In Too Deep by Emma Lee Jayne

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Title: In Too Deep
Author: Emma Lee Jayne
Release Date: May 17, 2022
Format: eARC
Pages: 113
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Source: the author
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2022 COYER Spring
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:

Blurb:

A Brother’s Best Friend/Fake Relationship Romance

Cassie

Did I ask my brother’s insanely hot Navy SEAL best friend to crash my work vacation and pretend to be my boyfriend? No, no, I did not. It’s not that I’m not grateful Nick is trying to help me save face in front of my ex and his legal secretary who now wears his engagement ring and baby bump. I am incredibly grateful. But also incredibly turned on because Nick is very hands-on when it comes to his fake boyfriend duties. With every kiss and touch the line between fake and real becomes more and more blurry.

Nick

Did I sacrifice my own leave to go on a work vacation with my best friend’s sister? Yes, I did. Cassie and I have been penpals–for lack of a better term–for the better part of two years and I already know I’m nuts about her. Sight unseen. So knowing she has to go on a work trip with her cheater of an ex, yeah I sign up to play her boyfriend. I’m hoping to convince Cassie that we belong together. I’m all in and ready to claim this gorgeous woman for good… forever.

***

Meet the men of SEAL Team Romeo. At work, these warriors serve their country, protect the innocent, and generally kick ass. No matter the challenge, or the danger, they always have each other’s six. They’ve been too busy saving the world to find love. Until now.

While on leave, each of them is about to meet their match. These SEALs fight hard...and love harder. Whether she's the girl next door or the one that got away, when the right girl captures a Romeo's heart, she's his for life.

Get ready to fall for SEAL Team Romeo in this series of short and steamy romances, coming in May from some of your favorite instalove authors.

My Review:

I received a free copy through the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

3.5 stars — This was a super fast and easy read.  Both Nick and Cassie were pretty easy to like, and I enjoyed them together, though I will admit that I didn’t enjoy them as much as some other couples I’ve read from this author.  I think my rating is more of an “it’s not you, it’s me” kind of situation.

Nick was focused and determined, but also so caught up in his head and his plans that he overcomplicated things.  I appreciated seeing his friends give him the gears to get his head out of his butt.  I think I might have enjoyed him more in a full length book, because maybe then we’d have gotten more insight into why he is the way he is.  But there was still enough in this novella to connect with him at least a bit, and root for him.  I, personally, am not always a fan of the alpha male posturing, but I kind of knew that I might get a bit of that given this is a military series.  And it wasn’t over the top.

Cassie…hmmm.  I had a bit of a harder time with Cassie, just because I didn’t quite get her reactions wrt her ex and how she saw Nick.  She was awfully stand-offish with Nick, and I think I was a bit confused.  I did expect it a bit, given the blurb, but I guess at the end of the book I still don’t quite get what motivated that — at least to that degree.  But I did appreciate that she stood up for herself, was assertive, didn’t let herself get used, etc.

And their steam factor was SOLID.

I think there were other little bits hinting at other stories (Remy, Wade, Jonah, Cara) that took up a bit more time in the story than maybe I would have liked.  But again, I got why they were there (to entice the reader to then buy those stories), but since I was mostly in this one for the author and not the story style, it was distracting and unsatisfying.

On a side note, the ARC copy I read was pretty rough, so I did have stumbling blocks trying to figure out what some sentences were trying to say, but that can happen.  Hopefully it got another editing pass before publish.

So yeah.  I still can see what has captured me with this author, but the story just wasn’t a match for what I most enjoy.  And I kind of knew that was a possibility, but took a risk anyways.