Item: Risking It
Rating: 4
Author: ReadingLlama

Risking It
by Angela Quarles
Series: Stolen Moments #2
Also in this series: Earning It, Deserving It
Publisher: Angela Quarles
Publication Date: November 2, 2017
Genres: Romance
Pages: 182
Source: NetGalley

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

My rating:

500-mile road trip! Mission? Get over the guy you kinda-sorta hooked up with. Problem? He's your new road-trip companion.

To Play…
So, yeah. Here’s me heading out on this stupid soul-searching road trip to get over The Turd, and here he is leaning against my car, all easy charm, batting his ridiculously long eyelashes, and asking for a ride. Explaining why he can't come along would be admitting my struggle to purge him from my thoughts. The universe is laughing at me. I can't fall for a short-term playboy. But tell that to my body, which up and goes hey there as soon as his pheromones get within sniffing distance.

Or Not to Play…
My reputation as a player isn’t just smoke and mirrors. I play the field. Constantly. No strings sex? Perfect. But ever since a certain shy book nerd slipped under my skin, I haven't wanted anyone but her. The kicker? She blew me off the next morning. Now that I'm stranded and she's my only ride, maybe I can find out why our awesome night together turned into her ghosting me.

Jane is an introvert in the truest sense of the word. Being around people – even her best friend – tires her out, and her idea of the perfect vacation is spending the day in bed reading. So when her best friend challenges her to a crazy roadside attraction road trip to get over a one-night stand, she agrees reluctantly, expecting that she’ll hurry through her daily itinerary and then spend the rest of the day reading in her hotel room. Until that one night stand misses his flight and ends up hitching a ride with her…

I loved Jane and Aiden together. I especially liked how Aiden respected Jane’s introversion. I’ve read too many books where introverted characters are, basically, forced to interact as if they are extroverted people, which somehow magically “fixes” them. While this may hold true for some people, the thought of that gives this introverted person hives! As Aiden says,

“I’m tempted to coax her, but I have a hunch she needs to break through on her own, like those nature documentaries that show hatching babies and how they have to push through the shell on their own to gain the necessary strength to survive outside it.”

Aiden and Jane both have had past relationship issues that color their initial interactions, but as they check off their road trip attractions (Giant Potty Chair! Weird dinosaur statues!), their own attraction begins to break through. And, hoo boy, it’s hot!

My biggest complaint is that it’s short – 254 pages according to my e-reader. This is the second book in the series, but it worked fine as a stand-alone for me.

Overall – this is a fun, sexy, quick read. I’ll definitely be looking up more books by this author!

Four Giant Potty Chair stars!