The only thing headier than wine is lust.Ryan Royer thought his business trip to California’s Napa Valley would be easy. Land a new client. Taste wine. But when the client is a free-spirited bombshell who presses all of his buttons, Ryan’s world goes sideways.Kenzie Balfour is entirely irresistible. She’s the fourth generation to run The von Eck Estate Winery and she’s more intoxicating than any … more intoxicating than any award-winning cabernet.
Ryan has been working hard for a promotion at one of the world’s top investment banks. If he can close this deal for her legendary winery, he gets the job. He can’t let a gorgeous woman with a great laugh get in the way of his goals. Even if she leaves him love drunk.
From a trouser-tightening almost-kiss at a restaurant to a seductive walk through a vineyard at sunset, can Ryan keep his crush on his client under control or will a taste of Kenzie be his downfall?
Escape to California’s wine country in Crush.
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What a great book! I so enjoyed Kenzie & Ryan’s sweet story. I loved everything about this book. The characters were amazing and the storyline was sweet and refreshing!
I really enjoyed reading this book, but I have loved every book written by Mae Wood so far. The chemistry between Kenzi and Ryan is off the charts. This story has everything that you will even need in a book. You will not be disappointed.
Kenzie and Ryan grabbed me from the beginning and didn’t let go! The insta-lust and feeling of rightness between them sucked me right in. They both have very real reasons to stay apart, but deep down they both know from the start that they are meant to be more that just a crush. Mae Wood writes with such descriptive beauty that you feel, see and hear everything she is describing. The sun setting over the vineyard, the crunch of gravel, the feel of a plump grape between your fingers. It’s magical. The settings and characters are so real and natural and never disappoint. I devoured this book and wanted more!
I loved Kenzie and Ryan. Their story is steamy and complicated. The surrounding wine country is spectacular. All of the characters are realistic and entertaining.
I recommend this book if you like steamy and if you like wine.
I was swept away by the beauty of the vineyards and the intense chemistry between Kenzie and Ryan. Even though it was lust at first sight for both of them, anything can happen when a handsome and serious young man falls for a carefree and beautiful young woman. Love is never easy and doesn’t have a timeline, so they both realized that when you meet your soulmate, you must do everything you can to be together.
I liked Kenzie because she was always positive about her feelings for Ryan and wasn’t afraid of being honest with him. She had an upbeat and contagious personality which never wavered even when Ryan disagreed with her. She didn’t look at their age difference as an obstacle, but Ryan did, until he realized that he couldn’t live without her. Ryan was struck by Kenzie’s beauty and sassy attitude. When she gave him a tour of the vineyard, he could see why she loved it there so much. During a quiet moment, he stole a kiss and that was it for him. He could tell Kenzie was into him too, but he was caught in an ethical dilemma about dating a client, but he craved her too much to let her go.
Kenzie lived for the time when she could just work the grapes and watch the vineyard grow and prosper. Her life was the vineyard and she was born to represent the company with passion and enthusiasm. Kenzie knew what she wanted and never thought about the consequences of being with Ryan. She didn’t care about any of that because as crazy as it seemed, she was in love with him, and that was that.
Beautiful
There is a special something extra in Mae Wood’s writing that I can’t quite put my finger on. Her writing is very sensory to me. The tastes and touches, the settings and sights. It’s the little things, the crunch of gravel under a boot that I can feel and hear. The sight of the sun setting over the vines. The bite and burst of the grape on the tongue. The graze of fingertips over skin leaving a trail of goosebumps. This book, especially, leaves me longing for a world of Ms. Wood’s making. Ryan and Kenzie’s furtive and passionate relationship was lush and beautiful and I loved every bit of it!
One thing I like best about Mae’s books is that you dive right in. She immerses you in the story and then weaves the backstory in after- seamlessly. I love it.
Kenzie is young. But somehow she’s so relatable. Ryan is the cutest. If you love love, pick this one up. You won’t be sorry.
Crush
By: Mae Wood
Narrated by: Zachary Webber, Savannah Peachwood
Raise your glass to this low angst, high romance novel! Mae Wood pulls us into the world of wine making with Kenzie Balfour. She is destined to take over her family winery. When she meets Ryan Royer on a business trip their lives are about to change. Their is instant attraction, but can it be acted on? Ryan is older than her by 8 years and she is his client so their relationship has to remain quiet. But will it? Can they keep their love a secret? Wood polishes this story with amazing characters, sizzling scenes and a relationship you just keep rooting for! Ryan and Kenzie are so easy to relate to, with their ambition and their need for each other, I was completely captivated by them. It’s a wonderfully written, easy listen and I can’t wait for more by Mae Wood.
The easy chemistry between narrators Zachary Webber and Savannah Peachwood make this listen that much better! They fall into character and let us be with Ryan and Kenzie as their relationship moves. Each has that style of letting us feel and be in the story. I loved it!
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Ryan and Kenzie saw each other and were instantly attracted. The only problem is that Ryan was working for Kenzie’s family company. There was reasons they shouldn’t work but they do. Great characters and storyline. Highly recommended. I love these characters so much.
I met Mae Wood at a book signing and really wanted to read one of her books. This was my first read and it will not be my last. The story and writing captured me from the start. It was a sweet story set in wine country, and made me feel like I was watching a Hallmark movie.
