Hooking Up

Star Wars Nerds Will Love This Story! Walker & Iris’s Romance Dives Deep Into The Issue Of Addiction. On The Surface They Are Opposites – He Is The Bad Boy & She Is The Good Girl – But Neither Lives Up To That Image. Don’t Forget To Download The Free Bonus Epilogue!

This is book two of eight in the Inked Hearts series. Formerly called Playing, it is Walker and Iris’s hookup turned friends with benefits story. Each book reads as a standalone, though they are best enjoyed in order. Book one, Tempting, is Brendon and Kaylee’s moving story. It is tender and patient. Broody with a dose of kink, Brendon falls for his little sister’s best friend, whose secret crush isn’t so secret.

Inked Hearts is a tattoo parlor in Southern California. Brendon, Ryan, Walker and Dean are like family. They are tattoo artists and the heart and soul of the shop, along with Leighton who runs the front desk. Manning, who had been an absentee owner for the past few years, recently sold the Venice Beach shop to the four tattoo artists, who somehow manage to get things done despite their lack of coordination. Together they all serve a variety of clients – to include some rather well-known celebrity types.

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Iris Avery, twenty-five, is trying to put the pieces back together. She had had a tough go getting into grad school, and she doesn’t want to let anything get in her way again. Finishing her PhD in Psychology at UCLA is the one thing she knows she wants in life. Everything else is a bit fuzzy. She was raised in the Valley. When she finished her undergrad at UCSD, she was lucky to get a decent job, but she hated it. She wanted to go back to school but found it was much harder than she had expected. She had always been a nerdy overachiever, so she took the setback hard.

Iris’s new boyfriend Ross had given her a diversion from her disappointment, but she had no idea what she was getting herself into. He was a clean-cut guy, a programmer, but months into their relationship she learned that he did recreational drugs, and in her desperation for an escape from her disappointment she soon joined him. That led to two and a half years of use, and she finally found the strength to take control back. She broke up with Ross over Christmas, then took the winter quarter off and entered rehab. She is now three months clean and just starting spring quarter. But she made a lot of mistakes the last few years. Broke bridges. Lost all her friends. Fractured her family. Lost her sense of identity. She is following a list of steps to get her life back. It is a lot of work, but she is determined to persevere. She will not be defined by her mistakes.

Walker Williams, twenty-four, wears a smile and a carefree attitude. He is an easy breezy surfer, a bad boy with tattoos. The few that really know him well, though, recognize that he often harbors stormy feelings below the surface. Born to privilege in Beverly Hills, he chose to move out at eighteen and live life by his own rules. He lives in an apartment in Santa Monica, with the surf and sand nearby. He is a tattoo artist at Inked Hearts in Venice Beach – and just recently became a co-owner along with his three friends.

He and Dean have been best friends for over a decade now. Though Walker keeps things to himself, he and Dean know one another so well that words are not usually required for them to understand one another. They had been part of the same scene back in high school and eventually formed a friendship. They look out for one another, work out together, and of course work together. Dean introduced Walker to tattoos and the idea of becoming a tattoo artist through his older brother Ryan, who led the way. Walker doesn’t consider himself a serious artist; it was the idea of holding the tattoo gun that really appealed to him. Nevertheless, he takes pride in his work. His own tattoos reflect his love of Star Wars extended universe novels, which he devours.

Walker doesn’t do relationships – he hasn’t ever had a girlfriend. When not drinking and partying with his friends, nameless no stings hookups are his ticket to a good time. With the stress of worrying about his older sister Sabrina, starting something new has been the furthest thing from his mind. Bree made too many broken promises. They had been tight growing up, and the fear of learning she overdosed has him pulling back such that he is now considering cutting her off altogether. He doesn’t want to enable her like their parents do, coddle her by buying into her excuses. He is finally done – and he never wants to be close to an addict again.

When Walker and Iris meet up at Sandy and John’s party in Brentwood, neither really wants to be there. Both have heavy issues on their mind and hope to just forget it all for a little while. Neither anticipates anything beyond a night of pleasure. All might have ended there if not for another chance meeting. They cannot deny their connection to one another, yet neither is in the market for a relationship. Iris cannot risk a broken heart setting her off course of her recovery and interfering with her degree. Walker still doesn’t want to let anyone get close, but his life feels dull, and the endless hookups are no longer fulfilling. He needs change.

Together Walker and Iris find a way to give into their desire by establishing boundaries. They can be friends – and sleep together exclusively – but nothing more. Nothing too personal or too deep. It is convenient and makes sense. Walker feels a void in his life as he tries to shut his heart to his sister, and Iris seems to slip right in. He has no idea how a relationship works or what constitutes a date, neither of which he wants, but he keeps steering them closer and closer together. But the foundation of their relationship is shallow, and withstanding the transition from hooking up to boyfriend and girlfriend proves to be a challenge. The couple eventually earns their happy ending.

