Today we have the blog tour for The First Rule of Hook-Ups by Nina Crespo. Check it out and be sure to grab your copy today!
Author: Nina CrespoSeries: Breakup Bash #1
Audience: +18
Genre: Erotic Romance, Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Entangled Publishing LLC (Brazen)
Release Date: November 12th 2018
My Rating: 4 Cups
Source: InkSlinger PR
Blurb (from Goodreads):
Someone once told me that there are worst things than being left at the altar. Well, not many, in my experience. That was six months ago, though, and my life has moved on. Heck, I have a new job lined up and I'm leaving town.*Disclaimer: I received an eARC of this book from InkSlinger PR in exchange for an honest review. This does not influence my rating or the content of my review in any way.
But, I can't deny that my love life kind of sucks.
That’s why I let my friends convince me to join them for Club Escapade’s Breakup Bash. And we might just be disillusioned enough to actually enjoy it. Last time we were here, it was for my bachelorette party. That night, I met one of the dancers – Raphael – and when he flirted with me, I almost forgot I was engaged. And there's a part of me that never forgot him.
Now, it seems my friends have wandered off and I’m thinking about calling it a night. Until the music begins and I see Raphael, my secret fantasy, on stage. And this time, I’m definitely not engaged...
**Disclaimer: This book contains mature content. As a result, my review may contain references to content intended for mature audiences only.
This was such a fun book! I had a lot of fun reading about Alexa and Rafe so, so much! This was also my first time reading a book by Nina Crespo and I was definitely not disappointed.
The First Rule Of Hook-Ups is a story of healing after a heartbreak, a really painful one. Alexa was dumped by her fiancé just minutes before they were supposed to be married, through a letter, while Rafe is holding on to a lot of childhood anger and disappointment towards his father, as well as what his ex did to him. The book starts off with Alexa and her best friends being happy and in love. And then all goes to hell.
Alexa was a fantastic heroine. She has a successful career, she's any employee's dream boss (or at least mine she was), she's super smart and she knows what she wants and what she deserves to get. She does however have a problem with expressing her feelings when her doing that might annoy or hurt other people, and I was very happy to see her finally get some stuff off her chest. She's also one of those people that have a hard time shutting off the work related part of their brain, so whenever Rafe would tell her about something going wrong at the club, she would automatically go into business mode and try to come up with solutions. Which isn't to say that it's a bad thing, but she does need to relax a little bit. I really liked how she stood up for herself, I loved the fact that she didn't allow her ex to just come back and act like nothing happened, and she didn't allow anyone to shame her for who she was dating.
Rafe was a sweetheart. I was really sad for him, both for his childhood and for the way his ex treated him. I also loved the fact that he didn't allow anyone to make him feel less worthy for his past job. I liked how relaxed he was around Alexa. They're both pretty guarded people, but they were definitely more relaxed around each other. And they also helped out each other. Rafe helped Alexa admit her pain over being left at the altar and betrayed by the person who should have loved her and treasured her, while Alexa helped Rafe accept his past and not be so jaded about life, but also how to learn to forgive. And, yes, I'll say it, Rafe was also hot. He was like a book version of a Magic Mike dancer and very swoony.
The story is pretty fast paced, and I read it quite fast. I was also really intrigued by Alexa's friends, Natalie and Corinne, as well as Shannon, Rafe's business partner. So hopefully their stories will be next in line in this new series. I did however want to spend a little more time with Rafe than with Alexa at times, but that's just because I was so intrigued by Rafe and his story, that we find out more about later in the book.
All in all, I really enjoyed this book. It was a great first book in a series and I am very excited to read the next book in the series. I'm definitely keeping my eye out for more books by Nina Crespo.
