As Lauren Layne’s salacious Sex, Love & Stiletto series returns, a jaded columnist discovers a steamy way to get over an old flame: falling for him all over again.
As Stiletto magazine’s authority on all things breakup-and-heartache, Emma Sinclair writes from personal experience. Five years ago, Emma was Charlotte, North Carolina’s darling debutante and a blushing bride-to-be. Now she’s the … bride-to-be. Now she’s the ice queen of the Manhattan dating scene. Emma left her sultry Southern drawl behind, but not even her closest friends know that with it she left her heart. Now Emma’s latest article forces her to face her demons–namely, the devilishly sexy guy who ditched her at the altar.
After giving up everything for a pro-soccer career, Alex Cassidy watches his dreams crumble as a knee injury sidelines him for good. Now he’s hanging up his cleats and giving journalism a shot. It’s just a coincidence that he happens to pick a job in the same field, and the same city, as his former fiancée . . . right? But when Emma moves in next door, it’s no accident. It’s research. And Alex can’t help wondering what might have been. Unlike the innocent girl he remembers, this Emma is chic, sophisticated, and assertive–and she wants absolutely nothing to do with him. The trouble is, Alex has never wanted her more.
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I couldn’t put this book down and can’t wait to read more for the two crossover series. I’ll admit even though this is a rom com, I did tear up at one scene, which made me love the book even more.
I adore Lauren Layne’s books, and this was just as fun and romantic as the other Stiletto-Oxford stories I’ve devoured. It missed a little something for me in the final chapter, though. I hoped for more than Cassidy turning up on Emma’s doorstep with a trash can, but maybe that’s just me? Nevertheless, I recommend this book for fans of light, fun, sexy romance.
This is the last installment for the Sex, Love, & Stiletto series and it’s another keeper. Each book tells a story about one of the four girls on Stiletto’s Power Team of advice columnists. The Trouble with Love is about Emma, the newest member of the team, and Alex, the editor-in-chief of Oxford, Stiletto’s brother publication. To say that Alex and Emma have a history is a complete understatement. If you’ve read the other books in this series you already know what the history is, but you don’t know exactly how it happened until late in this book.
Emma is one of the most closed off people you’ll ever meet. She’s sort of known as the Ice Queen. She truly isn’t that person, but she doesn’t know how else to protect herself. Her life has been easy in many respects, although she’s lived it in the shadow of her twin sister, Daisy. Now she’s in NYC and taking the world by storm on her own terms. She was doing just fine until Alex Cassidy becomes editor-in-chief at Oxford. Well, actually when he is appointed as interim editor-in-chief at Stiletto.
Alex, better known as simply Cassidy, is just as “icy” when he’s around Emma and no one can figure out exactly what’s going on. They know some of the history, like the why, they don’t have the how. It’s definitely something the power players at both Stiletto and Oxford are determined to find out. They also know that Emma and Alex have been dancing around one another long enough. It’s time to take action, and like she has in the past, Camille Bishop is the one to set everything in motion. After she does, she skips town and lets the rest of them take over. In true LL style, the “takeover” is done with some pretty funny moments.
This is pure rom-com. It’s pure Lauren Layne and everything you’d expect it to be. This is another entertaining installment of the Love, Sex, & Stilettoes series. These books make for super fun reading!
“It’s about you, Cassidy. It’s only you from here on out.”
He smiled back, his eyes looking suspiciously moist. “Wrong. From here on out, it’s only us.”
Emma Sinclair and Alex Cassidy are my new obsession. This book is the best book from all Stiletto/Oxford series, and one of the saddest too.
We’d seen Emma and Cassidy as two funny characters in the previous books, always helping their friends with their relationship and personal issues, and always avoiding each other. They are two very interesting characters, they’re both intelligent and brilliant, he’s ambitious, he fights for what he wants, and she’s loyal and balanced.
Their love story is old, legendary, beautiful and with a tragic “ending”, and once they didn’t just meet again, but share the same group of friends, live/work very close to each other and also be at the perfect timing, their old feelings—that are still in there, even though they’ll never admit it—start to show up again, and we get to go with them throughout a beautiful and dramatic story.
