Dirty Little Tease is available for free as a preview novella for Dirty Little Secret -- you do not need to read the novella in order to start the series, as it is an introduction/preview to the first 100 pages of Dirty Little Secret, accompanied by some exclusive content from the author. You can read my review of Dirty Little Tease on my blog, here.
This is a spoiler-free review!
If you have read Dirty Little Tease, you are able to jump right into this book just before the halfway mark. The premise of Emma working as an escort for Gavin and Cooper's company was something that I had not come across recently, and was excited to see how it played out. The smut was pretty good and had decent build up where it did not feel as if the scene was just randomly through into the book.
I know that we were supposed to be rooting for Gavin and Emma to be together, but I was really enjoying all of the moments and conversations that Cooper and Emma were having. Gavin just seems so hot and cold with her, and Emma is constantly forgiving him almost immediately after they fight or she finds out that he does not want a relationship. He is also super jealous whenever Cooper and Emma hang out, but seems to be only externally denying that he wants to date her, because his thoughts are definitely saying that he wants her to himself.
There is a ton of drama that happens in this book that I felt hindered the development of Gavin and Emma's potential relationship expanding beyond her being Gavin and Cooper's personal escort. After every few chapters, something new would come up that would cause Emma to be upset with Gavin or be upset with something else in her life, and would always result with her calling Cooper and then Gavin being jealous that she did not reach out to him instead. This scenario was almost always followed by Gavin and Emma having sex -- it felt like I was reading a constant loop of the same thing happening over and over again.
More time could have also been devoted to going more in depth about Emma's past relationship. We know as readers that it was abusive because she explicitly states so, but then when it is actually brought up because it plays a role in the story, it felt glossed over. In Emma's POV we learn more about how much abuse she endured and how she was in the hospital because of it, but then we never hear about it again.
This book felt like Fifty Shades of Grey had a love triangle between Anna, Christian, and his brother -- Emma is inexperienced when it comes to submission, and Gavin is a CEO who has been involved in it for years, as he and his brothers run a high-end escort service. There are the expected "I don't do relationships" scene, "I don't spend the night with anyone" scene, and a helicopter scene, just to name a few similarities. It felt as though I was re-reading Fifty Shades of Grey instead of reading a new book, but I am a sucker for those tropes so I was just happy to be along for the ride.
The cliffhanger definitely has me wanting to read the next book in the series. To the best of my understanding, the next book is still Gavin's focus, but then the books transition to Cooper and Quinn. The first 200 pages of this book definitely had me flipping the pages so fast, but then I felt as though the story slowed down until the very last couple chapters, with a new drama plot thrown in to spearhead the next book.
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