The Allure of Julian Lefray by R.S. Grey

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Title: The Allure of Julian Lefray
Author: R.S. Grey
Series: The Allure #1
Published by: Indie
Release Date: June 28, 2015
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 367
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Romantic Comedy
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2018 #LetsReadIndie Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 New Adult Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ IndieBound
My rating:

Blurb:

From: JosephineKeller@LLDesigns.comTo: LilyNBlack@gmail.com Subject: Justin Timberlake Nudes!

Lily, you predictable perv. I knew you'd open this email faster if I tempted you with a glimpse of JT's "PP". Well, put your pants back on and grab some bubbly because I have much better news to share.

I got a job!

As of tomorrow, I'll be the new executive assistant at Lorena Lefray Designs. I am so excited, but there's one itty bitty problem: I won't be Lorena's assistant. I'll be working for her older brother, Julian.

I know what you're thinking - "But Jo, what's the problem?"

Google him. Now. He's the man in the fitted navy suit whose face reminds you that there's hope yet for this cruel, ugly world. Keep scrolling.... Do you see those dimples? Yup. That's the Julian Lefray I will be reporting to tomorrow morning.

Lord, help us all....

XO, Jo

My Review:

4 stars — The humour in this book was ON POINT.  These characters seriously just entertained the shit out of me.  It wasn’t like raucous laughter, but just so much sassiness and just normal person funniness.  I really appreciated that.  I mean, there were also very absurd situations on occasion, but the moments that lit me up the most were just the internal thoughts of both Josephine and Julian.

And in case it wasn’t obvious, I loved both Jo and Julian!!  I don’t know what expectations I had, but these two were not what I was expecting.  They were earnest, and silly, and flawed.  I know this is going to sound weird, but I loved the way they both acted when they each got drunk…and not in a good way.  It was just so realistic, they both behaved kind of badly.  It just felt very real you know?  Alcohol really does not make us all smooth human beings, it usually makes us a bit more abrasive.  But they didn’t do anything I couldn’t forgive them for, I just rolled my eyes and thought “yup, that sounds about right.”

I felt like Jo was seriously approachable…like someone I could be friends with, even though I don’t have a fashion bone in my body.  She was just down to earth, hardworking, and as I said — SO SASSY.  I loved her inner monologue.  I will admit I was a bit bummed that she was yet another mysterious unicorn heroine that is so stunningly beautiful that every man turns to check her out, but yet she doesn’t know it and doesn’t really have much romantic experience…BUT I could sort of understand that growing up in such a small town, she probably didn’t meet a lot of guys she didn’t grow up with.

Julian was more down to earth than I was expecting as well.  And I loved that you could see his insecurity about his feelings and relationship with Jo, since he didn’t really have any experience with that.  It was kind of endearing in a weird way.  He was just not the hero I was anticipating, but I loved who we got even more.

Strangely enough it was the romance/chemistry between the two that kind of underwhelmed me.  I LOVED their friendship and friendship chemistry, but I didn’t really get as many butterflies as I was expecting from the “more” parts.  Part of that is because there was a bit of back and forth as they would give in, and then Jo would put up boundaries again…though I got her reasons, it did get a bit tiring.  Another part is that I didn’t expect the steamy scenes to have a fade to black aspect.  It totally caught me off guard, especially because it wasn’t like the foreplay was super clean, so I felt kind of let down.  Honest to goodness, that’s basically the only reason this isn’t a 4.5 star or more book.

I really enjoyed the secondary characters as well, even though we didn’t get a lot of them.  Obviously both Dean and Lily captured my attention with their antics, and so now I want to read their book.  And I enjoyed the little bits of extra we got to see with both Julian and Jo’s families.

This is my first book by Ms. Grey, but it definitely won’t be my last!