Reviewed by Donna

TITLE: As The Ice Melts

SERIES: Love For The Seasons #2

AUTHOR: RJ Jones

PUBLISHER: Vivid Blue Press

LENGTH: 111 Pages

RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2016

BLURB:

As hearts begin to thaw, a betrayal of trust threatens to put out the flames.

When Marcus McDonald receives a formal warning from his employer, he knows it’s time to tuck tail and head home to Manchester. His medical condition forces him to keep people at arm’s length, and it wouldn’t be the first time his temperament has landed him in trouble.

All Adam Radney wants is some time to paint, but his father’s death, leaving Adam and his mum up to their ears in debt, means taking on two jobs. Working at the family’s run-down Manchester fish and chip shop, Adam is confronted by a new, surly face in town and instantly dislikes the icy newcomer. So what if he pushes all of Adam’s hot buttons?

When the ice melts and things heat up between Marcus and Adam, Adam thinks all his dreams have come true. With Marcus’s help, new customers arrive and the chip shop starts to flourish, easing Adam’s mind. But when Adam puts all his trust in Marcus on the busiest night the shop has seen in years, things go awry and it leaves Adam with more questions than answers.

REVIEW:

If you were going to lay back and tease yourself, and me, you couldn’t expect me to be an innocent bystander. I would either ride it or suck it.

In the first book of this series, As The Leaves Fall we have the honor of meeting Marcus McDonald, a slutty, determined, little bitch of a character, who I naturally fell in love with immediately. He was set on breaking up our two loved up MCs but of course his evil plan went awry and now he’s forced to face some consequences. This was just the kick in the pants Marcus needed to realize that he had become a person he wasn’t happy being. So he leaves London behind and goes home to his grandmother.

What R.J. Jones has done here, is create one of my favourite characters ever. Marcus is frickin’ awesome. I loved him so much as the villain of the first book that I was a little worried when I saw he was going to have a complete turn around in character. But he doesn’t, not really, and not easily. Instead the author bares him to us, flaws and all, and makes us understand how he’s been hurt, broken by other people, and has learned to protect himself.

The condition that the author “gifted” Marcus with is definitely one that I’ve never heard of before and I was very interested to read about how he suffered with it every day. Ms. Jones certainly appears to have done her research on the subject (though I’m obviously no expert myself) and I always appreciate authors who allow characters’ medical issues to play out on page rather than just tell us something is wrong with them and that’s all we ever hear about it.

Now, as to that rather tasty quote I stuck at the top of this review…the sex in this book is absolutely, deliciously hot. The first book of the series was more about the characters denying themselves and the sexual tension was off the charts, which tends to be my preference when reading a romance. However, I’m aware that this author loves writing sex scenes – and now I see why. It’s because the muse in her head has a filthy mouth, which translates into some brilliantly smutty lines. Like this…

…if Adam had asked me to be his wanton slut, I’d ride his dick till the cows came home, no problem.

I absolutely recommend this series to everyone who loves a not-so-angsty contemporary romance. And perhaps we can all join together to gently steer the author towards writing the last two seasons of this series…

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Amazon

ARe