3 out of 5 stars
Kindle Edition. Kindle Unlimited. 200 pages. Published January 20th 2018
Blurb:
Evan
Cray:
After I crashed my party-boat into a plane (long story), my uncle took my trust
fund away, and made me get a job at his company. If that wasn’t bad enough, my
new boss turned out to be Simon, the gorgeous guy I hooked up with at the club
the other night, before realizing who he was. All I have to do to get my trust
fund back is straighten up, do a good job, and keep my hands off Simon. No problem, right? But he is so shy
and cute and I’m not sure I can do it…especially because I think he feels the
same way about me. But here’s the thing: I don’t need the trust fund money
for me. I need it for my
son. Nobody knows about him, because I don’t want my toxic uncle to destroy his
life.
Simon Bowden:
How could I fall for a rich disaster like Evan? I’m Mr. Responsibility, and for
me and my friends, the Crays have been our natural enemies since high school.
But when I discover that he’s hardly the shallow playboy I thought he was–that
he has depth and secrets–I can’t hold back, I have to have him. But I think
his family knows…and they’re trying to poison him against me. Everybody
thinks I’m meek and mild, but they’re going to learn differently when they try
to take my man away.
Rock-A-Bye is the first standalone in the Cray’s
Quarry series, about five best friends who won’t stop meddling in each
other’s love lives, until each one has an HEA.
Likes:
- Story and blurb got me interested.
- Interesting characters.
- Hot smut.
- Plenty of options for future story main characters.
- Low angst.
Dislikes:
- Unsafe sex.
- No lube.
- Lack of important background info.
- ‘I love you’ came way too fast.
- Cartoonishly evil uncle.
- Lots of unbelievable plot devices that just got more ridiculous as the book went on.
- Not good enough motivation for the characters.
I really liked this book at the start. I enjoy watching rich guys forced to live and work like normal people. Evan goes from trust fund party boy to office drudge in an instant. That alone was enough to hook me. And the first chapter was good. Plus, knowing that he had a secret child that he was financially taking care of? Yeah, I was on board.
Then Evan blows some random guy in the club without any protection and all I can think of is ‘If this is his norm, he must be swimming in STDs.’ Seriously, the only mention of safe sex in this book is in the form of ‘they’d used an entire box of condoms that night’ kind of way to show how much sex had been had. I need some reality in my romance. Swallowing a stranger’s load in the back hallway of a club is not going to make me like a character.
Despite that, this story had potential. I enjoyed the first half, watching Simon and Evan try to stay just coworkers, then quickly fall into bed. Then the ridiculousness began to set in.
Evan’s uncle is a horrible person. But Evan always takes him at his word. I ended up constantly annoyed at Evan because he kept trying to play by the rules when his uncle was using every cheat in the book. Evan is a nice guy but he’s almost stupidly naive. Especially at the end of the book, it really felt like Evan had been so sheltered that he didn’t know how to act like a normal person. But there was no real reason or evidence for why he let his uncle push him around so much.
Oh, and the whole ‘Evan needs his trust fund money for his kid’ thing? Total bullshit. It was the flimsiest excuse in the entire book. It felt like it had been added in as the reason Evan didn’t fight back against his uncle. Only problem? Evan didn’t need an entire trust fund just to pay basic child support.
As for Simon, he was nice. Likeable in a ‘guy who doesn’t know his own charms’ kind of way. Unfortunately with Simon, he’s unexperienced in romance, although there’s no reason given. Even Simon’s brother comments that many people have said how attractive Simon is, yet he almost acts like a virgin. And maybe he is one – it’s a little unclear. That lack of important background info is rampant throughout the book.
I honestly can’t say I’d suggest this book. It was fine for a quick, low angst read, but the issues got so prevalent that I was happy to get to the end. I’m curious to see if the next book in the series will be any better. The writing was decent enough that I can tell the author has skill. But the story as a whole was lacking.
I dropped this series after two books, but you can find the review for book two, Set in Stone.
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