HOOKED - Xenatine

Earlier this week, on my blog, I gave a two star rating to a book and complained that it had too much gratuitous sex at the expense of the story. I thought it might be appropriate to follow that up with another book that had more than a decent amount of sex but managed to have a complex (romance) story, showing that it is possible to combine story and explicit sex in a book.

I don't typically read romance books but mostly because there are other books I'd rather read first.  In my admittedly rather complicated method of 'what to read next' system, this is what popped up. And, wow ... I really liked this.

"Cat" is a confident young woman who loves to skateboard. She's tough and adventurous and she's not looking for anyone or anything to interrupt her life.  She's a graffiti artist when she's not at work as a graphic designer. Her best friend and house-mate is a gay male, Jay, and the two get along fabulously. 

She surprises herself then when a most attractive man catches her eye taking pictures of her graffiti work. He happens to be on the same 'snark' page as she, which catches her off-guard, but which she admires.  He introduces himself as Huck when she calls herself Cat.

The pair hook up for some NSA action, but both, independently, find themselves completely drawn to the other and enjoy a good deal of time together. Until their personal lives collide and misunderstandings abound.

First off, the writing itself was fantastic. Too often, self-published works come across as simple with poor writing quality. That wasn't the case here at all. This could easily have been published by one of the big presses.

In romance fiction there's a trope or category called "enemies to lovers" which is pretty self-explanatory. This book surprised me by being an enemies to lovers book - surprised me because it starts as lovers, then moves to enemies and the crux of the book is moving back to lovers.

But perhaps what really elevates this book is the complexity of the story. These characters have a background and family. It's not just about the two of them, which I found refreshing.

My only complaint is that the back-and-forth love/hate aspect went on a little too long. If this had been a tad shorter it might be a perfect romance. 

Looking for a good book? With Hooked, by Xenatine, romance readers will find much to love and readers of erotic fiction will also find much to enjoy. This is an all around delightful book.

4 stars

* * * * * *

Hooked

author: Xenatine

publisher: Manzari Books, LLC

ASIN: B0D57LDP76

Kindle Edition, 416 pages

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