiver with a death wish and a chip on his broad, muscular, irresistible . . . wait, what were we talking about again?

Shawn: They say I’m an adrenaline junkie. The truth is, I only really feel alive when I’m risking my life: Snowboarding, parachuting, BASE jumping . . . the kind of fun team management considers breach of contract. When my coach orders me to take yoga to “center myself,” I’m pissed—until I get an eyeful of delectable, flexible Sage Kaufmann. Unfortunately, she’s determined to keep things between us strictly business. But if Sage can get me to enjoy downward dog, maybe I can convince her that scorching hot sex could be the perfect shot of adrenaline.

With their own sweet HEAs, Tracy Wolff’s red-hot Lightning novels can be read together or separately:
DOWN & DIRTY | HOT & HEAVY

My review:

You know when a book starts off with the two main characters getting their freak on in a bar outside the bathroom that the main focus is going to be sex. So I wasn’t surprised by the amount of sex in this book. What I was surprised was how involved I got with the characters. I was thinking that this book was going to be heavy on the sex and light on the plot. Instead, I got surprised. The plot was as good as the sex.

I loved Sage. She has to be one of my favorite fictional characters to date. She had a childhood that left her craving for stability. So, what does she do? Becomes an accountant. Nothing more stable than that. She kept people at arm’s length, not willing to let anyone in. The only person she let in was Emerson. That was until she met Shaun. I felt that meeting Shaun was good for her. He made her go outside her comfort zone. He made her reevaluate what was important in her life. I loved watching her interact with Shaun. She didn’t know how to act with him. He threw her off-center. Loved it!!!

I thought Shaun was an idiot for most of the book. He did high risk, daredevil antics that put him in danger. He didn’t care. Then he hurt his shoulder and met Sage. But even then, he didn’t slow down. I mean, after Sage did a deep muscle massage plus taught him some yoga moves, he went flipping mountain climbing and REINJURED his shoulder. I did a facepalm when he did that. He acted like a child. Did what he want, when he wanted and forget everyone else. It wasn’t until he scared Sage and his friends free diving that he kind of woke up. I say kind of because I didn’t get the feeling that he was going to stop. Tone down, yes. Stop, no.

I wish that there the romance was built up between Shaun and Sage. While I appreciate, like any red-blooded woman, hot sex in a book, I do like a romance first at times. Sage and Shaun could have benefited from a romantic build up instead of banging the heck out of each other. I felt that any romance that could have happened was overshadowed by the sex. I did yell at my book and say “Take her out to dinner, Shaun. Not to your bed” a couple of times…lol.

Speaking of sex, holy moly was it hot. This author loves having her characters do the dirty in public places. Hunter and Emerson (from Book 1) had a famous BJ while Emerson was showing him a house. Shaun and Sage, sex in a bar outside a bathroom. Yes!! Plus pool sex (which isn’t my thing, personally) was made fantastic and somewhat doable. Shaun and Sage also had insane sexual chemistry. INSANE!!! A look could get either of them going. Or in Shaun’s case, a touch when doing yoga…haha.

I need to talk about what I didn’t like about both characters (besides the obvious). Sage’s mother was a piece of freaking work. Who, in their right mind, would take money out of a business and use it to pay a guru in India? And what got me was that she didn’t care. When Sage opened up to her about how her upbringing affected her, the first thing her mother said was “I make no apologies for how I lived my life” (or something along that line). I was like “Seriously lady, your daughter has ISSUES because of that”. I loved that the author didn’t try to change Sage’s mother and didn’t make excuses for her.

What I didn’t like about Shaun was that he was feeling guilt over his mother and sister’s death. Yes, he was in a rush but he was also a child. Guess what, kids make parents rush. I wanted to hug him when he told Sage that. He also revealed why he did extreme sports. Which was also heartbreaking.

The end of the book was what I expected. Total HEA. I read it with a huge grin on my face. I couldn’t wipe it away. Loved it!!

What I liked about Hot & Heavy:

A) Sage. Loved her

B) The plot of the book

C) The sex

What I disliked about Hot & Heavy:

A) Shaun. He acted like a child for most of the book

B) Almost no romance. Wish there was more

C) Sage’s mother. Couldn’t stand her

I would give Hot & Heavy an Adult rating. There is explicit sex. There is language. There is mild violence. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.

I would reread Hot & Heavy. I would also recommend to family and friends.

I would like to thank Random House Publishing Group, Loveswept, and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review Hot & Heavy.

All opinions stated in this review of Hot & Heavy are mine.

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**