Title: Ladies Man
Series: Manwhore #3
Author: Katy Evans
Release Date: April 26, 2016
Rating: 1 star
Cliffhanger: No
TAHOE ROTH.
Irreverent, cocky, playful and naughty.
He’s not the guy you date.
He’s the one night stand.
The one your mother warned you about.
The one your body craves.
You’d think the man who called me succulent would want to strip me down and spread me out on his bed—like he’s done with countless others.
But he passed on my offer….
Just like I’d once passed on his.
He’s wary, like I am.
He’s broken, like I am.
And everyone knows two broken parts can’t ever make a whole.
Tahoe and I are strictly friends.
So I distract myself with other men.
He doesn’t think my new man is good enough. This blond blue-eyed beast doesn’t think any man is—himself included.
But the more time we spend together, the more confused I feel.
I'm trying to open myself to love.
Yet I'm quickly realizing that the only man I want is Tahoe Roth.
The one man who will surely break my heart.
Irreverent, cocky, playful and naughty.
He’s not the guy you date.
He’s the one night stand.
The one your mother warned you about.
The one your body craves.
You’d think the man who called me succulent would want to strip me down and spread me out on his bed—like he’s done with countless others.
But he passed on my offer….
Just like I’d once passed on his.
He’s wary, like I am.
He’s broken, like I am.
And everyone knows two broken parts can’t ever make a whole.
Tahoe and I are strictly friends.
So I distract myself with other men.
He doesn’t think my new man is good enough. This blond blue-eyed beast doesn’t think any man is—himself included.
But the more time we spend together, the more confused I feel.
I'm trying to open myself to love.
Yet I'm quickly realizing that the only man I want is Tahoe Roth.
The one man who will surely break my heart.
It really pains me to have to give this book such a rating, I really expected when starting this that I'd be falling all over myself in excitement. Sadly, that's just not the case. No matter how hard I tried to fit the square peg in the round hole, this book wasn't the right fit for me.
I finally had to admit defeat: I didn't like Tahoe Roth. In addition? Gina wasn’t a particular favorite either.
There. I said it. When you don’t like either main character of a book, there’s a serious problem.
I say this with all due respect to the author, because some of her books have been top favorites that I've read and re-read over the years. Typically, I love her writing. She has a phenomenal ability to create the most intense and raw chemistry between her characters. It's the kind of erotic tension that pulls so taut that it has your chest fluttering in anticipation. I didn't feel that here. Tahoe and Gina's odd and convoluted relationship towards each other had me shaking my head in either bafflement or anger.
Gina and Tahoe are both best friends to the main characters of the previous three Manwhore books, Rachel and Saint. They had an obvious attraction, but Gina has been burned badly by her ex and isn't open to relationships. Not that Tahoe is either. He's the worst kind of manwhore and not remotely sorry. Which takes us to the beginning of Ladies Man. Gina and Tahoe have fallen into a zone that's kind of friends/kind of not. Wishing for more, but at the same time...not.
He's annoying. He's cocky. Selfish. Self-centered. Really, I don't even know why we're friends.
I want to take him home and kiss him.
I want him to take me home and kiss me.
And then I want to forget I ever kissed him, and ever wanted to.
This is Gina from one moment to the next. From page one until far into the book. In a way, I understood her mixed emotions, but honestly I never had much sympathy. She wasn’t the strong independent woman she was portrayed as in the other books. She was something else. She didn’t know, and I sure as hell didn’t know. She was a revolving door of emotions: hesitant, needy, and desperate. I wanted to slap her on each cheek and say, “For God’s sake, pull yourself together, woman!” My patience soon started to wear thin.
Tahoe gives her a heavy lidded stare, looks at her like he wants to eat her for dessert...then walks off with a woman (or two, or three) to prove what a manwhore he is. Almost every single scene where Tahoe and Gina run into one another in the first half, he's surrounded by women. He whores his way around town in her face repeatedly. Then she still either silently aches for him, or pretends it was fine? Not enjoyable. Not for me.
There were too many contradictions in what they said, what they thought, and what they did. It made me feel nothing but frustration seeing them try to understand what they wanted.
(view spoiler)
Cut to around 65%. Suddenly, the grey clouds shift away and the sun comes out. We're finally at the point I wanted them to be much, much sooner. He's finally focused on Gina.
"Wow. Spurning some invitations somewhere?" I narrow my eyes in bemusement. "They really want you there."
He tucks it back into his pocket. "Yeah. Not interested."
The last twenty percent is where they evolve into a couple. After doing their soul searching, they're ready to let go of everything that was holding them back. All of their sweet words, tender touches, and uncontrollable passion were crammed tight into the end. Leaving me unsatisfied and wishing there were more. Tahoe and Gina's move from friendship into more spanned a time frame of over a year. Personally, I think that year was not spent doing things I enjoyed reading about.
I love this author, I love many of her books, but unfortunately this book was not what I was hoping for. You may not feel the same as me, you may feel that their push and pull feelings during their "friendship" is angsty and exciting. I'm sure a lot of people will love this couple, and more power to them. I'm thinking that I'm going to be in the minority this time around. I still may read Callan's story in September, but that's a big maybe at this point.
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