Tongue Wagger: Something Real by Lexi Ryan

Insert huge sigh. I usually fail to read the last book in series because I just don’t want to know the answer to all my what-ifs. What if my favorite character dies? What if the heroine ends up with the wrong guy? What if the author craps the bed and the last book is completely disappointing? These are questions that NEVER enter my mind when I begin reading a Lexi Ryan series because the books are pure effing torture on cliffhangers. I end each part of her series with painful, crippling curiosity as to what the hell happens next. The other questions don’t even apply because sometimes I want the main character in her books to die. I want her to end up with the wrong guy. There is no crap left in the last book of her stories because she ties up the strings of storylines and the strings of my heart with the WTF? happiness moment in the reveal. How an author could get anything to float out of the miasma is Lexi’s gift to me… I mean her readers. And me. I know she writes each book just for me.

In the Something Reckless we find out that there is complete chaos occurring and that Liz has just been delivered a blow that will crush her heart when she discovers the identity of the RiverRat69. Number one, Lizzyface, let’s be honest Sam would never ever use an interwebs handle including 69. Sam would have a handle that would be like, ForgetMeKnots or RopeForTheFuture. His cheese would not be so mundane and lack of imagination-able. He’s not just a man with a taste for the dark; he’s a man who can problem solve and think out of the box. Really, RiverRat69 is the name for a fourteen year old or someone who spends less than 10 seconds to pick an anonymous name. It was obvious. The lights were flashing in my head. I was very wrong but then again I should have known Lexi would never be so obvious. Lizzy. Lizzy. Lizzy. Insert huge sigh.

The aftermath of the ‘oh shit’ moment is where Something Real dumps you; into a brand new world for Lizzy. Lexi easily weaves the past and the beginning of another topsy-turvy-who-do’s-it that makes for this hot and smexy page-turner. The plot, which I will not spoil anyone with important details, is the damage control of one scandal and the addition of more secrets which snowball into T for TROUBLE! Something Real takes us away from the Bradshaw family to the Christine Guy campaign and associated Guy supporters. This wouldn’t be a Lexi Ryan novel if she didn’t stir the pot with some angst and wanting, which brings Sam into Liz’s new orbit as she has retired after her dealings as a publicist and campaign writer under Travis Bradshaw. The world can’t be okay until something tragic happens in the Something Real, so crap has to hit the cat pan for everything to come to light and this book is just plain full of shady.

There is so much evil in this book on the side of Sabrina Guy that I am fairly sure that she looks like the Wicked Witch of the West when she removes her make-up at the end of the day. The many manipulations of the political world that makes things look good sometimes hides the most twisted inclinations and predilections of those all around. It’s Sam’s picadillos that come to the surface and marries his past with the current events in an awful stew of unhappiness. The way to make it all look good is an undertaking of bad.

To be real, Sam looks weak to me in this book and it makes me feel sad because Sam had so much control and power in Something Wild and Something Reckless that I lost a little respect for him. Probably in reality the world would work how it does in this book… I just want my kinky alpha males to be unrelenting and nearly impossible to corrupt. I mean, Hello!? Sam was deliciously corrupt already. Why do we have to make his corruption ruin his corruptness. Est-ce pas?

On Liz’s side her character is very passive throughout the book and it makes a lot of sense since she is trying to leave a past in which she made an inordinate amount of boo-boos. The steps she is taking in Something Real are toward not repeating her past. Unfortunately dealing with Sam introduces her to the temptation of reliving the same fate, but this time with eyes wide open. Liz is compelled to dismiss her heart in hopes of doing the right thing regardless of her own pain. She is pawsome-awesome.

Liz Thompson. I love this girl! I definitely don’t hope someone would kill her like I did for Hannah. Man is Liz more better.

The loops and hoops that this story takes will keep you in your seat until you devour this book whole. I highly recommend this series and the previous New Hope books following the Thompson Sisters. <3

Something Real Synopsis:

After everything blew up on Christmas, Liz walked away from me, and I let her. She said she needed space and a chance to pursue her dreams. But we both knew she was running from the mess she made. Now the political campaign she used as an excuse to leave is bringing us back together and I’m proving to her what she really needs—not just the hot nights, greedy hands, and undeniable physical chemistry. What she really needs is something real. What she really needs…is me.

