Published by Indie/Self Published
Released on December 26, 2018
Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
Format: Audiobook
Source: Purchased
The Delight
Finding Alexei was delightfully sensual with a burn that lasted long after the last page was read. Characters who aren’t what you expect, while still giving you an honest look into certain parts of their lives.
Review
With hours to kill driving around, I completed another audio book! Looks like my goal of 5 audio books will be a reality sooner than I expected. Finding Alexi came out on audio format a week or more before the ebook, so I had to decide which I wanted to go for first.
Alexi or Alex as his teammates call him, is a bad boy with a heart of gold. He’s a player and not apologetic about it, but he also is a family man with lots of sisters, nieces and nephews. So when he see’s a woman in skimpy clothing on a very cold night being harassed by a balding man for a blow job, he steps in to diffuse the situation and gets more than he bargained.
Ryleigh is in a tough situation, but a strong woman. When her parents die, she mourns, and drops out of college only to take on a topless waitress job at a sleaze dive stripper club. But just because she bares her breasts as she serves meals, doesn’t mean she is giving up her personal morals. It’s just a job to make ends meet in a shitty apartment with a baby her former room mate leaves with a simple note that she is sorry. Making ends meet while taking care of a child not your own is spreading Ryleigh thin.
Alexi takes one look at her apartment after buying supplies for the baby and seeing there isn’t even heat in the place and decides she is coming home with him. He’s so natural with baby Ella, taking on a fatherly role that he didn’t know he wanted. Not thinking twice, he buys the items they both need, offer them warmth and a place to sleep, while trying not to come across as a dirty play boy wanting sex in return.
Ryleigh struggles in letting Alexi into her heart and letting him take care of her. She isn’t a wilting flower bowed under the weight of everything going on in her life. She goes to a job she really doesn’t like, but makes good money at even as she stays with Alexi. Handouts like this are hard on her pride. The child isn’t hers, but as she takes care of Ella longer and longer, she starts to build a bond with a baby she didn’t want or need.
I expected some big scandal to come forth over Ryleigh’s job choice and Alexi’s big football name, but that never came forth. In fact her career choices weren’t a big issue after a while and I was really happy it wasn’t made into a big deal. We do what we have to at times and those choices aren’t always what main stream society approves.
Ryleigh and Alexi finally give into the attraction drawing them together. It was natural when they came together. Searching for Ella’s mom is also in the background of the entire story as both characters grow to love her and feel like she is their own. In a way they become a little family you would never have put together, but it worked. Alexi valued Ryleigh as a person and gets to know who she is after first impressions. He never looks down on her or makes her feel like a second class human for her choices. She in turn learns more about football and appreciates everything he provides for them.
Eventually Ella’s mom comes back with a bombshell, that affects this little family they have build, driving Ryleigh to second guess what she is feeling. The slight drama was just what the story needed before I fell into just how easy these two were together.
We meet secondary characters that are in Dear Jane, but this doesn’t appear to be a series of stories about friends. You can easily read this separately from Dear Jane and understand. I do have to say now I want to run to Dear Jane and read it, but I am behind so it might still be a bit.
Overall, I found this to be a sexy but easy story to listen to. The narrators were new to me, but put me at ease knowing who was telling the story and where we were. They worked well together, telling me the story of two strong people ready for love, but also hearts that expand to include a baby left alone and needed the love only they could provide. I love Kendall Ryan’s books. Alpha men, strong women, sexy interludes and laughs when you need them. A solid win!
Challenges
Bad Boys of Romance #2
Review Writing Challenge #6
Try Something New #3
Audiobook Challenge #2
Literary Pickers #3 – oven
Books ‘N’ Tunes #3 – High Hopes by Panic! At The Disco
Recommendations
Reading this book contributed to these challenges: