Format Read:e-book provided for review from the publisher
Number of Pages:159 pages
Release Date:March 4th 2013
Publisher:Entangled: Indulgence
Formats Available: e-book, Kindle Edition, Audio CD
Purchasing Info: Goodreads | Amazon | Kobo | B&N | Publisher

Book Blurb:

The food critic…

Miranda Storme never expected to see Gavin Luciano again. Three years ago, they had an intense affair—and then he bolted. Now he’s back, and Miranda has the pleasure of a little payback: a scathing review of his restaurant. Revenge is a dish best served the first chance you get…

And the restaurateur…

With three months to make his family’s struggling Italian restaurant successful, a bad review is Gavin’s worst nightmare. But this isn’t just about the meal. He’s finally realized what he left behind and is determined to spend the next eight weeks proving himself to her in the kitchen…and in the bedroom! This is one dish she won’t be able to refuse…

My Thoughts:
After reading two books by Jennifer Probst and immensely enjoying both of them, it shouldn’t come as a big surprise the fact that I just couldn’t wait to get my hands on her newest release with Entangled, All the Way. I was dying to read another sweet and at the same time impossibly sexy romance written in a way only Probst can deliver. Alas, All the Way was nothing like what I expected it to be and compared to the author’s Marriage to a Billionaire series, it’s quite inferior I’m afraid.

Like I said, I picked up All the Way feeling quite certain that I would enjoy it only to be thoroughly disappointed with it really soon. I mean after the first 5 chapters or maybe even sooner, it became quite apparent that this wasn’t the book for me. Maybe the writing style was just as good as in the author’s previous work, I won’t disagree on that. Maybe the sex scenes were delivered in the same sexy and sinful way. I can’t agree more on that either. But when I think of All the Way in its entirety all I can think of to describe it is really cheesy and with little redeeming qualities to balance that cheesiness and make me enjoy the story. Because all the other books I read by the author were again heavy on the cheese part. But still, even so, I really enjoyed them because I could relate with the characters and the romance was delivered in such a way that honestly, I couldn’t care less about anything else. Something that didn’t happen with All the Way I’m afraid.

All the Way explores the second chance lovers trope and even if that isn’t one of my favorite tropes I really enjoy those kind of stories most of the time. I find incredibly interesting exploring all the reasons that drove the couple apart in the past and seeing them get together again. Plus, in that trope the sexual tension is almost always more delicious since you have two people who were once together. At least the way I see it. In this story unfortunately, neither the reasons that drove the couple apart were interesting nor the tension between them was believable. I mean right where the story starts, Miranda and Gavin meet again after three years and a couple of chapters later Gavin is right in Miranda’s house trying to seduce her just because he’s a Dom. And don’t get me started on that Dom part. Throughout the whole story Gavin is referred to as Dom a couple of times, but his relationship with Miranda isn’t anything like the Dom/Sub relationship of a BDSM story one might expect. The Dom references are more to indicate that Gavin wants to control everything while he’s having sex more than anything else. At least that’s how I saw it since the sex scenes in this book didn’t have anything real kinky in them. So here is where I wonder why on earth in a more or less sweet and typical romance the author felt the need to insert BDSM elements, that she wasn’t willing to explore in the least. It was a major turn off for me. There were moments when I felt that I was reading a harlequin romance that wanted to magically transform into 50 Shades…

Apart from those unnecessary BDSM elements, I also had a hard time with the characters in this book. I disliked Gavin and I couldn’t care less about Miranda…

Miranda was an ok character I guess but the way she just caved to Gavin’s requests didn’t exactly make me love her. I didn’t hate her, I just couldn’t care for her. I didn’t feel sorry for the way Gavin treated her, maybe I did a little bit at first, but after witnessing how her womb clenched upon seeing him after so many years and after being treated in such a way, well, whatever pity I felt for her, just vanished.

Now Gavin on the other hand, is one of the most self-centered characters I have ever read. The way he just wanted Miranda to forgive him everything and the way he thought that as soon as he understood his bad ways everyone should bow to his majesty was frustrating to say the least. Add to that the fact that he stalked Miranda and you can understand why I couldn’t possibly like him. I like an undeniably alpha male in my romance but Gavin was way beyond the caveman line.

And now let’s talk about the plot. Nothing new or fresh here I’m afraid. Like I said in the beginning, All the Way is incredibly cheesy and predictable. It follows every known cliché out there, making it really easy to guess where the story is going. So, when one adds a very predictable story to a set of characters I couldn’t really like or care about, you can understand why I couldn’t wait for this story to end.

It really pains me to write a negative review, especially for a book written by an author whose work I really enjoyed previously. But no matter how hard I tried, All the Way failed to impress me in every department. That doesn’t mean though that I don’t anxiously await for the 4th book in the Billionaire series. You can bet on that. It’s just that this book, wasn’t the right one for me.

I give All the Way 1.5 stars

About Anna

Anna is a psychologist from Greece.You can almost always find her with a book stuck under her nose,so it's no wonder that all her friends make a joke of her.Apart from reading she dreams of the day she'll be able to travel around the world!Anna also blogs at Books to Brighten your Mood.

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