A sexy standalone romance from #1 NYT Bestseller Lauren Blakely! That inked bad boy who’s been flirting hard with me since he rode into town? Turns out he’s my new housemate, which is one heck of a problem since our chemistry is so hot it should be illegal. I have a fantastic family, great best friends, a job I love…and now I’m up for a promotion to police sergeant. I need total focus–not a … promotion to police sergeant. I need total focus–not a flirty, dirty, irresistible, tattooed hottie riding into my town on his motorcycle. Can I arrest him for being too good-looking? When he kisses me senseless in the back of a waffle truck, it’s criminal, the things he makes me think about hot syrup and melted butter. One order of hot, fluffy hookup to go, please. But the next time I see him, it’s not for our date with benefits. He’s the guy who just rented the room above my garage. I need the rent to pay my bills, not a man like Derek, who I soon discover to be strong, caring, generous, good with kids, and kind to puppies… If I’m not careful, he’ll be moving into my heart as well as my house.
***
A no-strings-attached fling with the fiery redhead who revs my engine? Why, yes, that does sound like a delicious perk of my new job in this new town, thank you very much. I’m coming off a bad relationship, and I have zero interest in anything serious. I’ve got all the serious I need helping my sister take care of her three little kids while her husband is deployed. Except, surprise! Perri isn’t just my future fling. Turns out she’s my sexy, sassy landlord. A lease definitely counts as “strings attached,” and as much as I’d like to get tangled in her sheets, I can’t let myself get tangled up in a relationship. But as soon as we put the cuffs on our escapades, I learn over late-night conversations in the kitchen, that my landlord is so much more than the sexiest woman I’ve ever met- she has a quick mind and the biggest heart. Once I’m in, I’m all in. And to convince her that we should see where this goes, I plan on turning up the heat–and not just in the kitchen.more
The Feel Good Factor by Lauren Blakely is the second book in her feel-good standalone romance series, Lucky In Love. The first book, which does not have to be read first, is Best Laid Plans. This is a strangers to friends and roommates to lovers romance. It has a strong female lead and a smooth talking bad boy with a heart of gold. The build up between these two is comical, hawt as heck, and absolutely combustible.
Perri has no desire for a relationship as she wants to focus on her career. She has goals after all and making sergeant surpasses even the needs of her libido…
Derek is in a new town to help his sister with her kids. As a paramedic he can work just about anywhere and he was done with relationships and the town he was in.When the most gorgeous cop he’s ever seen pulls him over on his way into town he’s grateful to get off with just a ticket but thanks to Perri’s beauty and snark the ticket is the only thing he’s getting off.
This book is well-paced, funny, sweet, steamy, slightly angsty and was a pleasure to read! Enjoy!
Hot, sexy and entertaining are just a few words to describe The Feel Good Factor. Lauren Blakey never fails to give me a fun and easy read!
The chemistry between Perri and Derek is off the charts hot! I love when you can feel the connection between the characters instantly.
You’ll have a smile on your face from start to finish! Absolutely loved!
It’s no secret that I’m a huge Lauren Blakely fan. One of her books and my favorite reading chair is my happy place. Her writing brings me so much pleasure, and it’s because her stories are so much more than simple romantic comedies or contemporary romances. Lushly told love stories centered around couples that the reader can’t help but root for, dripping with romance and pulse-pounding passion and swirling with interest in the form of original plots, wonderful side characters and fun, quirky details.
The Feel Good Factor is Blakely’s sexiest romance, and that’s really saying something considering it was a bit of a slow burn—but, believe me when I tell you, it was burning the whole way through. Derek McBride was a hero I fell for immediately. Like Perri, this character flipped all my switches. The instant chemistry between the two of them was electric, and I settled in with what I knew was going to be one heck of a hot ride. Inked, dirty-talking, bike riding, paramedic Derek was a bad boy with a heart of gold, and I absolutely loved this knee-weakening, utterly swoon-worthy hero. Perri Keating was exactly the kind of heroine I adore. Strong, independent, confident with a caring, kind core, Perri had a weakness for tattooed, alpha bad boys. She was a whip-smart, sharp-as-a-tack police officer who was ambitious and dedicated to her job and her community.
“…we’re choosing this tonight—we’re choosing the feel-good factor and all its risks.”
I was on a plane when I read this line, and I audibly gasped in relief—I just barely stopped myself from fist pumping. Chapter upon chapter of titillating, torturous teasing left both Derek and Perri in a perpetually turned on state, and all that sizzling sexual tension finally snaps into what is very well could be the steamiest encounter Blakely has ever written. But lust wasn’t the only thing brewing between Derek and Perri, and it didn’t take this relationship-shy duo long to realize that there was a whole lot more than just chemistry there.
