BLOG TOUR REVIEWS: DIRTY BEGINNINGS by Laurelin Paige

Dirty Filthy Rich Men’s setting is one comprised of copious amounts of dirty thoughts, filthy fucking, and rich men who use their money and their power to take what and who they want. Initially, Sabrina Lind doesn’t seem to fit into the world she finds herself in, because even if a decade has passed and she’s learned how to dress for success and prove her intellectual capabilities in the world of business marketing, she’s still that awkward college freshman when it comes to the two men who dominated her thoughts 10 years ago and now seem to do the same thing even if their roles are at opposite ends when it comes to what Sabrina gets/wants from them in the present.

Even after reading book one, Weston King is still a bit of a wildcard. He definitely knows how to play the game when it comes to the opposite sex, but it’s unclear who’s playing whom in this new adventure he’s put himself in, and that’s exactly what adds to the intrigue of the story line because, for some reason that remains uncertain, his role in Sabrina’s life isn’t resolved and still has the propensity to wreak havoc on Sabrina’s head and her heart.

Donovan Kincaid ranks at the top of my list when it comes to anti-heroes who don’t seem to have any redeeming qualities. His asshole tendencies far outweigh any positive attributes he may have suppressed due to the circumstances of his past, and while I get why Sabrina is drawn to him and finds herself trapped in Donovan’s game – one she doesn’t know how to play or even know the rules for – his overall treatment of her and blatant disregard for her feelings at any point in their arrangement left me shaking my head at both of them and struggling to understand Sabrina’s desperate need to torment herself by obsessing over a man who clearly has issues when it comes to his relationships with the opposite sex.

Out of the Weston, Donovan, and Sabrina, she seems to be the most complicated one of the three because even though she portrays herself as a woman who needs safe, nice, and decent, it’s not what she craves, which means that Weston can’t deliver on what Sabrina needs sexually and while Donovan uses the dirty, filthy kink she desires, when he leaves her stripped bare physically and emotionally, the shame and vileness she feels surfaces but it’s still not enough to keep herself away from him, to prevent her from yearning for Donovan’s wickedness and perhaps even his ill treatment of her – it’s a cycle she just can’t seem to break free from…

Donovan and Sabrina’s story sweeps readers up into a whirlwind of emotions as the “Just Sex” couple crave, avoid, and manipulate one another. Donovan is definitely a devilish rogue dressed in business suits with a filthy mouth and kinky taste when it comes to his sexual dalliances. On the surface, Sabrina meshes better with Weston, but it’s made crystal clear that he cannot satisfy the kind of sexual relationship she needs to feel alive and sated and the man who makes her fantasies and even her nightmares come alive is the one man who could possibly be her undoing – that is if she doesn’t destroy him first.

4.5 Poison Apples

He is sex personified with one hell of a filthy mouth that he more than knows what to do with when it comes to the opposite sex.

He’s a player in every sense of the word, used to getting whoever and whatever he wants.

As soon as I met Weston in Donovan’s Dirty duet, I knew that it was going to take a special kind of woman to make this manwhore a one woman man and even if that woman entered Weston’s life, she had to make him work for EVERYTHING or else he would get bored and she would become just another notch on his bedpost.

Good thing Elizabeth Dyson is more than up for putting this sexy player in his place, which means that their marriage of convenience is going to test both of them in a number of frustrating ways, amping up their love/hate relationship and forcing both Weston and Elizabeth to deal with their conflicted feelings towards one another.

I have to be honest…the sexual tension between these two almost did me in…the build up seemed to never-ending, and while that makes complete sense to me given the dynamics of Weston and Elizabeth’s arrangement and what’s at stake for both of them, it drove me crazy to witness their jealousy…Elizabeth’s insecurities…Weston’s avoidance and every other action that widens the gap and feeds the push and pull between them.

There’s so much chemistry between these two, but neither want to give in to the other because that would put them at a disadvantage, which means not only are they fighting for a company for very different reasons, they’re also fighting their attraction, which is a lot of pressure to deal with when there’s no outlet to do so, which also means that there’s going to be a breaking point for one or both of them but it’s too soon to tell what that will end up meaning in the big picture.

I’m not quite sure where Weston and Elizabeth go from here because, of course, readers are left with a doozy of a cliffhanger, but I know for a fact that Laurelin Paige is not going to make things easy for these two, which is exactly how it should be when two people come together for something other than love and end up playing a game that becomes more real than anything else in their lives.

4.5 Poison Apples