IRL: In Real Life
After Oscar, Book #1
By Lucy Lennox & Molly Maddox
ISBN# 9781795507509
Lennox’s Website: lucylennox.com
Maddox’s Website: mollymaddox.com
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi
Review
*Beware of possible spoilers*
Conor Newell has come to New York City on a mission. He has to do a presentation showcasing his mother’s life’s work, an innovative medical breakthrough. She created a 3-D printer that creates blood vessel prostheses. The problem is that the patent for the medical materials that is uses as the ink has already been sold to Grange BioMed. It makes them the only company they can sell the patent to the printer to. If they were to sell it to anyone else, the printer would never make it to market and could never help those that need it. And, Conor needs to sell it for as much as possible. His mom is sick and they need the money to pay for her expensive experimental treatments. The problem is that the CEO of Grange BioMed is a cutthroat businessman and shrewd negotiator, Wells ‘Glacial’ Grange.
Conor is overwhelmed by nerves leading up to his presentation. And, the cute bartender at the hotel bar was flirting with him the night before his meeting and even slipped him, his phone number. Conor decides to live on the wild side and shoots the bartender an intimate picture of himself, something he has never done before. And, it starts a hot text chat between the two. Or so it seems, until he realizes the person on the other end of the conversation isn’t the bartender, but some random stranger he’s never met.
Wells is prepared to get this deal done. He has the Newells over a barrel already having the patent to the ink for their printer. He expects to get the patent to the printer at a fraction of what it’s worth. Then, out of the blue he receives a sexy picture on his phone. He can’t help but flirt with the wrong number. However, the next day he recognizes the tie that was in one of the photos on Conor Newell and knows he’s found his sexy texter. Now he’s living a bit of a double life as the dominant texter and Wells, the business mogul. He’s attracted to Conor, but he knows he can’t do anything that could jeopardize the deal. But what happens when he falls into feelings, and the truth comes out?
This book just jumps right in. There is no build-up of Conor coming to the city, and meeting the bartender or any of that. It’s almost immediately him sending the picture. Also, who sends a picture to someone without at least a hello? Probably more people than I realize honestly. Anyway, the book gets hot with the sexy texts pretty quickly.
I found that I do like the voices the authors gave these characters. I thought they were engaging and funny from the very first chapter. I enjoyed Wells and Conor. Although I do wish Conor had a bit more of a spine, but I guess he needed to be a little more awkward and clumsy for this story. He’s definitely not the person I would send in for a high-stakes negotiation on my behalf though.
I liked the beginning of this story, although I would have enjoyed a bit of a build-up at the start instead of being thrown straight in. I also enjoyed the ending and found it to be sweet and sappy where it turns out great for everyone, except for poor Oscar perhaps. Now that the series title makes sense, I feel really sorry for that guy. Anyway, there were some parts in the middle that could definitely have been trimmed down. It started feeling like it was dragging a bit and maybe a bit repetitious. But overall, I found this to be a decent read, but it’s not for the faint of heart with the sex scenes. Which is honestly a bit surprising considering it’s a m/m romance being written by two women authors. I felt they did a pretty decent job though. I would definitely consider reading more from them and this series.