The Feel Good Factor was a fiery, passionate love story between a fabulously filthy-mouthed, hotter than sin hero and his perfect counterpart. I enjoyed every single word, moment and scene of Perri and Derek’s romance, and The Feel Good Factor is definitely among my top-favorites from Lauren Blakely. Five smooches from me!
~ Danielle Palumbo, Red Cheeks Reads
Derek is what you would imagine a “bad boy” to look like. Tattoos, cocky, a motorcyle, and muscles that will melt you and intelligent… what more could you ask for? From the moment Perri stopped him for speeding she knew he was a man to stay away from. But the attraction was too strong!
With the new development that her brother had rented the room above the garage to Derek, what could Perri do? Yes, this was her house, but she needed the extra income for now. A cop’s salary was just not enough to pay all her bills.
RULES! That is what they both come up with in order to maintain their agreement of no commitment and no relationship. But rules are meant to be broken when the chemistry is this strong. Add to that a kissing contest on which a promotion might hang for her, and you have a recipe for a lot of frolicking breaking those rules!
Derek is adorable! He may look like a “bad boy” but he is all heart! His love for his sister, nieces and nephews will have every woman swooning. Where are these caring men in real life?
Do not miss this amusing, steamy, and absolutely delightful romp from Lauren Blakely!
I am voluntarily reviewing this book. Thanks to the author for sharing a copy with me.
And she has done it again! Lauren Blakely never ceases to amaze me with her words and sense of humor. You simply will not be able to read this charming, sexy story and not actually feel good after. Derek and Perri are perfect for each other and although they may not speed down the road to their HEA, they do eventually get there in amazing fashion. These two characters are wonderful, lovable and fun. They are both written so realistically, which I love, and given that they are both first responders, Perri is a police officer and Derek is an EMT, it gives them that something extra knowing their desire is to help others. Their chemistry and dynamic is special and they sure do burn when they are together. There are so many fun scenes in this book from the message board to the kissing contest and all lead up to a very sweet ending.
4.75 Stars
Perri is a cop in this cute little wine country town in California. She loves her job, her family, her besties. She doesn’t have time to date!
Enter Derek. He’s new in town – supporting his sister with her three little kids while his brother in law is in Afghanistan. Derek is not ready to date either!
But of course there’s this über-mega insta attraction/lust between Perri and Derek.
I really enjoyed reading this! It was so funny and sparky and lusty and sexy and adorable!
I love such small-town romances where everyone knows everyone!
It’s so cute to watch Perri and Derek fight their real feelings! Why can’t they just give in and talk about stuff and start dating for real. Ugh. Lol. I adored watching them getting it right!
Great romance!
What I didn’t like? Sorry, tiny rant coming – not only about this book/author – so many authors do this! I hate it when authors don’t mark a book as part of a series.
As soon as one person from one book appears in another book?!?!! I NEED to at least see a tiny little notation somewhere that says. CONNECTED STANDALONE! PART OF THE LUCKY FALLS WORLD! Or READ THIS – YOU’LL MEET PEOPLE FROM BEST LAID PLANS AGAIN! Is that so hard? I get it dear authors – you need to make money by selling books, and people don’t like to buy a whole series if they don’t have to. But this is just not nice! Most readers would totally be okay with a series when it just says CAN BE READ AS A STANDALONE! It can’t be too hard to add that to the bottom of a blurb? Make the book officially part of a series on goodreads and add something about how and what et cetera. That way others would be happy because they don’t want to read the book that came out before and I would be happy because I then know that I have to read all the other books first, because I’m weirdly book OCD-ish when it comes to this. So what I’m saying is – I’m a tiny bit pissed because I didn’t read Best Laid Plans yet.
But I really loved this story – it was a really sweet & sparky small-town romance!
This book is funny, and sweet and all the things a good romance book should be. I really enjoyed it!
Perri and Derek were a fun couple to read about. This was a fun roomates to lovers book.
From the first moment these to meet, there has been chemistry between them. However with a nosy brother, they become roommates.
Watched these two dance around the attraction and banter with each other was fun to read about.
I really loved the scenes with Derek and his neices and nephew.
An exquisitely sweet, sinfully seductive, charming, and witty journey to go on with Perri and Derek. Two people who are relationship-phobic enter into a friends with benefits situation but will their feelings change or will they remain stubborn? I loved the little bit of angst, and the beautiful friendship these two developed. This was definitely a Feel Good story.
Super cute and fun!
5 Red Hot Desire Stars!!!
Just when I thought I’d met all the sexy alpha men that made my heart beat in overdrive, along comes Derek and his swoony, sexy sweet ways and boy oh boy he makes Perri his in more ways than one. This man swoops into her life, and she’s more than attracted to him. Little does she know he’s also her new housemate thanks to her brother….let the good times begin!
