Night After Night by Lauren Blakely

 Their world was sex, love, and lies.
He intoxicated her. Commanded. Consumed.
With a dirty mind and a mouth to match, Clay Nichols is everything Julia never knew she wanted and exactly what she cannot have. He walked into her life one night and unlocked pleasure in her that she never knew was possible. Possessing her body, captivating her every thought. Which makes him way too dangerous for Julia to risk her heart, given that she has a price tag on her head. She ran after one mind-blowing week with him, but now he's back, and determined to make her his own.
No matter the cost.
She was a sexy drug to him. Fiery, unforgettable, and never enough, Julia is an enigma, and Clay isn't willing to let her go without a fight. But she's got dark secrets of her own that threaten to destroy any chance of happiness. She's a wanted woman - the stakes are high, her every move is watched, and yet the lure between them can't be denied. Can two people burned by love trust again when desire and passion are met by danger at every turn?

Oh man I wanted to love this story. After reading the synopsis  I wanted to be so captured by the plot and characters that I would be suffering a book hangover for weeks once I had finished it.  What I ended up feeling was confusion as to who the heck these people are and what kind of secret is so important that it is constantly mentioned yet never fully explained,  not to mention the  strong desire of needing to take a hot shower to wash the sex out of my mind.  Basically I felt major disappointment.

I would love to tell you that I connected with Clay and Julia but I can’t.  What I do feel I know is she hates owing anyone, she resents that she has to pay for the crimes of others and that she loves hot dirty sex.  She claims to have had a great childhood and family, her best friend is her sister yet she is hidden behind so many walls it was impossible for me as a reader to connect to her. I know she has been hurt by some man or men in the past and that result of those relationships is now the filter in which she views her actions and the world.   Clay, once again claims to have been brought up in a wonderful family, is a successful  lawyer who loves to talk dirty during sex for no other reason than he likes what he likes.  There is no childhood trauma he is trying to deal with by using control and “dirty sex” with women and he hates lies more than anything in the world.  He feels secrets are what destroy relationships and people.  We were given some information about a Sabrina and I was left feeling like she was the reasons for his lack of patience regarding lies and secrets and the words “trust me” are a trigger that brings up his red flags.  

Blending Julia and Clay into a relationship where one with secrets and lies who also hates to be controlled falls for the one who hates secrets and lies and wants to control not only his life but his relationship with a woman should be a great story line right?    Not so great this time, due to the immature and lacking of depth conversations between those two, the constant sex scenes and the general lack of development in the story, it fell short for me. I know a lot of readers love a great story of hot passion and dirty sex, but when you put a novel out there for the consumers, I think we expect a plot to be enhanced by the passion, not a glimpse of a plot used as a transition to the next  sex scene.  . 

I regret that I can’t say more positive things about this because I really wanted this to be awesome, everything was in place to make a dynamic plot come to life. She had a woman who needed to learn how to ask for help, a man who was in position and willing to give her that help yet neither made a move outside of the bedroom to come together. We go for the whole length of the book not knowing any more about this secret than we did when we started, making me feel left in the dark with nothing to invest in.  It felt choppy and rushed in many places and I found the sex scenes were drawn out and more consistent and even flowing.  This leads me to believe that the plot scenes were written in a rush to get to more sex.  I am sure there are many readers who will love that but for me I read the book for the story not the sex.

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