Review: In Review: Burn For You (Boys of the South #5) Marquita Valentine
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 22, 2014
Marquita Valentine’s Boys of the South is one of my favorite new adult romance series. I may be a northern girl (sorry, my part of Virginia is NOT the south), but even I can’t deny that boys are hotter in the south. The girls are also sassier. It’s a win-win. I thoroughly enjoy getting lost in these novels with their complicated and likable characters and the stories that are always just a little more than just a romance. I loved Rae and Cole. Bliss and Jackson stole my heart with their opposites-attract story. Wyatt and Lacey’s journey exhausted me in the best way possible. But all that is nothing compared to Beau and Landry. Marquita took the story to another level entirely with this book and to say I was emotionally invested in these characters would be a gross understatement.Landry was a great heroine. I found her easy to connect with and more than likable. She was sweet as could be, but she also had a backbone. She was determined and strong. As much as I liked Landry, my feelings for Beau were what really drove my enjoyment of this book. He could have easily been a cliched bad boy, but he was so, so much more. I have a new favorite book boyfriend, y’all, and it will take awhile for someone to unseat him, I do believe.Beau was incredible. This book felt like his story more than Landry’s, honestly, but that may be just because we were treated to his backstory at the beginning of the book. After his mother’s suicide, Beau was more or less alone in the world. He was the illegitimate child of a man with whom he didn’t have a good relationship. He met Paisley in high school and they had a very unhealthy relationship. He loved her, she pretty much treated him like crap and he took it. Paisley gets pregnant and Beau falls in love with the baby, Mia, immediately. The only problem is, she may or may not be his. That doesn’t matter to him, regardless of how Paisley likes to throw it in his face. Beau may be a tattooed and pierced race car driver, but the guy underneath is as sweet as iced tea in the south. He loves deeply and is very protective of those he cares about.Landry and Beau have an interesting first meeting – one laced with an almost instant attraction – but it’s not until he interviews her to be Mia’s nanny that things begin to get interesting. She wants the job and him, he wants her but understands nothing can happen between them because she’s the nanny, and offers the job to someone else. Fate (or something, cough) intervenes and after his first choice is deemed unfit to watch his child, he hires Landry and the real fun begins. The chemistry these two have is undeniable. They try to fight it, but I’m sure we all know how that turns out.For a guy who is as sweet as can be, let me tell you, Beau gives good dirty talk. My god. His words left me fanning myself and being very, very envious of Landry. These two were downright combustible together. They truly cared for each other, too. Their road wasn’t easy, but even the most complicated things have a way of working out for the best.Burn for You was a wild ride. The characters were wonderful and so easy to connect with. Their struggles were believable and I wanted to see them all find happiness in the end. The romance was sweet, the love scenes HOT. Beau’s relationship with Mia was sweet and just endeared him even more to me. It takes a real man to be a daddy, especially when he’s not even sure the child is his. Beau was a real man… and an incredible one at that. He and Landry were fantastic together. The story was unexpectedly deep in places, especially with regards to the relationship with his ex, Paisley. There were some unexpected twists and turns that kept me on my toes. I absolutely devoured this book in one sitting, with no regrets.Though Burn for You is part of a series, it’s a standalone novel with no cliffhanger. You wouldn’t necessarily need to read the other books in the series to enjoy it, but you totally should anyhow because you need some Cole and Rae, Jackson and Bliss, and Wyatt and Lacey in your life. Trust me. While this may be the end of Beau and Landry’s story, I hope this series continues. It just keeps getting better and better and I can’t wait to see what happens next.I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.