SYNOPSIS:
By Claire Kent
Date of publication: October 14th, 2014
About Finished:
For the last year, Julia has lived with two men.
Drayton is hot and mysterious, and Mike takes care of her. Together, they have great sex and a mostly stable relationship—one Julia thought satisfied her. After all, how can she complain about having two sexy men at the same time?
Then everything starts to change. Drayton is keeping a dark secret that threatens more than their arrangement. It might actually threaten their lives. And Mike keeps becoming more alpha than she’s ever known him to be.
What once was fun and casual is now a tangle of conflicting desires. Drayton wants to keep his freedom. Julia wants a real commitment.
And Mike…well, Mike just wants her.
LINKS:
EXCEPT AND TEASERS:
When she closed the front door behind her and put down her leather bag in the entryway chair, she smelled something deliciously familiar—pungent and garlicky. The television wasn’t on, and classical music was playing on the stereo. And someone was rattling around in the kitchen.
“Hello?” she called out. “Are we having company?”
“I’m in the kitchen,” Drayton said.
She wandered in and found him incongruously dressed in black trousers, gray dress shirt, and her frilly pink apron. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” Drayton was pushing something around in the frying pan, but he pulled her over to him with his free hand and gave her a peck on the lips. “I’m glad you’re back.”
“Stuffed mushrooms! Yum!” She tried to sneak a taste of the filling but he swatted her away. “To what do I owe my favorite food? Do you have bad news for me or something?”
Beginning to scoop out spoonfuls of stuffing and place them in the large mushroom caps he had lined up neatly on a cookie tray, Drayton smiled at her over his shoulder. “Why do you assume there’s an underlying agenda?”
Julia let her skeptical expression answer the question for her.
Chuckling, Drayton admitted, “All right. To tell you the truth, Mike said you’d been having a rough time lately and we should pamper you for an evening.”
Her jaw dropped, even as her heart bounced up into her throat. “Pamper?”
“That was my response to such an embarrassingly trite word. But, linguistic choices aside, I thought perhaps he was right.”
It took a minute for his dry words to sink into her consciousness. “Why do I need to be pampered?”
The look Drayton slanted her was half-knowing and half-sheepish. “You’ve been stressed lately—regarding us. Don’t try to deny it. And then this weekend…” He shrugged gracefully. “I’m sorry about Saturday night.”
For one horrifying moment, Julia thought she was going to cry. This was why she always forgave Drayton, no matter how arrogant and infuriating he could be at times. He always made sure she remembered his more frustrating characteristics weren’t the things that mattered most.
And that he and Mike would make efforts to make sure she was feeling appreciated—to give her a special evening—was just about the sweetest thing she could imagine.
“If you’re considering crying, please try to squelch the urge. My mushrooms don’t need any more humidity.”
Julia burst out laughing, and she leaned over to give Drayton a warm hug.
MEL's REVIEW:
*was generously given an copy in exchange for a honest review
I so wanted to love FINISHED by Claire Kent but I wound up just liking it. FINISHED is not the first book by Claire Kent that I have read, so I think maybe my expectations were set a little high. I was so excited to see what kind of juicy, threesome, action adventure Kent would take us on and although it does start off that way, to many things happen and it does not end that way.
Let me tell you what I loved. I loved all the hot steamy scenes. Kent is an expert in writing amazing love scenes and her writing skills are excellent. I loved Mike. I think all the woman in the world would swoon over Mike. He was great and I loved when his alpha, barbaric side came out. I saw why Julia was so attracted to him. What I did not get was her attraction to Drayton, nor the loyalty that Mike felt for him. I could not get into Drayton at all and I think that was why I was not so thrilled with the story.
Drayton was just to savvy for me. I knew he was bad news and I kept reading just to prove I was right. I also had an issue with Julia’s loyalty to Drayton. I mean, I love that she was all heart and all but I just felt she was weak and that is not how I thought Kent meant her to be. I think by Julia being such a peace maker and having such a big heart, she lost her backbone….although she did find it towards the end which was awesome.
All in all, FINISHED by Claire Kent was a good little read. I liked many aspects of it. I think if I had a little more history on all three, I would have loved it more. I just felt thrown into the middle of the relationships and kept trying to play catch up.
FINISHED by CLAIRE KENT receives 3 out of 5 Platypires!!!
Texas Hugs and Happy Reading!!!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
She also writes contemporary romance under the penname Noelle Adams.
AND A FEW INTERESTING FACTS:
Who is your biggest inspiration?
I don’t actually know if I could name one inspiration as the biggest. So many people have inspired me. My family has encouraged me in innumerable ways. But I had an English teacher in high school who always encouraged me to write fiction. I asked him a question one day, and he told me, “It’s your story. You can make it what you want.” For some reason, that really resonated, and I’ve never forgotten it.
You're throwing a party, what is your signature drink?
Red wine.
Where do you write?
Wherever I happen to be. I can really write anywhere. But normally it’s stretched out on my couch with my laptop
Rapid Fire Questions:
Early Riser, Night Owl, or Insomniac? Early Riser
Pepsi or Coke? Coke!
Coffee or Tea? Coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon
Right or left handed? Right
Print book or ebook? Both. Books I love I buy in print. Otherwise, ebooks because they create less clutter.
Social media links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NoelleAdams3
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Claire-Kent/e/B00AY1M0F8/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NoelleAdamsAuthor
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6861359.Claire_Kent
Website: http://clairekent.com/Welcome.html