After years of gravitating to douchebag players with no more to offer than a wildly good time and zero promises, single mom Drew has graduated to dating a real man. He’s the responsible, mature kind—willing and able. To offer her and her daughter a real future.Then along comes Nine.More like a ten, is her first thought when introduced to the tatted-up, foul-mouthed, unapologetic player. The guy … unapologetic player. The guy might’ve been her kryptonite five years ago.
But she has a child to think about now.
With every new encounter she has with Nine, she begins to realize there’s so much more to him than just good looks and his bad boy image. She sees a vulnerability in him she never expected. Worse yet, he’s sending out vibes that whisper of promises he’s never made to any girl before.
Is she willing to trade in Mr. Perfect for someone who’s one impetuous decision away from proving that her first impression may have been heartbreakingly spot on?
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Can I have Nine of Nine? Oh, Wait that won’t work. Read to find out why. 😉
Reyes definitely has the ability to make me wish I was a cougar. Not that Drew is. She isn’t….don’t want to mislead. Just that I might go all cougar like on a real-life Nine. I’d still want to slap him a couple of times like I did this Nine but that might be fun :O When I didn’t want to shake them, Drew and Nine had me smiling and laughing…and giving out some serious sighs. And Orlando is coming. Can I say my jaw dropped? Once again Reyes gave us a book that had me flipping the pages to see what would happen next and in the end, had me sitting on the edge of my seat begging for more.
I’ve been waiting for this book to come out and was I not disappointed. I LOVE the Boyle Heights series. Nine was so adorable and Drew needed her story. I loved how they had common things at their core and are perfect for each other. Now I can’t wait for Orlando’s story. Granted this book is stand alone, but the all the series that the author writes are worth it.
I’ve always loved Elizabeth Reyes’ books. We Were One is probably my favorite, but Lila and Beast were also pretty freakin’ spectacular. I was very pleased to find that Nine was another satisfying, emotional addition to my Elizabeth Reyes keeper bookshelf.
One thing that Elizabeth Reyes does better than tons of other authors is creating a satisfying, interesting backstory for her characters. I often have a low tolerance for backstory, and when authors get too in depth, I tend to zone out and sometimes skim pages. But I never do that with an Elizabeth Reyes book. Nine was no different. Nine and Drew had complex, rich backstories that let me get to know them as characters and better understand their motivations. It made them more real and relatable, in other words.
Nine is a great hero. Is he perfect? No. He’s a little jealous and maybe a smidge overprotective. He also has a past reputation as a manwhore to overcome. But when he loves, he loves with his whole heart, which applies to Drew and his friends/family alike. He’ll do anything for those he loves, and at the end of the day, is there anything sexier than that? (There were also some scenes between Nine and Drew’s daughter that were all kinds of adorable. Hot guy + cute kid = exploding ovaries)
This was also a slow burn romance, which I love. Nine and Drew got to know each other as friends (friends with a TON of sexual tension, but still…) before jumping into bed together, and I really appreciated that. There wasn’t any instalove. (And y’all know how much I hate instalove)
Drew was a little harder for me to warm up to as a heroine. I get that she’s a single mom and has some past daddy/mommy issues to overcome so I mostly gave her a pass, but there were times when I thought she was too tough on Nine, and maybe a little too judgy for my liking.
On a more positive note, though, as with all Elizabeth Reyes reads, the sex scenes were hot and spicy, and the sexual tension between Nine and Drew practically crawled off the pages and smacked you in the face. (Which is a good thing, in case that wasn’t clear.)
So, all in all, Nine was another highly 1-clickable read from an author I love.
Full disclosure: We received an ARC from the author, free of charge.
Nine and Drew are opposites and although there’s an attraction, they won’t ever happen, Drew has standards since having a kid and having to grow up, although Nine was exactly what she would have gone for she can’t now, she’s in a relationship.
Nine and Drew continue to see each other due to wedding commitments, Drew starts to see a different side to Nine, and Nine sees how easy it is to talk to Drew.
Things start to change between Nine and Drew with both denying that it’s anything more than friendship and she has a fiancé, but, finds herself lying to him about Nine, although everyone can see the chemistry between them.
After talking with her mother, Drew sees things more clearly, Nine, realises what people were saying was true, there is something with him and Drew, but he just hopes that he’s not to late and she’s willing to give him a chance. With Nine getting Drew to admit they have a connection, and, prepared to be casual till she’s ready for more and Drew’s friend making her see things can Drew ever admit that what she feels for Nine is more.
Elizabeth Reyes is one of my favourite authors. I have read three books from her 5th Street series and loved them all. Her stories are engaging, characters are well-liked and you can’t help but turn pages as you read. It’s almost impossible to stop reading once you start!
I have to say I didn’t read the previous books in this series (all of them are standalones though) but I wanted Nine since the moment I saw it on NetGalley.
The beginning was for me confusing. Maybe it would help if I read the two books before but since I didn’t, I had troubles understanding who is who because there were so many names. You kind of find out later on but it takes a couple pages to do so. I got a feeling like I was suddenly in a scene without so much as a proper beginning. It was like the story of the previous book was cut off and bam, the story continues in the third book with a completely different set of characters. This is how I felt.
Once you get a feel of the story, everything flows. You meet the characters, the side characters and how feelings started to mess with their heads. The MCs started as friends but slowly it turns into something more.
I love how they bickered, how they wanted to fight their attraction. It was a really fun read.
4.5-5 stars.
This is not my first book from this author but it is the first book I’ve read in this series and it was a good read. Nine made me wish I had read the previous books so I would have been more familiar with the side characters because they also play a major part in this story and it made me feel as if I was missing some things when it came to them. There were things I liked and disliked about this story. I really hated Daniele’s nickname Drew, but it was something I could deal with. The chemistry between Nine and Drew was there, there’s no denying that and when it came to their story there was sort of a slow burn feeling to it. This story had it’s sweet, funny and steamy moments and it was full of great characters but some parts of the story felt as if it moved too slow and some parts moved too fast, especially the ending. When the characters finally decided to commit to each other, we got a sweet epilogue and the story was over but I wished we had gotten a little more. It was a sweet but disappointing ending at the same time for me. This wasn’t my favorite read from this author but it also wasn’t a bad read. I would tell readers to give it a try and see for yourself.