Review by Taylor
Title: Take
Series: Temptations #2
Author: Ella Frank
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Pages: 265 pages
Blurb:
TAKE – verb: to reach for and hold in one’s hands or get into one’s possession, power or control.
Logan Mitchell is a man who’s always been more than happy to take what he wants. It’s a philosophy that’s proven lucrative in both his business and personal life, and never was it more apparent than the night he laid eyes on Tate Morrison. After pulling out all the stops and convincing the sexy bartender to give him a try—he’s hooked.
Now, Logan finds himself in a predicament that demands more from him than a smart-ass answer and his innate ability to walk away when things get too deep.
He has a choice to make, and it’ll force him to do something he’s never done before—take a chance.
Tate Morrison knows all about taking a chance. He took the biggest one of his life the night he showed up at Logan’s apartment to explore his unexpected reaction to the man.
Ever since then, he’s thought about little else.
At first he was convinced his attraction was based solely on his body’s curiosity. But the more time he spends with the silver-tongued lawyer, the more Tate realizes that their physical chemistry is only the beginning.
He’s starting to catch a glimpse of what life with Logan would be like, and it’s one full of excitement and satisfaction—a far cry from what he had in the past with his soon to be ex-wife.
Each man will face their fears as they begin to understand the true meaning of give and take. Their feelings for one another will be tested, as will their very beliefs. But now that they’ve found love where they least expected it, will they be brave enough to reach out and take it?
Review:
So Take is the sequel to Try, and the series focuses on Logan, a lawyer and former ‘player’ if you will, and Tate, a man going through a divorce from his ex-wife and a bartender at Logan’s favorite bar. Take picks up right where Try left off, and I’d love to say that this book left me with the same feelings as the previous book, but that isn’t really the case.
In Try, I went with the flow of the book. The plot wasn’t all that great, but I loved the chemistry between Logan and Tate, and the dynamic of exploration and awakening and sexual journey was both intriguing and hot. Sexual tension through the roof and while that was fine for the first book, I was hoping in this one we’d get a better story and a whole lot of character development. And the final result is well…eh? Tate and Logan’s relationship is driven far too much by sex, and the sexual encounters don’t tell each other what they refuse to say, which in that case the amount of sex would be useful. However, Tate and Logan tell each other how they feel all the time, so the sex isn’t really bringing anything new to the table. It’s fucking HOT sex, though. Like the reader needs alone time hot. BUT, everything that rode that fine edge of too much in the previous book tipped way the fuck over into annoyance-ville.
First, there are far too many sexual innuendos and awkward attempts at humor in this book all revolving around their twitching cocks and deep, heated, sexual stares. And at times, it was frankly embarrassing, like at game night – I can see making jokes every now and then in front of people you feel close with, but to make references to your erections in front of your brother, his wife and their friends felt ridiculous. Speaking of game night, Logan’s reaction there made no sense and he came across as a petulant child.
The family situation and Tate’s ex-wife drove me batshit crazy. Sure, there are people like that, and sure it might be realistic in several cases, but it was just…too much for me. The backstory with Logan and Chris kind of confused me, but I went with it, and the cliffhanger at the end wasn’t surprising. That all said, of COURSE I’m all dammit what the hell happens with all of this now???
But the biggest issue I had with Take is the incessant use of italics throughout the ENTIRE novel. I don’t need the characters to stress words in every sentence and certainly not when each time it seems to be that the italicization is being used for a sexual remark.
The thing is that this book has plenty of lovely scenes, scenes that touched me or made me laugh or made my heart race from the sexual chemistry. I loved the ‘I love yous’ and the time at the cabin. I loved the stupid jealous club scene and all the below the belt foreplay. Annndddd, I’ll totally read book 3 when I know I’m in the mood for a book like this. It’s fun, it’s easy, it’s smutty, but I’d really like there to start being more of a balance in the overall arc of Logan and Tate in terms of plot, characters development AND smut.
Rating: 
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