xcite books

Article first published as eBook Review: Identity Crisis by Grace Marshall on Blogcritics.

After reading book one in this hot romance series, An Executive Decision, I eagerly pounced on book two, Identity Crisis. It’s based in the same world, with the same characters, but focusses on the relationship between two people that were secondary in the first book.

Garrett Thorne, the younger brother of Ellison Thorne has always felt as though he’s lived in his brother’s shadow. Ellison is rich, powerful and popular, and now he’s engaged to Dee Henning and is a very happy man. In comparison, Garrett is single, has his own, money, but can’t tell anyone how he’s earning it. Garrett has an alter-ego, romance writer Tess Delaney, and only his closest friends and family know about it. However, all that is set to change when Tess is nominated for a Golden Kiss Award. The public are expecting Tess to attend, but of course she doesn’t really exist. Garrett doesn’t know whether to ‘out’ himself as Tess, or hire someone to play her. He opts for the latter, and ends up working with Kendra Davis – a woman he knows as Dee’s best friend and dislikes intensely. She dislikes him just as much, but they’re all but forced to work together.

Everything goes well for the awards ceremony, but soon afterwards a horrific force is unleashed which means Garrett and Kendra must work together to defeat it. As they do, can they grudgingly agree to get on? And will this develop into more?

As much as I enjoyed An Executive Decision, I enjoyed Identity Crisis even better. I can’t quite put my finger on why, perhaps it’s because I identified with the characters more. Whatever the reasons, I enjoyed this book very much, with its fascinating mix of love, hate, passion, violence, mystery and action. The outcome was a page-turner that I whizzed through even faster than its predecessor. Definitely recommended for hot romance fans – but make sure you read the first book beforehand. This book will still make sense if you don’t, but there will be bits you miss out on.

I’m now eagerly awaiting book three.

Available from:
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Xcite Books

Article first published as Book Review: An Executive Decision by Grace Marshall on Blogcritics.

Grace Marshall is the hot romance writing alter ego of erotic romance writer K D Grace. However, this book is so hot that I’m still reviewing it here.

An Executive Decision is the first book in the Executive Decisions trilogy from Xcite Books. It introduces us to high powered, successful CEO Ellison Thorne, one of a triad that runs Pneuma, Inc. His success has a price – no sex life, and certainly no romance. It’s something his executive assistant, Beverly, mentions frequently. For this reason, she wants Ellison – more often known as Ellis – to implement the Executive Sex Clause when she retires. That is, when Beverly’s replacement is hired – and Beverly has someone very much in mind – the clause means that Ellis and the new executive should have no-strings sex whenever they like, to help them stay focussed on their jobs, keep them sharp.

Ellis laughs this off constantly, but when the time comes and Dee Henning is hired, Ellis starts to think Beverly might have been right. Dee is gorgeous, sexy and incredibly hard-working. She too has very little time for sex – so will the ESC help both of them to keep Pneuma, Inc. at the top of its game? But what would happen if the clause became public knowledge?

An Executive Decision is a brilliant first novel from Grace Marshall. As someone that’s familiar with K D Grace’s work, there’s a marked difference between the heat levels, but the writing style is still recognisable, and still excellent. This book has a pretty hefty plot, even without the Executive Sex Clause, and therefore the sex is dotted throughout the storyline, but doesn’t make up a massive part of it. The storyline has a great blend between the romance and the other plot elements, and each of the elements combines to make this a real page-turner. Despite its whopping word count, I whizzed through this in a couple of days, and am looking forward to the next book.

Available from:
Amazon UK
Amazon US
The Book Depository
Waterstones