I really liked the characters, and their push and pull with each other. They had a sort of forbidden romance as they worked together on this vineyard expansion project and there is a slight age gap. Ryan has a hard time with this throughout the story. Kenzie was more of a free spirit about it.
They had chemistry from the start, and you really wanted them to just get together and see what was in front of them. Ryan and Kenzie from the start feel connected like they know each other and I kept thinking it would come up.
It was a fun, romantic story filled with passion and want. I def recommend Mae Wood and Crush.
I have loved every one of Mae Wood’s books, I love her writing style and her amazing characters. Ryan was focused on his career and Kenzie loves her future at her family’s winery. I love the angst the instant attraction brings as the try to hide it from her family and his boss. I loved the description of each of their feelings as they go through the ups and downs of this relationship and discover what is really important to each of them. The perfect amount of steam, wit, and drama to make this alive. I loved all that love. Great Book!!
This was my first Mae Woods book and I really enjoyed it. Ryan and Kenzie are a great story! They’ve got great chemistry and a connection.
I loved the details of the winery in the book. I really enjoyed how the story developed and how their feeling grow. I look forward to reading the rest of Mae Woods books.
Ryan is visiting California on a business trip to a winery to gain a new client for his finance company. Kenzie is the owner of the winery. When the couple meet sparks fly between them. Ryan is older and hot. Kenzie is young and learning the winery business. I loved the banter and steamy scenes with this couple. A good read.
Pour me a glass of your best wine, sir, because I am crushing HARD for this book.
M. Ryan Royer, buttoned up financial guy by day, sweaty ice hockey goalie by night, and dirty talker/swoonworthy hero ALL THE TIME. McKenzie Balfour is an amazing mix of the innocent recent college grad, and the woman who knows her mind.
Both have plans for the future, but a multi-million dollar wine/land deal brings them together and suddenly the future is crystal clear. But also completely different than what either of them had planned on.
I ADORED the banter between Ryan and Kenzie. Loved the side characters- Kenzie’s cousin Drennan (have you read Plus One?), and Ryan’s hockey teammates of the made-up names. And if von Eck winery was a real place, I’d be cashing in my airline miles to do some day drinking…
Ripe with tension, emotional and sexy, Crush: a delicious forbidden romance in wine country is a book that’ll leave a warm press of feeling in your chest for days to come. Simply put, it is everything. –.
I found it so easy to get swept away with Kenzie & Ryan and their journey! I loved these characters and their world! I hope that more will be coming in this world.
Mae Wood delivered a great story that kept me flipping the pages. I have loved her writing for a couple years and I always look forward to what she comes up with next.
I voluntarily reviewed this book.
When Kenzie and Ryan meet, it feels like they’ve known each other forever. They both are attracted to each other but they need to work together. Can they see where this is going without anyone finding out?
Instalust. Steam. Wine. -this book checks my boxes. Oh, and it’s amazingly written.
One-Click and get your Crush on!
I am a sucker for an author who can blend sexy hot times with intelligent, realistic, well written stories and Mae Wood has got me hook, line and sinker!
Crush is her latest book, set in Napa Valley and the Von Eck Winery. The instant chemistry between Ryan and Kenzie is off the charts but Mae makes it more relatable and realistic than simply being an insta-love story
I am not wine drinker, but I loved reading about all the behind the scenes of the industry and it enriched the story for how Ryan and Kenzie met – him as a banker looking to set up a deal to expand the von Eck Winery and her as a member of the family that runs the winery. It’s definitely opposites attract and with a healthy dose of heat!!
Overall Crush is a smart, intelligent sexy romance, filled with great banter and relatable characters. I’m relatively new to Mae Wood’s books and I definitely adding to her my “one-click” authors list. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next
One of the things I most love about Mae Wood’s writing is her ability to immerse me, the reader, in the worlds she builds in her books. Sure, that sounds like something that every author should obviously do, but frankly, they don’t – or don’t do it as well. Ms. Wood does so in a way that really sucks me in – her attention to detail and authenticity on the subjects about which she writes really shines through. I feel as if I’m actually THERE smelling the smells, tasting the tastes, making reading her books a very visceral experience for me. Once I started reading Crush, I was immediately sucked in and didn’t want to put down the book until I knew how it was going to all work out.
I think one of the many things I love so much about Crush is that the intense emotions experienced by Kenzie and Ryan are something that many of us can relate to. When I read an “insta love” book, I’ll admit to rolling my eyes a bit. This, however, is “insta-lust” which is, quite honestly, a different thing altogether – and in my opinion, far more realistic and believable. That overwhelming – almost all-consuming – intensity of feelings. I’ve been there and it made the book that much more relatable for me. I think I described their attraction to each other as an “addiction (but not an unhealthy one)”.
Another thing I appreciate greatly about Wood’s writing is that her “drama” is real – it’s not over-the-top. In this case, the obstacles faced by Kenzie and Ryan in order to get to their HEA were totally realistic – and the kind of doubts/questions that anyone might have in a relationship.
Finally, I loved the ancillary characters and fingers crossed, we’ll be seeing some stories for them one day!