Review: Sassy, Erotic and Awesome!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 31, 2013
His Risk to Take is the second book in Tessa Bailey's hotter than hot His Line of Duty series. His Risk to take features Troy Bennett, a badass homicide cop and Ruby Elliott, a sassy pool hustler.I read His Risk to take right after reading Tessa's first book, Protecting What's His, so I had certain expectations. Expectations for a sinfully hot alpha male who says exactly what's on his mind in the naughtiest way possible, a sassy, attitude-filled but sweetly vulnerable heroine, some goose-bump inducing dirty dialogue and intensely erotic sex scenes. Troy and Ruby blew those expectations to the moon!Troy is a homicide cop from Chicago who has just transferred to New York after losing his best friend during a case. He's strong, in charge, knows exactly what he wants and how he wants it and is very, very self-controlled. Well, that is, he's self-controlled until he meets Ruby! She's sassy, head-strong and tests all his limits. They're intensely drawn to each other and the tension and chemistry between the two bounces off the pages in a way that comes across as very organic, rather than forced and silly.I will admit, part of the draw for Tessa Bailey's books is the promise that there is going to be some intense, dirty and erotic sex scenes. But His Risk to Take was so much more than simple erotica. It has an excellent plot that flows well, makes sense and comes across as realistic rather than convoluted and silly. There's enough intrigue from events in the book and character development to keep the story-line interesting and engaging in between the yummy sex scenes. The dialogue is rich and engaging and is written in a way that you can practically hear each character spouting the lines.Now, on to the juicy stuff! The sex scenes are...scorching. There's no other word for it. I had goose bumps reading them! They are deeply erotic with strong elements of control and teasing and I definitely recommend keeping an icy-cold drink next to you while you read them. Sex scenes like that can come across as cheesy and silly, but Tessa created chemistry and tension between the characters that make the scenes seem very organic and real. While they are extremely erotic, there's also a sense of sweetness to them,  especially as they grow to trust each other, that will leave you feeling both hot and a little bit dreamy!My only complaint about the book is that it is quite short. The storyline is well paced but the ending does come quite quickly and I wish there could have been just a few more scenes, maybe an epilogue to finish up the story. Overall, Tessa has created a rich world where you're driven to get to know every one of the characters, including Troy's incredibly sexy sounding partners, Brent and  Daniel, and Ruby's good friend Bowen and leaves you begging for more (quite literally!).