We meet every other Wednesday night in a downtown hotel. No dates. No commitments. No hearts or flowers. Just his body and mine.Maybe I’m his second best. He’s definitely mine. But second best has never felt so good.Second Best is a steamy, standalone contemporary romance.
Second Best
By noelleadams
So hot I skipped to last three chapters. Like able H and h, well-written, excellent dialogue.
Was great read
Ashley is used to people seeing ‘through’ her. She thinks she’s ordinary with nothing special going for her. She dresses in accordance to that. Very plain, nothing eye catching. I would even consider it dowdy.
Ashley and Sean become aquinted through business. After a business meeting Sean has an unusual proposition for Ashley.
They now have a contract. In the terms of the contract they meet every other Wednesday, at a hotel to have a no strings attached sexual encounters. This works out very well for both of them. Ashley is in love with one of the partners in firm she works for and Sean has no desire to go down the relationship path again after the loss of his fiance. As time goes on they start having dinner together during their meets and conversation seems to develop naturally between them, which wavers at crossing the terms of their contract.
Ashley starts to develop self confidence in her worth as a person. Sean has always ‘seen’ Ashley. She now has to decide if she can continue with the terms of their contract or live without Sean and Sean has to decide if he can risk opening up his heart again or live without Ashley.
I love how this story was written. Ashley and Sean’s meetings start off as just intense sexual encounters and slowly develops into what I would consider a friendship. With the chemistry these two have it was just a matter of time till feelings are involved. I think the feelings came as a suprise to both of them. Their arrangement work very well for both of them for quite a long time and now it no longer does.
This is one of those stories that I will re-read several times because of how the book drew me and and left me with a good feeling at the end.
When Second Best becomes your first choice
I’m not alone when I say that I love anything that Noelle Adams writes.
This was to be bi-monthly through the newsletter for subscribers, we were told, no plot outline, just raw and unedited. And we were invested. Just as Ashely and Sean were invested in their meeting every other Wednesday at an expensive hotel. No contact in between, no expectations.
Told in the first person by Ashley, a real estate attorney, she is attracted into a contracted affair with Sean Doyle, a self-made real estate mogul who had suffered an unimaginable personal tragedy. Neither of them are interested in anything other than a physical affair. Sean had experienced love, and had it taken from him, while Ashley is otherwise wanting to get to know the man at her firm who she feels she is really in love with.
The chemistry is off the charts explosive – seriously! This is making second best work for both of them.
That is until they started getting to know each other on a deeper level, and it became harder to keep the context of the original contract in mind, and as things began to develop between Ashley and Sean, WE became more invested, begging and pleading Noelle for more. She listened, and we began stalking our emails more often, eager for the next instalment. Noelle was writing faster, in the car and on holiday – and, although we didn’t want it to end, we just couldn’t wait to see how things worked out for Ashley and Sean.
As a series, it was hot, hot, hot. As a book – it is SCORCHING! I had to have my own e-book, and I’m also getting this 5-star puppy in paperback!
3.75 stars–SECOND BEST by Noelle Adams is a contemporary, adult, stand alone erotic, romance story line focusing on the contracted, sexual relationship between real estate developer Sean Doyle, and attorney Ashley Simon.
Told from first person point of view (Ashley Simon) SECOND BEST follows the building relationship between thirty-eight year old real estate developer Sean Doyle, and twenty-eight year old property attorney Ashley Simon. Having met at a business get-together Sean Doyle will offer Ashley Simon the deal that would forever change her life-a sexual relationship, no strings attached, no business, no questions-every other Wednesday at a local, expensive hotel. Throughout their months long affair, we get up close and personal with a man whose previous relationship and love was destroyed by a bullet that came close to ending his life; and a woman who believes she is in love with another man –fellow attorney John Cooper-a man who is barely aware of our heroine’s existence. What ensues is the every-other Wednesday sexual encounters between Ashley and Sean, and the potential fall out as Ashley continues to focus her attentions upon someone else.
SECOND BEST is a quick read originally released as a serialized newsletter novella focusing on a mutual ‘arrangement’ between two people looking for sex, companionship, and nothing else. What started out as a potentially, cold and calculating business-like arrangement soon heats up as our hero begins to want something more, and our heroine learns that no other man compares to the reality of what she already has.
For an educated and informed woman Ashley Simon is a bit of a fool as it pertains to her attraction and love for a man she claims is her happily ever after. Her attraction to a co-worker is purely physical yet she continues to act as though ‘he’ is the one regardless of their, yet to be established, friendship or introduction. In this, Ashley’s actions are immature, adolescent and questionable.
The relationship between Sean and Ashley begins as a contracted agreement; a physical and sexual affair never intended to go beyond the sex but an affair that begins to show signs of emotional involvement, jealousy and love. The $ex scenes are intimate, erotic and intense.
There secondary and supporting characters are limited to Ashley’s ‘crush’ and fellow attorney John Cooper, as well as Sean’s grandmother, a woman who sees more than her grandson realizes.
SECOND BEST is a story of one man’s heartbreak and inability to let go of the past; and one woman’s obsession with another man. The premise is entertaining and engaging; the romance is seductive and edgy; the characters are colorful, charismatic and dynamic although I have to question the stupidity of our heroine’s ‘obsession’ for another man.