Seeing them so vulnerable and hurt by what happened in their past, talking about it and going through all their pain and old feelings again was hard, but it was very necessary for them—they could heal themselves, then, and finally be open to find love and be completely happy again (which is something I gotta remark, once all Emma’s exes said they wish they could have make her smile more, and Cassidy was thinking about how Emma used to smile a lot and easily when they were together).
I loved how Lauren Layne managed us to feel all their pain, and I loved even more how she didn’t just construct a great old story, but a very beautiful reconnection story for them. By that, it’s impossible to not see and feel how Emma Sinclair and Alex Cassidy were always meant to be. As Cassidy said, some things work better together, and this is definitely their case.
And it still hurts that LL didn’t write an epilogue for them, but this could easily be remedied by a special short story of them being married and with their children. Just saying lol.
Swoony second chance at love
I wanted to read Alex and Emma’s story for a few reasons: I knew from the other books something had happened between them in the past, what happened was bad enough that they couldn’t even look at each other, and given those circumstances, any romance reader worth their salt would want them to make up and live happily ever after.
All the coupled up friends meddled. The single men gave their (mostly) bad advice, and THE TROUBLE WITH LOVE had to add more reasons for them to long for one another until they gave up and gave in.
This is a stubborn pair, and you will first have to try to figure out the whole story of Alex and Emma’s past before seeing how they could fix it.
In the final book of the Stiletto Series, we finally find out what happened between Alex Cassidy and Emma Sinclair. Alex temporarily takes over as editor in chief of Stiletto magazine. And while he’s boss he tells Emma to write about her 12 ex’s. Also during this time Emma is temporarily staying in her former bosses apartment after hers gets flooded. Her new neighbor is none other than her ex-fiance, Alex. Things heat up after their friends wedding. They agree to one night, which turns into multiple nights and then into a sort of relationship.
The author did a great job at this second chance story. I am not really a fan of them because usually the reasons for the breakup are due to cheating or whatnot. The author chose a different route for this one. I won’t give the whole story away.
A great end to the Stiletto women! Now onto the Oxford men!
Oh YES! We knew there was so much going on under all that ice between Emma Sinclair and Alex Cassidy and now we have the story behind it all. Add in all the characters of both the Stiletto and the Oxford magazines and this one has angst, banter, lust, sass, and a wedding, oh yeah, and of course lots of sexy times to keep it going. So perfect!
The whole series is a lot of fun. The characters are people I liked and enjoyed seeing crop up in all the books.
She continues her string of hits with this one. Her plots are exciting and engaging, always informative, great sex scenes and lots of fun!
This was my favorite of the series and a great way to end it. I look forward to the spin-off Oxford series. But I definitely recommend this author and this series.
I’ve been dying to find out what really happened between our beloved Emma and Cassidy. If you have read any of the previous books in the Sex, Love & Stiletto series you know that Emma and Alex (who goes by his last name of Cassidy) used to be engaged, however, neither of them would tell their friends what truly went down between them other than Emma was left at the alter, but that isn’t the full story.
After what happened Emma moved to New York to escape her life in North Carolina. She became the expert on break ups and exes for Stiletto Magazine. She was closed off to everyone when it came to relationships. However, fate would once again bring Cassidy and Emma back together. Cassidy became the temp editor in chief for Stiletto magazine and also ended up being neighbors with Emma. Not only that, but the ended up becoming close with the same group of friends. There was not escaping each other.
I started out disliking Cassidy because of what we already knew about the failed wedding, however, once we got the full story I couldn’t hate him. Half way through the book I was truly rooting for him and Emma to reconnect. There was denying their chemistry and sexual tension between the two was on fire.
Along with getting the find out what happened with Emma and Cassidy we continued to learn more about our favorite couples Julie and Mitchell, Grace and Jake and Riley and Sam, as well as, meeting a few more of the Oxford crew.
This is such a perfect story and you truly feel that Emma and Cassidy are meant to be. You will laugh, you will cry, and you will fall in love with them.
A broken wedding from seven years ago and lots of regrets…their story starts slow and little frustrating, but ends sweetly and with lots of heat. The characters seemed little flat and juvenile in the beginning but they grow… Would keep reading and won’t regret.