Review: Enjoyable fake lovers/friends to Lovers Romance
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 25, 2014
I really liked Eva in Feel the Rush & enjoyed the friendship with Trev so I was excited for this short novella that tells their story.  It's a classic fake mates romance plot involving friends who suddenly see each other in an entirely different light.  Now they both want more, but are afraid to mess up their friendship.Eva thinks it isn't possible for her to fall in love so she has gone through many men keeping her distance emotionally and just to the physical.  She moves on before there is a chance for anything to take root and she assumes the same for Trevor.  Eva believes her own rep of tough girl, but she's not and she really feels stuff which was why she chose the fake relationship to let her ex, Luke, down gently when they met up at Meagan and Reed's wedding.  Too bad, the playacting rouses her like never before and she struggles to remember that none of its real.Trev has always had a thing for Eva, but she turned him down every time so he graciously accepted the role of friend.  Now he has his chance with her even if she thinks he's pretending.  He doesn't know what it is that is going on between them, but its the first time he has felt this way about a woman.  Trev knows there is a time limit on their time together before he has to go back to his base and she, to hers, but he'll find a way.I enjoyed this story as a whole.  The story was told with both Ava and Trevor as narrators.  It was interesting seeing them now in the lead roles and having the story from their perspectives.  There is so much more to them than I suspected.  I had to adjust my perception a bit.Eva isn't as confident in this one.  She got her wake-up call in a way when for the first time someone else walked away from her.  She was planning to end it with Luke because she wasn't feeling it, but he wanted more and got hurt and angrily said some home truths to her before he walked out the door.  Eva got a taste of her own medicine and she didn't like it.  She is still bitter until she sees that he never got over her and still wants her.  I liked that she backed off on the mouthiness and macho long enough to try to let him down again without hurting him.  Even thought the story didn't have the page count to develop things more, there is more than a hint that Luke did her a favor and started the change process in her so that she was ready to feel and love when Trevor came along to help her out of a jam.Trevor has always kept things easy and simple with women.  He has a charismatic, charming personality that makes it easy for him to get into a woman's panties, but Eva is the only one to resist which is probably what kept his attention on one woman long enough to want more.  The author does a good job of making him likeable in spite of his seeming shallowness.  He is a loyal, strong, and tender friend to both Meagan and Eva then he shows just what a wonderful thing it would be to belong to him and Eva can only fight it for so long particularly because of his sexy playfulness and need to spoon in bed.The backdrop was Reed and Meagan's wedding so it was awesome to get some more of their story.  I do wish there had been more closure with Luke- maybe he gets his own story later.  The end felt a bit rushed coming hard on the heels of the relationship resolve.  That being said, I was still happy with the results for the romance.All in all, this was a good addition to the series and it will definitely please those who like me were fans of these two secondary characters from Feel the Rush.  I suppose it could be read out of order, but there will be a strong influence on the background from the previous book.  Those who love steamy Contemporary Romance should try this series.