Monday, August 29, 2016

MONIQUE'S REVIEW OF ~ Fool Me Once (Foolproof Love, #2) by Katee Robert ~


Quinn Baldwyn has to attend his sister Jenny’s wedding in two weeks. Quinn is a renegade: he refused to work in the oil family business; instead he chose a ranch. He’s the only son, and his family can’t wait for him to marry. Of course, he’ll need a date. Quinn only dates casually, and he can’t find anyone suitable to accompany him, lest a date would get ideas of matrimony. Enters Aubry Kaiser, best friend of Jules, the wife of a friend. They are highly unsuitable, they can’t stand each other. Aubry is a gamer, and she has just received an invitation to attend a closed alpha test of her favourite game: Deathmatch. It’s a dream come true as well as her worst nightmare: it’s an honour, but there will be people there! Aubry suffers from crippling societal anxiety: she finds it very difficult to be amongst crowds. Both Aubry and Quinn agree that they could help each other, if they don’t kill each other first!

What stupendous fun! I was only at Chapter 1, and I was almost slapping my thighs at the fun I knew was coming! Quinn likes to tease Aubry because she is so prickly, but he is not mean, he knows when to stop. Aubry doesn’t mind that much, she knows she has attitude problems, but what she did not expect is that Quinn knows how to deal with her anxiety, and he is very patient and caring. In spite of the fact that she is not his type, Quinn thinks Aubry is cute, and he finds her interesting in an offbeat sort of way. Aubry might not like people much, but Quinn is one sexy cowboy, and soon they realise that fighting their physical attraction is pointless. And oh the sizzling sex scenes that come with this!

I had read some reviews where reviewers didn’t like Aubry, but I did. I understood where she was coming from: she is not really disagreeable, she just has no filters and doesn’t know how to act around people, whereas Quinn is a people-person, and I thought this “opposites attract” trope worked splendidly. FOOL ME TWICE is a blast! There is hysterically funny banter, some insanely hot and sizzling scenes, and some very tender moments as well. The pace is very brisk, the writing smooth and young, and the dialogues are utterly spectacular! I’m not quite sure how Ms. Robert accomplishes this feat, but I could feel and hear the various cadences: Quinn’s speech reads slower, his is a modulated, silky drawl, while Aubry reads like she talks super quickly, frantically even, getting as many words as she can get in as quickly as possible, and all this without any obvious tricks from the author. This is simply fabulous and makes the reader truly feel part of their story. I was rooting for Quinn and Aubry like crazy! Oh, it’s not smooth sailing, but their difficulties felt normal, and there were no misunderstandings except the ones expected from Aubry and her neuroses. Character development is positively outstanding, their interactions: whether sex, banter, fights, tiffs, all felt genuine. FOOL ME ONCE is a true “opposites attract”: Aubry and Quinn are different, and it never feels manufactured; I felt close to those people, I wanted them to be together because it felt as if they were my friends, I could relate to them, especially Aubry. I have said it before: Katee Robert is a master at characterisation, and Aubry and Quinn are no exception. 

I could dwell on everything that’s good in FOOL ME ONCE, but it could take a long, long time, because I cannot find any fault with this fabulous book! Extremely well done, Ms. Robert!


I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.


~MONIQUE~

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