Wednesday 21 January 2015

Review ~ The Club (The Club #1) by Lauren Rowe

Reviewed by Donna ~ 4.5 Stars

“‘For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.’”

This is the first book of a trilogy and also a debut book. Book 2 The Reclamation releases on 26th January and book 3 The Redemption on 9th February, so you do not have long to wait for a complete series!

“Plato wasn’t telling me to avoid it. He was telling me to embrace it.”

This book was such a surprise and a total addictive read, I could not put it down. We all love a man that needs “fixing,” I think I have an inherent need to try and help myself even though all I am doing is reading about them and Jonas Faraday was no exception. As soon as you meet Jonas, you can tell just by his dialogue that he is definitely not your usual upstanding, man you take home to meet mom kind of guy. He comes across as conceited, arrogant, and cocky and has a massive ego but if you can read between the lines you can see that this is all a façade.

Jonas is a man that feels he does not have the propensity to love or be loved. He believes that he is truly happiest flitting from one night stand to one stand as long as he achieves what he believes is his mission in life, and that is to make his “women” see stars, to give them the best night of their life, to ruin them for all others, to bring them to the upper echelons of sexual satisfaction and this man can back up his manifesto!! Through tireless research on the female mind, body and soul he has truly done his groundwork. He works hard and runs an investment company with this Uncle and twin brother but something is missing and that something…Jonas doesn’t even know its missing…yet.

Jonas’s brother joins “The Club” and soon recommends it to his brother. This is a club where individuals register to find like suited individuals. The application form wants to know the ins and outs of everything and requires honesty, this is where this story begins…Jonas completing his form and he is honest, extremely honest. Once his application has been vetted and he has paid the exorbitant joining fee, he will be set to go.

“Sex is supposed to be the truth, the most real and raw and honest and primal expression of the human experience. And orgasm, by its very nature, is the height, the very culmination of that honesty.”

At the other end of a PC Sarah is a struggling law student and she works hard to keep up being near the top of her class so that she can continue with her scholarship. She struggles to make ends meet so has taken a job vetting applications to “The Club.” She has to ensure the authenticity of the application, confirm the identity of the person making the application, research the person making the application and analyse their suitability. Her first application unsupervised is Jonas Faraday; his application surprises her and intrigues her at the same time. Sarah is “broken” too, she has her issues and she has some problems of her own, but if Jonas Faraday is the man that he claims to be he could be the answer to all her problems, it doesn’t help that he is drop dead gorgeous to boot and just looking at him causes her to feel a burn.

And so begins the best game of cat and mouse I have read for a very long time. I loved the banter, the wit and humour, the musical references, the quotes, hell I just loved it all. The way the story developed, their relationship developed, how they both realise their issues and try together to overcome them. How they both seem to incessantly know what the other needs, what they need to hear, just the right thing at the right time. I felt the connection, I felt their chemistry, and I just loved them as a couple and was rooting for them from the start.

“Sarah Cruz is about to learn one of the immutable laws of nature, a principle as immovable and unavoidable as the theory of relativity or Boyle’s law of gases or mother**king gravity. It’s called Faraday’s law of attraction and it goes a little something like this: When Jonas Faraday wants a particular woman, Jonas Faraday shall have her. And in this particular instance, Jonas Faraday wants the magnificent Sarah Cruz. End of f**king story.”

I will admit this a kind of instalust which I know is a turn off for some readers, but this has never happened to Jonas, so seeing him battle with his emotions and these totally alien feelings was not only hilarious and entertaining but also tugged at my heart strings. Underneath that false bravado and that cocky heartless façade, a man who feels he could never fit the “Hallmark Card” brief is a man that tops it. To see him “romance” and “woo” was not only heart-warming but burned him into my heart and soul. I love Jonas Faraday. I know I have a penchant for the “broken” man, but this man just steam rollered himself in there and I fear he will be a permanent resident.

“I’m either a sexual sniper with a rampant God complex or I’m f**king Nicholas Sparks. I can’t be both.”

For a debut author this was a fantastic read, totally absorbing, a perfect blend of humour, angst and heat and it was un-put-down-able. Once I started I couldn’t stop and stayed up late to finish. There was something about this couple that got me hook, line and sinker and I cannot wait for the next book in this series. This is just the beginning for Jonas and Sarah, but will “The Club” leave them be?

“You’re everything I never knew I always wanted.”

Buy Links: 

No comments:

Post a Comment