ARC Review: Banger by Aria Cole

If you've read any Aria Cole book, you know what you're getting yourself into. It's going to be quick and dirty. There will be a bossy alpha male some dirty talk and lots of dirty deeds. This book delivers what's on the label. Ellis is Tobias' office assistant. Ellis is the only person who doesn't seem aware of how super hot she is but Tobias is. Unfortunately Tobias is Ellis' boss and Ellis does not want to blow her chance at a good job by....blowing her boss....ok, sorry sorry, I couldn't help myself. But seriously, Ellis is worried about her job.

These books are pretty short, probably about 100 or so pages. So Tobias pretty quickly decides that he cannot live without Ellis. He is obsessing about getting her under or over him constantly. She is his assistant but he is distracted whenever she is around. Ellis is also fixated on her boss. She tries to remember her professional objections, but Tobias quite effectively makes her forget her sensibilities. One night Ellis and Tobias are trapped in a closet and it's on like Donkey Kong. And seriously, that's pretty much all there is. It's a short distance between that point and the end of the book and a HEA.

This book was good fun. It's super easy to read and it's light on the too heavy angst that sometimes shows up in romance. This book is not going to change your life but you'll be entertained for a couple of hours. I do have one note about this book, or two. First, something about the language gave me a soft core porn vibe. It just all seemed really contrived. Like Ellis would come in to see Tobias and say "let me know what else I can do for you Mr. Banger" with wide eyes and breathy voice. Ok, you have to see some soft core porn to know what I mean. It's just the writing made the characters into caricatures which made a lot of the book seem kind of cheesy. The second note is that Tobias was engaged in text book sexual harassment. He was Ellis' boss, she kept telling him she didn't want to have a relationship with him and he just kept pursuing her. Before Ellis finally gave in, Tobias was cornering her and making inappropriate comments every chance he got. I put aside my judgment and ethics so I can enjoy the ride but if you are prone to distraction, this would be distracting for you. In real life, Tobias crossed several lines. For the sake of entertainment, this is still a fun light read.

**ARC provided by Ardent PRose**

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ARC Review: Taking Tessa by Aria Cole

I’m going to make this as quick and as painless as possible because reading this book was enough bad news for me. I really had high hopes that this author might be able to pull this out. I like instalove and sort of Cinderella/Rapunzel themes so I was ok with the setup of this book. Hot guy rescues hot girl from where she has been locked away by evil stepfather, ok, cool, I was here for it. HOWEVER, I am not here for complete ridiculousness. I have 3 kids, I get a daily dose of outrageousness, I don’t need it in my romance novels. And that is where this book and I parted ways.

The plot was just so….thin. It just didn’t make any sense that a police officer would take a 19 year old girl home with him after “rescuing” her from her stepfather. We are not talking about a stray dog in need of a water bowl and food, this is an actual human. And Cage just walks right in and out with her. To make it even worse, he immediately starts expressing attraction towards her. And for her part, she has been totally sheltered and has never been with a man or learned about sex but she immediately starts reacting to Cage like a porn star. HOW?? Did I mention this book is repetitive? Did I mention this book is repetitive? Did I mention this book is repetitive? How did that make you feel? That’s how I felt reading this book.

I did not feel any connection between these characters because there was no time for a connection to develop before they are screwing like bunnies. I did not fall in alpha love with Cage because Cage was extra emotional and irritating. Even worse, Cage was controlling the girl the same way her stepfather did. She didn’t get free and start living, no. Cage was picking her clothes and monitoring who she was around. Even worse, Cage starts screwing her. Ugh. It was all too much for me. I recommend you find something else to do with 6-8 hours of your life that does not involve this book.

**ARC provided by TRSoR Promotions**

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ARC Review: Scarlet by Aria Cole

Sometimes when it comes to reading a book, the book can be a victim of timing. In this case, it just so happens that this book landed on my read list at the same time as a similar short story. I tell you that because reading two books with similar characters might effect my thoughts on those books. So when you read this review and my review that is up for tomorrow on Holding His Forever, consider that I might have just overloaded on super intense alpha males. It might have been too much for me but you might enjoy this book more than my three star rating.

