Such a cute read that starts with a little breaking and entering. Addie has lost her dog, Barnable, until she happens to hear him barking from someone’s basement and attempts to rescue him. Ryan is a workaholic who has always treated relationships like he does a business transaction and the last thing he expects is to find some beautiful woman breaking into his house. These two were complete opposites but they did have a serious attraction they tried to fight but just couldn’t. This was a fun read and I loved it all from start to end. ( )

Sweet with heat
4 stars

Sexy Suit is a new novel that’s part of the first intake into the Cocky Hero Club. These novels are all set in the new world inspired by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward's series of standalone novels that started with Cocky Bastard. This particular story is part of the Stuck-Up Suit world and Graham and Soraya, the couple from that book, appear in this one.

If you’ve read Stuck-Up Suit, I’m sure you’ll be delighted to catch up with Graham and Soraya, and see how much in love they still are - and what they’re up to now. But if, like me, you’ve never read Stuck-Up Suit, then they just appear as any other supporting characters. Simply put, this book stands completely alone - you do not need to have read any other book to read and enjoy this one.

So onto the book - and goodness it was an enjoyable book.

I’ve read a little of J.H. Croix before and each time she manages to pull me into her stories with her wit, humour and sweetness coupled with deliciously dirty sex. It’s a bit like the book equivalent of seeing a ridiculously hot, naked man cuddling a cutesy wootsy puppy. All kinds of goodness in her writing.

It’s a bit of an opposites attract romance with our sassy Southern heroine - a fish out of water New Orleanian recently transplanted to New York - and our slightly grumpy, slightly assholish, bona fide New Yorker. While I’m putting them into distinct boxes, one of the best things about Addie and Ryan is that they’re neither one dimensional, nor stereotypical. Ryan especially has quite an obvious progressive emotional transformation thanks to Addie - and Barnable, of course.

While this is a sweet, almost gentle romance, it does has its funny moments such as when Barnable breaks into Ryan’s house, and his antics in general. I love dogs, but it’s unusual to find one with personality in a book that doesn’t come across as cringey and twee. Not so Barnable. Other authors take note - this is how you write a dog into a romance!

And let’s not forget the sex scenes - which are smoking hot. Shove you up against the door, I must have you right now kind of hot. But there was purpose to them and each time something happened it did drive the story on. Not that that’s necessarily required for me with sex in a story - it just so happened that that’s the way it happened in this one.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters, story, love story, conflict - everything was on point and it was a fun read. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars was because I felt it stalled ever so slightly at the 1/3 or so mark. It picked up again and rallied right up until the end, which was swoon-worthingly wonderful - which definitely makes me feel guilty for the 4 stars. Yet 4 stars is still a solid rating for a book that I can’t see anyone disliking. If you like Ms Croix’s writing, or are just looking for a cute and sexy New York romance, then this is the book for you. ( )