Purchase Something Real:

Reckless and Real Books:

Something Real Excerpt:

Sam

Security had better not have let one of those asshole journalists from downstairs up to my floor. I swear, those soul suckers would do anything to get a new detail to add to their nothing stories. I open the door without removing the chain and feel as if I’ve been punched in the gut when I see the woman on the other side.

Liz is worrying her lower lip between her teeth and watching down the hall. Is she looking for Sabrina or trying to make sure no one sees her coming to my room? My insides twist at the sight of her—an internal tug-of-war between conflicting emotions. I want to pull her into my room and kiss her until she can’t see straight, touch her until she promises never to leave me again, and at the same time, I want to demand that she go back to her room because having her close makes me hope for things I can’t have.

I remove the chain and tug her inside by the arm before closing the door behind her.

“No one saw me,” she says, her eyes locked on the floor. “I made sure.”

“I saw you,” I growl. It’s painful to be this close—to breathe her air, to smell her perfume. I never knew how much it could hurt to want and be denied.

She swallows and avoids my eyes. “Is she here?”

“What do you want, Liz?”

She lifts her head and stares at me. “Is she here?”

“Sabrina’s on her way to meet her mom in South Dakota for a campaign stop.”

Her gaze dips to my bare chest and back up. “I’m surprised they didn’t ask you to go with them.”

“They did. I declined.” I sound like a fucking dickhead, and I make myself take two steps back so I don’t do something equally dickish. Like kiss her until she melts in my arms and forgets about the other guy, until we both forget that this is hopeless.

“I’m sorry that video was leaked. You didn’t deserve that invasion of your privacy.”

She has red lipstick on, and it matches her shoes. Ever since I saw her tonight, I’ve been picturing her on her knees in nothing but those shoes, those red lips stretched around my cock. I can’t help myself, and I skim my thumb over her bottom lip.

The second I touch her, she draws in a ragged breath. “You came to my apartment yesterday.”

“I did.”

“Why?”

I trail my thumb down her neck and over the red strap of her dress. “Probably for the same reason you came here tonight.”

“To talk about Sabrina?”

“You knocked on my door in the middle of the night to talk about Sabrina?” I follow the strap down and graze my fingers across her cleavage. “Is this about her, or is it about you and me?”

“There is no you and me,” she says. “We both know that.”

“There’s so much you and me, there’s no air left when we share a room. There’s always you and me.”

“Even when you’re making sex tapes with someone else?”

“And even when you’re keeping warm in another man’s arms.”

Meet Lexi Ryan:

Once a college English professor, I now write full time. I live in rural Indiana, where, when I’m not writing, I get to hang out with my husband and two kids–a six-year-old boy and a two-year-old hellion, er, girl. Not surprisingly, reading and writing remain my favorite activities, though both come in bits and pieces these days, not the big hunks of time I enjoyed before I had children. When I’m feeling virtuous, I like to go running (I use that word liberally. I’m really, really slow) or do yoga. Don’t worry, I’m always careful to balance out such activities with a hearty serving of ice cream or a chocolate martini.

Lexi Ryan’s Web Tracks:

Lexi Ryan on All The Things Inbetween:

Tongue Wagger: Something Reckless by Lexi Ryan
Book It – In News Today: Lexi Ryan To Release More Smexy Novels; Cover Reveals Whet Anticipation!
Makin’ The Love Monday – All For This by Lexi Ryan
Book It – In News Today: Here and Now, Lexi Ryan Gives Sneak Peak of All For This
Makin’ The Love Monday – Fall To You by Lexi Ryan
Weekend Pick Me Up – Lost In Me by Lexi Ryan
Book It – In News Today: Lexi Ryan Brings You Here and Now Cover Reveal
Book It – In News Today: Lexi Ryan’s Lost In Me Sneak Peek!

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