Craves The Angst: ARC REVIEW - HIS TO CLAIM (His To Claim #1-6) by Opal Carew:

TITLE: His To Claim
SERIES: His To Claim
SERIES PLACEMENT: #1-6
AUTHOR: Opal Carew
AGE GROUP: Adult
GENRE: Erotic Romance
RELEASE DATE: Sept. 2, 2014
PUBLISHER: St. Martin's Griffin
FORMAT: eBook and Paperback
PAGES: Approx. 288

COPY PROVIDED BY: NetGalley
MY GOODREADS REVIEW LINK
RATING: ★★★
CLIFFHANGER: No

BOOK BLURB:
What if you could have everything you’ve always wanted, but it cost you the life you’ve always known?

Rafe Ranier was my boss and secret crush. A rock musician by night and head of a billion dollar empire by day, Rafe could have any woman he wanted. But I was just the shy secretary he never noticed. For years I obsessed over him, until I finally realized I had to walk away. I needed to leave my secure life behind to discover who I really was.I never expected Rafe to follow me.Now I’m on the road with his band, Savage Kiss, and all my secret fantasies are coming true. But I fear I’ve made a huge mistake, because if I get any more attached to a man I can never truly have, my heart will be broken beyond all repair.

First published as a six-part erotic serial, His to Claim is the intoxicating tale of a woman torn between a tattooed, bad boy rock musician and the life she's always know. Now available for the first time as a complete book, this edition features sizzling new bonus material.

REVIEWERS NOTE: His to Claim is an Adult, Erotic Romance written by Opal Carew. In exchange for an honest review, I was gifted a copy from the St. Martin's Press through NetGalley.

3 Sexy Yet Wavering Stars!

The Review:

This is a six part serial combined into one full length novel. I’m not a huge fan of serials so I was excited when I saw this was a combined book and I wouldn’t have to wait for any of the story parts to be published before being able to read it in full. I jumped all over it because the blurb sounded awesome and I’m a fan of this author. And honestly, there were many parts in this story that I really enjoyed. It was sexy, supremely hot in some places and it deliciously sweet in others. I also liked the idea of Melanie getting in touch with her inner bad girl and living out her fantasies. I also really enjoyed the band, Savage Kiss, and their members. I loved Rafe/Storm. He was steamy and his possessive yet open mind blew me away.

Here’s where my disappointment comes in. The whole situation was confusing and sticky.

Melanie leaves her corporate lifestyle to work as a barista because she’s in love with her boss who sees her as nothing more than an employee. She also wants to become an artist and shy away from the structured life her parents mapped out for her. But she goes about this in a bad way. She’s broke, she’s drifting and she seems lost. She doesn’t seem to have any control and she’s floundering. She might be living out some of her sexual fantasies but her life has taken a downward turn. She just had no direction.

Rafe comes to visit her at her new work place to find out why she left, in hopes of reconnecting with her as they were good friends when she was working for him. Suddenly he sees her in a new light and recognizes feelings he thought didn’t exist.

But Melanie gets an opportunity to go on the road with Storm’s band, Savage Kiss... without Storm! She goes, even though her long time crush has suddenly found her interesting and he lets her go. She finds an attraction to two other men and then there’s a yummy foursome involved. All the while, Rafe/Storm is getting past the loss of his ex who’s marrying his brother. See, sticky!

Maybe I missed something, but it felt like all the characters were drifting. No one knew where they were going. Rafe/Storm’s name changes kept me wondering which guy I was going to get in which scene. And Melanie not being able to hold her panties up kind of grated on my nerves because she longed for Rafe for years and the moment she gets him, she leaves to “find herself”, which I totally understand but she can’t be on the road with two hot guys paying her loads of attention without subcoming to their charms and sultry kisses? Yeah, ok, I probably wouldn’t have either, but I expected more from my heroine.

I love angsty books. I love characters who believe “sharing is caring” because lets face it. Three guys and one girl is effing hot. But what I don’t like are characters who are indecisive and who are still floundering when the story ends and I felt Melanie was that kind of heroine. And much like Melanie, this story had very little direction.

I guess I just wanted more from the actual story itself.

If I was to base this on the steam factor alone, it would rate a solid four stars! But with such a distracting story that left me unsatisfied, I had to come down in my rating. I still enjoyed it but again, I wanted more. I still very much love this author and I’ll be going on to read more of her work because she’s awesome and her stories give me the happies! This one just didn’t do it for me.