Mason Michaels has it all professionally; he’s a rock god, a shrewd business man and excellent at managing bands, but his personal life is full of struggles.He has struggled since his wife left him with their baby and has closed himself off emotionally. It’s a struggle as he tries to balance his parenting duties with his band and business. Sex is just sex and his assistant is more than happy to … happy to meet some of his needs, but when his friend dies of cancer and leaves him with a newborn baby, he needs to hire help.
He doesn’t expect Amber to walk in. At first he’s resistant because she’s gorgeous and he wants more than her employment services. Can he resist this beauty as she becomes a part of his life?
Amber Davis is also struggling. She’s lost her fiancé, her job, been disowned by her family and is awkwardly staying on her best friends couch when she lands an interview with the infamous Mason Michaels.
She needs a live-in position and is good at working with kids, so when her friend’s sister gets her an interview as an au pair for Mason, she’s grateful for the chance. As she moves in, her life becomes complicated and she finds herself falling for her boss.
Mason is ‘sex on a stick’ and Amber finds it difficult to resist him, but can she trust him with her heart? Or will he be just another in a long line of recent disappointments?
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The story of Mason and Amber is told over two books, Black Mercy and Broken Mercy, and there’s a lot packed into them lol. The story never slows and you never know what will come next. Anything and everything seems to happen when it comes to this couple and there was a lot to process. The story did keep me hooked and I binge read both in one sitting, but I think that’s partly because I was intrigued to see what the author would come up with next.
You get a good idea of what Mason’s like as a person right from the start and he ends up being one of those characters you love to hate. There’s moments when he’s kind, understanding and just so loving, but then the other side of him comes out and he’s an absolute jerk. I got to the point where I was sat waiting for him to mess things up because he was obviously going to keep doing it again and again. As for Amber, she starts off strong and determined to sort her life out and prove she doesn’t need anyone, but then seems to lose herself as things progress with Mason. I so desperately wanted to give her a good shake as she forgave Mason every time he messed up and hurt her. By the time I got to the second book, I was pleading with her to finally leave him and to be the person she wanted to be at the start. God I’ve never felt so frustrated with a couple lol.
There’s some really good parts in this story and Stacy McWilliams definitely knows how to write dirty and hot scenes that leave you hot under the collar. There’s characters you love and others you hate. There’s love, family and friendship. There’s heartache and heart melting moments. There’s parts you don’t want to end. But there’s also just so much happening and it got too much at times. Things happened too fast and didn’t feel realistic – I mean how much more can actually happen to a person on their first day at work. There’s a lot to follow and a lot of characters to remember. I ended up tired and drained by the time I got to the end.
The author has proven just how imaginative and creative she can be. She clearly has a lot of ideas and knows how to keep the story moving, but sometimes the reader needs things to slow down so they can take a breather from all the drama that’s just happened. For me, I’d love to see this story reworked and the timeline changed, with some of the drama also removed, to make the story more believable and less tiring to read. There’s enough material in these two books for a whole series and some of it could be used for the other characters to have their own stories.
I did enjoy these two books though and it’s been a long time since I’ve stayed up reading until 6am. However, Black Mercy and Broken Mercy are the type of book you quickly become addicted to and can’t stop reading. A part of you wants to put the books down and take a break, but you can’t because you have to see what happens next. I’m shattered today due to lack of sleep, but I’m so glad I read this duo as the story consumed me like I was craving last night. I was carried away from reality and was given the mental health break I desperately needed