Me Thinks #1: The Hooker and The Hermit

Name: The Hooker and the Hermit
Authors: L.H. Cosway, Penny Reid
Warnings: few sex scenes; mentions of agression

After seeing various people on Goodreads reading and giving 5 stars to this book, I decided to check its profile and see what was it about this book that attracted so many people. The name, The Hooker and The Hermit, immediately made me think of a dirty classless erotic romance where a prostitute (hooker) became involved with an agoraphobic.

I was somewhat aprehensive. We're reaaaaally giving this thing 5 starts? I instantly imagined an even worse version of 50 Shades, very kink and naughty but not very well written. But then, I looked at the cover and saw this guy, a rugby player. Weird, I thought. Then I read two lines from the synopsis and understood it was a blog entry. With so many weird factors, I just HAD to grab this book.

And I'll tell you, I loved it. L-O-V-E-D IT!!!!!! There was no prostitute, no, hooker is apparently a rugby position and the hermit wasn't an agoraphobic but a girl with this super duper secret blog who works for an advertising/marketing/crisis control agency.

I was very dubious of this romance at the start. I think the title and the cover are horrible and they definitly don't sell the book, but the story is SO GOOD. I don't want to get too much into the story because I don't want to include spoilers of any kind, but trying to be spoiler-free: there's this rugby player, Ronan, who has to clean his image and Annie, the Hermit, is going to help him do so....obviously, they end up having some smooches. The worst is that, even before they met professionally, Annie writes about Ronan on her blog and obviously, Ronan sends her a very long email with a rant. From the first line, I thought I knew how this story would play out but I was wrong, wrong, wrong.

I thought this book was going to be the biggest cliché ever, boy meets girl and falls in love and I was already foreseeing a preface with a lot of babies running through rugby fields while blogging but I was wrong. I thought Ronan would freak out when he found out the whole truth or that Annie would react differently but no. I loved it so much because this book was so different from all these New Adults I've read that have pages and pages of smut! I read it in 2 days, the writing was so good and it was fun and light but still with a bit of drama... and yeah, it has some 50 Shade-ish moments but they are high class and not exagerated at all!

p.s.: I googled (or I goodread-ed) the author, Penny Reid, and I learned that I have several of her books on my TBR list! Will she be my Alice Clayton 2.0???

p.s.s.: I'm a lover of quotes so obviously I couldn't let a book like this one, with so many fun quotes, go without a little something. Here is one of the many messages Ronan sent to Annie:

"Dearest Annie, 
Roses are red. 
Violets are blue. 
I’m using my hand 
But I’m thinking of you. 
- Ronan 
P.S. Just to clarify, I’m using my hand to write this note…get your mind out of the gutter."