RELEASE BLITZ: REVIEW AND EXCERPT: Holding Her Close by Lexi Ryan

HOLD YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE…AND YOUR ENEMIES CLOSER.

She’s everything he detests about Hollywood.

After spending my entire acting career being cast as the airhead, I finally have the serious role I’ve been dying for, and I screw it all up during a four martini dinner with my ex. Now, thanks to the morality clause in my contract, I might lose the role of a lifetime. My only hope is to convince the media (and my eccentrically conservative director) that I’ve entered a committed relationship. But when I use my brother’s costume party to launch Operation Fake Fiancé, I end up in front of the camera with the wrong guy, leaving my reputation—and the fate of my career—at his mercy. Any other guy I could sweet talk into playing the supporting role I need, but not Officer Cade Watts. Not the man who hates everything about me. Not the man who would most revel in seeing me fail.

He’s everything she needs.

I don’t care how good it felt to have her in my arms. I don’t care that I can’t close my eyes without remembering the way she tastes or the sound of her moan. I want nothing to do with Janelle Crane. Her scheme to fake an engagement to save her own career is exactly the kind of manipulative Hollywood crap I left LA to escape. But when her fan mail turns threatening and the tragedies befalling her former co-stars seem to be anything but coincidence, everything changes. Now I don’t just want to play the part of Janelle’s fake fiancé, I demand it. I won’t let my jaded heart cost me another case. I may not trust Janelle but I do care, and the only way I know she’s safe is if I’m holding her close.

Janelle’s made mistakes, which forces her to lie and play a role she doesn’t want to, which is further complicated by a case of mistaken identity. But when fiction starts to become reality and her pretend boyfriend becomes everything she’s ever craved, how does she mesh the two worlds she wants to be a part of and what happens when there’s more than just the push and pull between her and Cade to worry about, resulting in greater risks to more than just her heart?

I absolutely loved Janelle and Cade’s story. Ever since Janelle was introduced in Hanna and Nate’s series, I’ve loved her spunk and genuineness. I love how close she is with Nate and her ability to weather anything that comes her way and those qualities speak to her true nature despite her Hollywood profession.

Cade is such a strong and protective man; the safety of those he cares for is extremely important to him, and he’s starting to realize that Janelle fits into that category, but he doesn’t think he belongs in her Hollywood world because he’s already been burned before by a Hollywood princess, and he still has the scars to show for it. Because readers are privy to Cade’s backstory with his ex, I understand the wall he’s built around his heart and his inability to see Janelle for who she really is, but I also think the fact that he lumps Janelle into the same category as his ex without truly knowing who Janelle is isn’t fair to her or to what they could possibly have if he was able to separate her from the other Hollywood types that he knows.

Cade frustrated the hell out of me on numerous occasions with how he handled certain situations – reality can be completely distorted when a negative mind frame overshadows everything else, which is clearly the case when it comes to Janelle and Cade. But, despite my difficulties with him, he’s definitely a stellar book boyfriend because, in the end, he owns up to his mistakes. It’s now up to Janelle what she’s willing to do with his honesty as well as the fact that their worlds are really nothing alike.

It’s a good thing Cade knows a thing or two about superhero powers because he’s definitely going to need them in Holding Her Close.

A complimentary copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 Poison Apples