Filthy Beautiful Lies by Kendall Ryan

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Title: Filthy Beautiful Lies
Author: Kendall Ryan
Series: Filthy Beautiful Lies #1
Published by: Indie
Release Date: August 18, 2014
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 309
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2018 #LetsReadIndie Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 New Adult Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Big Summer Birthday Bash 2018
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound
My rating:

Blurb:

I have no idea why she auctioned off her virginity for a cool mill. Regardless, I’m now the proud new owner of a perfectly intact hymen. A lot of good that will do me. I have certain tastes, certain sexual proclivities. My cock is a bit more discriminatory than most. And training a virgin takes finesse and patience – both of which I lack.

Sophie Evans has been backed into a corner. With her sister’s life hanging in the balance, the only choice is to claw her way out, even if that means selling her virginity to the highest bidder at an exclusive erotic club. When Colton Drake takes her home, she quickly learns nothing is as it seems with this beautifully troubled man. Being with him poses challenges she never expected, and pushes her to want things she never anticipated.

A sinfully seductive erotic romance where everything has a price and the cost of love is the highest of all from New York Times & USA Today bestselling author, Kendall Ryan.

My Review:

3.5 stars — I totally thought from the premise of the book that this one would be more erotica-ish.  But it wasn’t really.  Sure, it was an unconventional romance, but I wouldn’t say the steam was any higher than other adult romances.

I was intrigued by the book, but I wasn’t wholly sucked in.  I enjoyed the chemistry between Sophie and Colton, but I also grew frustrated knowing that a willful misunderstanding was about to occur…it was heavily foreshadowed.  So just over halfway through, I started to become curious and looked at some reviews…only to learn that it’s not a series of standalones…or not quite anyways.  Sophie and Colton’s story completes in book 2.  Which is fine, though I wish I’d known beforehand, b/c I might have chosen a different book to read.  By the time I got to the end, I was torn.  The next book was a bit more than I wanted to spend, and while I was morbidly curious how it would end, I wasn’t sure if I was full price curious, you know?  And after reading some reviews for the next book, I’ve decided not to continue…I just don’t think I’m invested enough to read another full book with these two.

Both characters had good qualities and surprised me in good ways, but I also just didn’t feel invested in either of them.  It’s a weird set of feelings, you know?  I believed that Sophie had altruistic qualities wrt her sister, and I appreciated that she also understood that it was nice to have a break from that serious situation.  But she also had a very strange attitude considering the nature of her relationship with Colton…she was suspicious, and demanding, and…it was just odd.

Meanwhile Colton talks about all these odd sexual proclivities, and quite frankly I kept waiting.  And I’m not always big when authors hint at some secret, but drags it out for the book.  I’m not saying it’s wrong, it’s just not my personal preference.  So we’re told over and over again that Colton has some dark secret, and while I did guess after awhile, I was kind of confused about how it fit with what Colton was thinking at the beginning.

Then there’s the two of them together, and the way the relationship developed.  I don’t know if I quite understood the feelings they developed, and the quickness of it.  It’s a strange situation, and I guess I just didn’t always buy how that went.  But hooboy, the steamy scenes were AMAZING.  Even if it didn’t go where I expected, there was definitely great physical chemistry.

So yeah…*sigh*  I enjoyed myself, I just wasn’t as compelled as I was expecting.  *shrugs*  Ah well.