I loved these two together so much. Their burn is slow but mighty and while neither of them are looking for love, well, you know what they say about when you’re not looking for it….BAM your soulmate appears. This book is so full of fun, sexy moments that I so look forward to with a book by Ms. Blakely.
Perri and Derek have so much in common, besides being in a role helping their community with her as a patrol cop and him as an EMT and their love of family is something that drives who they are as people. Watching them fall for each other brought me so much joy. Once again Ms. Blakely has written a book that kept me entranced and fanning myself from start to finish! She has a way with words that has me always coming back for more of sassy and sexy rom-coms!
Derek McBride on his way to his sister’s in Lucky Falls. He was not going that fast, not really, and when the cop stopped him, he knew he could charm his way out of a ticket. Perri Keating is a good cop, she’s being considered for a promotion, but the speeding biker is so her type, it’s embarrassing. Still, he is helping his sister Jodie, so she lets him go with a warning after a little harmless flirting. But she is itching for the tattooed biker, who is in fact a paramedic. When they meet again, they flirt more than a little, and decide to enter a kissing contest. But Perri hadn’t counted on Derek becoming her renter!
THE FEEL GOOD FACTOR is such a sweet, steamy, sunny romance! It’s a wonderful slow burn, and I’m amazed that my book didn’t catch fire from all the incendiary chemistry between Perri and Derek. They’re mad with lust and desire, which gives way to terrific sexy banter. Lauren Blakely is a master of witty dialogues, and she’s in fine form here. I loved the interplay between the Keatings, as well as between Derek and Perri and Jodie’s children – who are just adorable. It’s amazing how Ms. Blakely can write a cute, small-town romance with sizzling sex scenes and that it feels so right. Derek is such a flirtatious devil, and Perri is no slouch either.
THE FEEL GOOD FACTOR stands entirely on its own, but we meet some characters that appear in other books, which is always fun.(And I’m kind of obsessing over that walnut blue cheese bread… and the gorgeous cover!). Lauren Blakely’s heroes are always so yummy; the book is written in dual first person POVs, and Derek’s was often totally hilarious. I thought it was so lovely how Derek and Perri fell in love; it really just happened, it felt so natural and inevitable. THE FEEL GOOD FACTOR really does just that: it makes you feel good, and you can’t beat that!
There’s just some things you can count on in a Lauren Blakely book:
1. Witty banter that’ll make you giggle out loud while reading
2. Sexy times so hot they’ll steam up your Kindle
3. Characters that you like so much you wish they were real so you could be friends with them
4. Good, healthy, female friendships, completely without girl-on-girl hate
In that respect, The Feel Good Factor is exactly what I expected, and that’s why I picked it up without even reading the blurb or giving the cover a second glance. And I don’t regret it, not even for a second.
Perri is one of the best heroines I’ve read in a long time. She’s a police officer who is in line for a promotion. She’s great at her job, has a wonderful family and inner circle of wonderful, supportive friends, and she doesn’t carry any crippling emotional baggage from past relationships. She’s 100% emotionally healthy, and I REALLY like that about her.
Derek is a great hero, too. He’s alpha, but not an alpha-hole. You could argue that he’s a beta hero, but in my opinion, he’s WAY too, um, powerful in the bedroom to fall into the beta category. But he’s nice enough that it’s arguable, at least. Long-story-short: fans of alpha males and beta heroes will love Derek. He’s the gift that keeps on giving. (So to speak. Ahem.)
I also love that Derek is in town to help support his sister and her kids while her husband is deployed overseas. He didn’t even hesitate to pack up and come to her aid because that’s the kind of genuinely nice that he is. And y’all know how much I dig nice guy heroes.
And I hate to do this because it’s totally corny, but as the title implies, this is most definitely a “feel good” book. It’s not going to leave you wrecked for days in a book hangover or emotionally crippled. You’ll laugh, you’ll tear up over the swoony way Perri and Derek finally admit to their love for one another, and you’ll smile as you close the book, secure in the knowledge that these two characters are utterly perfect for each other and will indeed live happily ever after. It’s just that simple. In my opinion, we need MORE feel good books exactly like this one in Romancelandia.
And don’t forget to check out the Romance Rehab blog for more rants, raves, book lists, and other fun romance-y stuff: http://www.romancerehab.com/
jumped immediately into this books after reading the first book in the series. Loved!!!
I love Lauren Blakely, she keeps my kindle full! Perri and Derek were a fun couple to read about!
Lauren’s talent for rom con is absolutely the best. This book is wickedly awesome, funny, serious and hot. You’ll love Perri as she pulls our tattooed handsome alpha Derek over for speeding on his motor cycle. Immediately you feel their denial of attraction. This is the story of police, paramedics, family, promotion and chemistry. It will tickle your funny bone and pull your heartstrings a great fast read. Five stars plus.
