Hello out there to all of my bibliophiles! Long time, no see! I hope everyone had amazing holidays, and an even more festive and Happy New Year! To those of you who were doing the Reading Challenge from goodreads, did you meet your goals? How many of you are participating this year? Personally, I JUST finished my goal of a hundred books right under the wire, and then I decided to spend some time with my favorite professor, Gabriel Emerson from the Gabriel series by Sylvain Reynard. I somehow always have a rendezvous with him around the new year, and I never regret a moment of our time together! That is the reason I haven’t updated in quite awhile! My profound apologies! It’s time to get back into the swing of things!

I just finished my first new book for the new year (and number 1 in my goal of 200 books for 2016)! I celebrated my birthday just after the new year, so I took myself on a Barnes & Noble date. I used up $85 worth of gift cards, and spent another mini fortune on top of that as well. I got some good books in my latest haul, and I can’t seem to get to them fast enough! I decided to start out with a new book from a new series of an author I adore, First Touch, part of the First and Last series by Laurelin Paige. As I’ve stated previously, I will be grouping series reads together when I can. In this case, it was a new release, and the rest of the books haven’t been put on the shelves yet, so I had to make an exception.

For my first of 2016 that wasn’t a re-read of an old favorite, I was slightly disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Laurelin Paige and her steamy work, but there was something about this story I couldn’t connect to all throughout the plot. Let’s see if I can explain properly.

I know Emily is messed up in her sexual habits, and she’s on a mission to get revenge on her friend, but I’m not entirely sure why. It’s not clear if the missing friend (Amber) is dead or alive, plus said friends fell out of touch almost a decade before. It was quite foggy for me.

Also, there’s Reeve. He has an empire of sorts, he’s hotter than sin, he’s mysterious, and he may be linked to a mafia murder. Emily knows these dangers, but if anything, it only draws her to him even more.

While these two had chemistry, there’s just something I couldn’t attach myself to when it came to them both as a couple, and as individuals. They had so many secrets, which kept them from connecting to each other properly, and in turn, kept me from clinging to them as an outside participant.

This story did have its twists and turns. I know this is the first in a new series, so I will stick with it because I know it has the potential to build into something great. I was intrigued by the storyline, so now I just have to hope I get some answers and more development so that I can really appreciate these characters the way I know they deserve.

My Final Rating: three out of five stars