Hearts in Darkness by Laura Kaye

Yes, yes, good God a thousand times yes. Who knew being trapped in an elevator could be so damn hot! I mean just look at the cover art. Her fingertips are literally digging into his back! Digging I tell ya!

Makenna is having a rough day, and simply wants to get home so she can relax. Don’t we all? Distracted by a phone call, she doesn’t really notice the tall, dark stranger sharing the elevator with her when the lights suddenly go out. Her elevator companion is Caden, a physically and perhaps emotionally scarred man who chooses to isolate himself from others through his tattoos and multiple piercings. However, considering he doesn’t do so well in confined spaces, and the young woman sharing this fateful elevator ride with him never got a real good look at his face, he has no choice but to open up to her.

Now, in the real world, Makenna probably would have been trapped with either a suspender-wearing heavy breather, or someone with terrible body odor, but we can dream, can’t we? Sure! Why the hell not? What I love about this story is the fact that our two love birds weren’t drawn to each other simply because they had rockin’ bodies. Being trapped in total darkness means they come to rely on and communicate with one another on a level that seems anything but superficial.

The build up to the smut in the book is slow, but in a sinfully delicious way. Idle chit-chat turns to deeper discussions about life, and as the elevator heats up with the loss of electricity, they can’t help but remove a few articles of clothing. Can you feel the tension?! Yummy. When these two finally decide to climb all over each other things get hot and sticky.

There is one reason, and one reason only that I wouldn’t give this book a perfect rating, and that is because I question how long this relationship would actually last. I mean, I absolutely love the characters, and they really seemed to connect, but they knew each other for about 5 hours, and met under somewhat unusual circumstances. Considering that the novel takes place over a few hours rather than a lengthy period of time, they don’t really have time to develop their feelings into something exceedingly substantial. By the time the novel ends I’m sure the characters are in more than lust, but I don’t think it can quite be characterized as love just yet.

Series: Hearts in Darkness, book 1. Can’t wait to see what happens next for these two!

Should you read it: Heck yes. Only 100 pages, so it’s literally the perfect beach read. Shouldn’t take you long to read at all.

Smut Level: There is an awful lot of sexual build up in this one, but when they finally decide to do the nasty you’ll find it was definitely worth the wait.

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