Everything For Her by Alexa Riley Review
4.5 Smooches
Synopsis
I’ll never forget the way she looked, so confident and sure of herself. I watched her from a distance. She wasn’t ready for me yet. I didn’t approach her and I didn’t disturb her, but I never once took my eyes off her.
Mallory Sullivan is ready to start her new life. After graduating at the top of her class, she’s landed one of the most coveted internships in the United States. Hard work and determination have gotten her to this moment of living the life she only dreamed of while growing up in foster care.
From the start, I knew that she would be my greatest achievement, so the day I let her go, I set down a path for her. A path to me.
She never expected Oz to be the greatest culmination of those dreams. But sometimes fate determines who you fall in love with. Who makes you lose control. Who owns your soul.
And then you realize it wasn’t fate at all…
I’ve wanted to care for and protect her since the first moment I saw her. I’ve constructed everything in our lives so that at the perfect moment, I could have her, could give her the life she deserves.
The time has come.
Review
I’m just going to come right out and say it, I’m a huge fan of over-the-top, ridiculously obsessed alpha males who fall instantly in love with their <preferably virgin> heroines. Yep, I’m owning it: I love smut. The fact of the matter is that I’m not alone. This segment of the romance genre is growing dramatically, with previously discriminating romance readers devouring these quick and steamy novellas voraciously. I’d even go so far as to say that if you took a peak at the Kindle of any romance fan, you’re bound to find a few of these smutty little gems there. Chief among the authors churning out that smut is Alexa Riley, and let me tell you, they do it really, really well. I’ve read—and enjoyed—quite of few of the books written by this bloggers-turned-authors creative duo. I won’t even pretend that I’m not a fan. Here’s the thing about these types of stories, they’re wholly implausible, completely unrealistic and don’t resemble anything even close to real life. And that’s ok. When I pick up one of these stories, it’s to turn off reality and immerse myself in something very, very unreal. This, folks, is escapism reading.
One of the hallmarks of these steamy stories are that they’re generally novella length reads. Another is that they are chock full of steamy sex. So page or word count constraints coupled with half of the book taking place in a bedroom (or a shower, up against a wall, the sofa… well, you get the idea), there isn’t a lot of time, space or opportunity to fully develop a well plotted storyline. So, I’m going to lay even more honesty on you here and say that I was wondering if they could pull it off. I mean a full length novel about an obsessed billionaire and the virgin of his dreams? Well, I’m thrilled, seriously pleased as punch, to say that Alexa Riley totally pulled it off!
For their first venture into a full-length novel, the ladies gave their readers everything that we have come to expect from them, and more. The constraints of space and time removed, they were free to expand on the characters, to dig deeper into their stories, to lay a solid foundation, and they did it well. They didn’t scrimp on the details at all in this book, and Everything for Her was way more of a plot-driven story than we’ve ever seen from them before. There was a suspenseful component to the story that hooked me in and held my interest throughout the book. I loved Mallory and Miles, and just when I thought one of their heroes couldn’t possibly be more consumed with the heroine than the last one they wrote about was, they roll out with Miles Osbourne. With one glance, at the wrong time and in the wrong place, Miles knew that he wanted Mallory to be his and he set about doing everything he could to make that happen. This dude was lightyears beyond any other hero that has ever come from the minds of these two, and while Mallory needed time to adjust to it, I lapped it right up. This book was very steamy, as is to be expected from Alexa Riley, but it wasn’t the only thing here. There was a story, there was suspense, there were other characters, whose stories I am very much looking forward to by the way, and there was romance with the love story. It wasn’t all about the brief chase and quick claiming, there was more wooing and relationship building, and I found that I really liked it from them.
Everything for Her was a great entrance into full-length storytelling for Alexa Riley, and I’m looking forward to more of them, along with their signature smutty novellas, from them. Alexa Riley’s Everything for Her gets 4.5 smooches from me!
~ Danielle Palumbo