This is the newest book by the author and it is everything you could want! It’s hot and smoking the chemistry between the main characters is off the charts!! The book gives us a complete story and is complete. Definitely worth the read and highly recommend the author everything she writes is absolutely amazing!!
Perri and Derek are one strike away from being locked up in each other for life. Perri is the bada woman that every lady strives to be. She’s up for a promotion to Sergeant at work and she’s got friends and family to be envious of. Now if she could just stop having delusions of grandeur about her new biker boy tenant that would be just dandy.
The Feel Good Factor
By: Lauren Blakely
Narrated by: Joe Arden, Erin Mallon
I think I need to rent out a room in my house! Perri, a policewoman in Lucky Falls, meets Derek and they have instant chemistry. But a woman with goals does not have time to get involved with a hot, tattooed biker! She is looking for her promotion and he will be a distraction. Derek has come to town to help his sister out with her three kids. It’s temporary, but he does need a place to stay for his own sanity. When he rents a room above a garage, it just so happens to be owned by Perri! And now their story begins. From the beginning these two just fit. But there are so many obstacles! Perri is the ultimate woman. She is smart, beautiful and knows what she wants. I love this kind of contemporary woman, she is very real. Derek is the best book boyfriend! Not only is he handsome, but he helps people and the scenes with the kids just melt your heart. Blakely has such a great way of putting her stories together. These two are perfect yet have flaws. They have fun and are funny. They are compassionate and loving. I don’t know how she does this, but every book leaves me in love and feeling all warm and fuzzy! Take me to Lucky Falls again Lauren! I am ready!
Joe Arden and Erin Mallon are such a great narration team, and they truly become their characters. As Derek and Perri, they bring comedic timing, warmth, passion and love all to the forefront. Their voices and inflections are all easily relatable and the conversational style of performance makes me feel like I am right there in the scene with them. As always, it is a most enjoyable listen.
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When it comes to rom-coms Ms. Blakely is an author I can always count on for an entertaining read with immensely appealing characters…and this new release gives all that and more. In a tale of seemingly opposites attracting there’s a definite sizzle between the lady cop and the rugged EMT. From the moment they meet there’s an undeniable attraction teeming with sexual tension and fun and flirty banter that had me longing for Perri to give in to the utterly tempting Derek. That journey is a delicious one that had me chuckling a few times as well as giving me a few blush-worthy moments along the way.
Perri Keating is a woman focused on her career in the male-dominated world of police officers. She’s also very family-oriented and feels competitive with her equally hard-working brother. She’s strong-willed, focused, and determined to get a promotion to Sergeant. To achieve that goal she agrees to take part in a kissing contest to benefit first responders and it’s this event that leads to the burgeoning connection between her and her sexy new roommate. From their first interaction to his moving in, she and Derek sizzle in interactions that left me parched. As verbal foreplay led to drugging kisses my tablet almost overheated as their relationship picked up steam. Through it all Perri was immensely likable, an easy to relate to heroine with strong support from her friends. She’s the kind of heroine to give as good as she gets, the kind to pick herself up and dust herself off. It makes for a connection even more scorching and a journey to HEA even more satisfying.
Derek McBride exudes a bad boy persona with his tats, scruffy facial hair, and a Devil-may-care attitude. He too is devoted to family and it’s that devotion that has him leaving the big city to come to the small town of Lucky Falls where he’ll help his sister raise her kids. He’s an EMT who actually cares about his patients and this dichotomy of bad boy and kind-hearted man made for a delicious combination. He was good with kids, loving and caring, and his fatherly actions made my uterus hurt. As a bad boy he also has a talent for dirty talk which readers get a glimpse of the moment Perri pulls him over for speeding. From that moment on flirty banter, sensual kisses, and steamy encounters had me turning the pages while fanning myself. That man could definitely kiss like no other and I admired their restraint as I would’ve jumped Derek much sooner. Through each word and deed Derek made me fall for him even more as he quickly became the quintessential book boyfriend.
This is a story that was all about the relationship between Derek and Perri…and oh what a delightful journey to HEA it was! It was a carefree read that wrapped me in a happy haze with a scorching romance and kisses that hypnotized me. Derek and Perri were a wonderful pairing, dedicated to their families and to their careers, and they practically jumped off the page. They were a relatable couple, dealing with day-to-day issues and their jobs, and I became ever more immersed in their lives with each turn of the page. Surrounding this appealing main couple was an equally entertaining cast of secondary characters, some who have already had their stories told and some who are temptingly waiting in the wings. Though this story is connected to Best Laid Plans, it stands strongly on its own and is a must-read for all lovers of romance. From their crackling first meeting, to their decadently delightful roommates to lovers relationship, this story ultimately wrapped up with a heartwarming epilogue (or two) that put a smile on my face while leaving me counting down the days until we return to Lucky Falls.