Wow! Walker and Iris’s story dives deep into the issue of addiction, exploring choices and consequences. It tackles the problem from both sides – that of the addict and that of loves ones. Walker never wants to be close to an addict again after all the pain his sister has caused, but he shuts down all serious discussions with Iris, who wants to share her history with him. There is a lot of hurt to go around, and a lot of healing that needs to take place. There are issues of trust as well. How much can you really know an addict? Is it ever really possible to come back from it? There are no perfect answers, and promises only go so far. Forgiveness might be one of the hardest things for a recovering addict to earn, and that is certainly tested here.

Walker and Iris’s romance is a serious but tender story of forgiveness. It revolves around narcotics addiction and the struggle to recover. Walker’s easy ways put Iris at ease, and he likes that she sometimes veers on he bossy side. On the surface they are opposites – he is the bad boy and she is the good girl – but neither lives up to that image. Star Wars nerds will love this story. It is well written. The plot is fairly straightforward. The characters are deep and rich. They are real and authentic. Walker does get a little annoying at one point, such that you might advise Iris to just give up on him, but it all works out. There are a few tears on the way to their happy ending. The story is written in first person. The POV alternates between Walker and Iris. I rate this book 4.5 stars.

She just has this way of touching on the hard subjects. Getting into the nitty gritty while still making you fall madly in love with the characters. And not just the main characters, but the secondary characters as well. I swear, if I wasnt on her ARC team, I would wait for all of the books in a series to come out then binge read. Thats because I am impatient and want to know who is gonna take the plunge next. It doesnt matter that they are all stand-alone novels. Okay, I am ranting. Bottom line. Read this book. Read Tempting. Read all of her prior series. You wont regret it. Happy reading!
Rating 5 stars

I LOVE Walker and Iris! She is fighting her pain, her past mistakes and I can feel her struggle. The two of them have such a deep connection that I couldn’t put the story down. They just fit together. This is a must read!

After meeting Iris at a friends party and having a mindblowing night of no strings attached sex, Walker and Iris decide that this fun thing should continue. So they continue to see each other for purely fun purposes. Walker’s sister has a drug problem and refuses to get help; his parents are in denial and tend to enable her, so Walker has distanced himself from them all. He also vows that he would never get involved with an addict. Iris is estranged from her sister and doesn’t go to family events so that her sister can still feel comfortable. With so many issues and secrets can they trust each other and realize they are meant to be?

This was a good read.

This is the second in the series but it does work as a stand-alone. Walker has been a one and done but would like more but he’s up to his neck in family issues. Iris has built a new life to hide a secret in her past so she’d rather not get into a “relationship”. They meet and have instant chemistry. Friends with benefits works for both of them but as time goes by they are in so deep they’ll have to face their fears.

Great character development. Both are broken in their own way, but together they can face anything. Lots of interaction between the characters (both verbal and non-verbal) which kept the story moving rapidly. Tons and tons of angst. A very emotional read. This is not my first Crystal Kaswell story and it won’t be the last. Definitely worth reading. (I voluntarily reviewed an ARC).

Is lust worth the risk of falling in love? Kaswell brings humor to romance that is not often found. From risque to witty, Walker and Iris are a breath of fresh air, in a sometimes suffocating genre. Hooking Up makes complicated seem simple in a round about sort of way.

Addiction
Very beautiful and torrid story because of the very hot romance and the tension brought by the addictions even if they’re ended. It’s very well written, very moving. I really liked the two main characters, and especially Iris who is extremely strong.
Walker and Iris meet at a party they do not really enjoy and they spend the night together. The next day, they meet again without knowing that they had an appointment for a tattoo: she is a student in psychology and he’s a tattoo artist. He offers her to have a relationship of the type “sex friends”. Walker has a sister who has been in rehab but went out, and after all the pain he has faced with her problems, he does not want to have any link with an addict or someone who used to be an addict. The problem is that Iris just got out of a relationship that had led her to addiction, and cut off from her family. She’s clean now, but the more their relationship evolves, the more the risk of explosion because of Iris’s past becomes critical.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book

Loved Walker and Iris!

This book starts off with one of the hottest hookup scenes right off the bat, and it only gets better from there. Once Iris and Walker catch their breaths, the real world sets in and they both have to confront the issues they were blocking out with their one-night-stand. This is an amazing story of forgiveness, moving forward after mistakes in the past, and love that defies self-preservation. As expected with this author, the issues aren’t glossed over or minimized, rather they’re addressed honestly and head-on without cutting any corners. Extremely well-written, this is the kind of story that stays with you for days. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.

Hooking Up is the second interconnected standalone in the Inked Hearts series by Crystal Kaswell. It’s a heartwarming story that’s extra steamy. I enjoyed this book as a light and easy read but not quite as much as I had hoped.