Let me give you a quick rewind. In this book, Cole is giving us updates on a familiar fairy tale theme. This book is a twist on Little Red Riding Hood. Beau is the big bad wolf....I think. Scarlet is, of course, Red. Scarlet is at home to spend time with her sickly Grandmother when she encounters Beau. Scarlett is an innocent red head who has not had much experience with life or sex. From the minute Scarlett meets Beau, she is captivated by him and vice versa.

The reason I enjoyed this book is because, as you know, I'm nasty. This book gave me all the smoking hotness that I could ask for. Even though Scarlett is an innocent virgin at first, the sex was very sexy. The reason my rating of this book isn't higher is because I honestly thought i missed a couple of pages at some point. The book is short but Beau goes from being a stranger to Scarlet to being seriously obsessed and in love in no time. I just did not get the intensity of Beau's feelings for Scarlet developing when he knows almost nothing about her. I also felt like some of the scenes were so over the top, they were kind of silly. Before Beau and Scarlet sleep together for the first time, their interludes, while steamy, just seemed like too much. For as over the top as Beau was, Scarlet is equally over the top in her wide eyed innocence. I just really didn't get how Beau thought someone like Scarlet was his abosolute soul mate after like two minutes of knowing her. Lastly, I was really wondering what happened to poor Grandma after Scarlet got into Beau. She was dickmatized to the point that Granny became a non-factor.

I had fun with this short book. I definitely found it entertaining but there isn't much of a story and you might not necessarily follow the relationship between the couple.

**ARC provided by Ardent PRose**

Purchase: | Amazon |

ARC Review: Black by Aria Cole

Black is Aria Cole's debut novel, and I had to take a chance on it when I read that blurb. I am a fan of fairytales retold, and I love Beauty and The Beast so this seemed like a no-brainer to me. I think that this novella had a lot of potential and there were some things I really liked. But I do think that it needed some work, and it was easy to see that this was Aria Cole's first book.

Maxwell Black used to be the town golden boy, but now he is a recluse that hides out in his home and library rarely venturing out into public because of his scars. But when Elle McKellan shows up on his doorstep looking for a job, the attraction between them is instant and Maxwell finds himself wanting more than the life he has been living. 

I liked Maxwell and Elle together. The attraction and sparks were there right away. The chemistry between them was strong, and you could feel the connection forming between them even if it was a serious case of insta-love. But I will say that Elle was super naive, and at times she had me rolling my eyes. I just find it really hard to believe that someone her age could possibly be as clueless as she was at times. I won't say more because I don't want to spoil anything, but suffice it to say there was one glaring example of this that most teenage girls are more knowledgeable about than she was. It was unrealistic and drove me nuts.

I also felt like this story needed a good editor or beta reader. I will say that I read an advanced copy, so there is the possibility that some of this was cleaned up before the final published edition. But my copy had a ton of inconsistencies that were beyond obvious. (thinking the hero's name in her thoughts and then asking him for it claiming she didn't know it...then a couple pages after he gives her only his first name she suddenly knows his last name, being terrified of men and avoiding them at all costs because she doesn't trust them but then blindly trusting and wanting a relative stranger to hold her and put his hands all over her because she feels so safe with him a few sentences later...) I know that things happen fast in a novella and Aria Cole did say in the blurb that this one has insta-love. But these things don't make sense even then, and should have been caught ahead of time and hopefully were fixed before being published. (though I don't have the final copy to verify if they were)

I think that Aria Cole has potential, and there is definitely a spot for shorter stories filled with sexy heroes and insta-love. If you like Alexa Riley this had a similar feel to it, though it wasn't as polished as an Alexa Riley story. I would read more from Aria Cole in the future, and I hope as she continues to write she will get some beta readers or a good editor that can help her clean her stories up a bit more because I think that this one could have been much stronger than it ended up being.

**ARC Provided by TRSOR Promotions**

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