The Duality Principle (The Portland Rebels #1)
Sometimes A + B = O. Yes. Oh, yes. Just like that.
Gabriella Evans’s life exists in terms of logic and definitions. She’s holed up in Portland, Maine, for the summer to work on her PhD thesis, but something is screwing up her concentration: the rumble of a motorcycle every time the embodiment of her rough-and-tumble fantasies rides down her street.
When her best friend talks her into a blind date, she finds herself out with the opposite of her fantasy. He’s polite and well-mannered, yet something behind his crisply tailored shirt doesn’t add up—a rebellious gleam in his eye that piques her curiosity.
Orphaned at fifteen, Connor Starks has finally put the years of failing grades, breaking laws and breaking hearts behind him. The only holdover? His penchant for getting down and dirty in public places. But Gabriella makes him want to prove he’s become a better man.
Nothing intrigues Gabriella more than a problem she can’t solve. But the more Connor tries to bury his past, the more determined she is to uncover it. And what she finds makes all her trusty logic begin to fail her…
Warning: This book contains a summer romance, dirty talk, dockside kissing, motorcycles and tattoos. Features a rebellious nerdy girl with an appetite for outdoor sex and light spanking, and a bad boy who’s turned good…or at least he’s trying.
Lisa's Review:
I love the message of this story, that people are complex and made of a vast spectrum of traits, behaviors, likes, dislikes, and personalities. No one is one sided and no one should sum themselves up based one side of their personality. Doing so creates a struggle within ourselves to find the completion of who we are.
This is exactly the struggle in The Duality Principle by Rebecca Grace Allen. Our characters are struggling to find balance and acceptance for the duality within themselves.
Gabby is a math nerd, a grad student, driving herself to further her studies. She's strong and independent and therefore, can't reconcile the other - what she believes to be the baser - part of herself and her sexuality. And her history with men that can't accept and keep up with that part of her certainly doesn't help any. Gabby begins to feel that she'll never be able to explore that side of herself, that she needs to lock it away and never find true contentment and satisfaction.
Conner is a once a time bad boy now hoping - and pretending - to be something he's not, especially once he meets Gabby. But he doesn't know that it's the side of himself that he hides from her that she wants and craves the most. She craves the wild abandon that he can give her.
But they both misread the signs and keep their inner selves, their true and complete selves, from one another. It takes a little while, but eventually the two learn to embrace both sides of themselves and each other to build a strong and lasting relationship.
I give this book 5 out of 5 stars! It's well developed with very interesting characters and a theme that just about any reader could relate to.
My favorite line:
"You can be all those things, Gabby. Duality isn't a bad thing. It's the different sides of us that make us who we are. It makes us WHOLE.
Buy links:
Amazon: http://goo.gl/BCULXM
iTunes: https://goo.gl/z2rJSR
Kobo: https://goo.gl/PwsPCn
Google: https://goo.gl/D8aCbl
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The Hierarchy of Needs (The Portland Rebels #2)
Jamie Matthews is stuck in a rut. After hitting a wall with her dream career, she’s back in her hometown, living a life as monotonous as swimming laps in the neighborhood pool.
Being surrounded by her perfect brothers is a painful reminder of her failure to launch. The last bonfire of the summer is an ideal way to let off steam, especially when she runs into Dean Trescott, the playboy friend she had one hot-as-hell night with back in high school.
Since the day Dean met Jamie, he’s loved her beauty, talent, and smile that lit up the whole damn block. But dating isn’t an option. She has a bright future ahead of her, and he refuses to chain her to his—helping run the family business that’s barely staying afloat.
A “what-happens-in-Vegas” weekend was supposed to get their craving for each other out of their systems. But neither counted on the past repeating itself, drawing them together in even hotter and dirtier ways and dangling the possibility they might both be able to get exactly what they need…
Warning: A friends-to-lovers twice over story that contains some hot ’n’ heavy kissing in the waves, hair pulling, and a man who knows how to use his hands. It may also feature a few practical jokes—only the fun kind, of course.
Lisa's Review:
The Hierarchy of Needs features Jamie and Dean, side characters from the first book of the series: The Duality Principle.
Though they have lived very different lives, childhood friends Jamie and Dean are very similar. Jamie comes from a successful family of doctors and has always felt unseen by her family. Dean comes from a broken home. His mother left when he was in high school and his father has ignored what Dean really wants out of his own life to push him to take over the family auto business.
Both have been ignoring what they really want out of life out of fear. For Jamie, this fear is the fear of rejection. And for Dean it's the fear that he has nothing to offer.
Overall, I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars. It wasn't quite as enjoyable for me as the first book, but it had very likable characters and a realistic and smart story.
Buy links:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1LGwS9i
iTunes: https://goo.gl/olTLuN
Kobo: https://goo.gl/7z2wgz
Google: https://goo.gl/XSK6LQ
Excerpt:
“Who are we hanging out with tonight?”
Krissy’s question yanked Jamie back into the present.
“Just my friends,” she replied, hoping her blasé expression would mask the restless energy pumping through her. “Three guys I grew up with and have known forever.”
The soft hisses and sizzling pops of the bonfire guided her toward where Dean and her friends were sitting. They made a semi-circle by the lifeguard stand she’d spent the summer perched on, a plume of smoke between them spiraling up toward the sky.
Jamie gripped the peeling white wood and swung her body around it, throwing herself into a grand entrance.
“Hello, boys.”
Dean had the mouth of an open beer bottle by his lips, but paused when he saw her, his lips curling up into a smirk. His chin was masked by the day’s worth of stubble he always seemed to have. His crop of dirty blond hair was cut close on the sides but longer in the front, a few slightly mussed strands hanging down low over his eyes. Every inch of him said confident and relaxed, from his ever-present work boots to the swirling lines of ink that wound like ivy from his wrist to his neck.
He was sex incarnate, a wolf on the prowl in a black T-shirt and jeans.
“Jamie Matthews. My favorite girl.”
“Oh, I’m still your favorite, huh?”
She was no more his favorite than the last piece of ass he’d hooked up with, but she liked the nickname nonetheless. She also liked the way his gaze swooped from her face to her breasts and back up again. It was part of the game they played, one she wanted to lose herself in tonight.
He grinned. “Of course.”
“Good to know.” Jamie dropped to the sand by his side, kicked off her flip-flops and stretched out her legs. “I guess that means I’m entitled to your beer.”
She snagged his bottle from his fingertips and took a deep, icy swallow.
“Oh, go right ahead.” Dean’s voice oozed with sarcasm, but there was humor behind it. He nodded to Krissy.
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About Rebecca Grace Allen
Rebecca Grace Allen writes kinky new adult and hot contemporary BDSM romance. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English with a double concentration in Creative Writing and Literary Comparison, as well as a Master of Science in Elementary Education, both of which seemed like good ideas at the time. After stumbling through careers in entertainment, publishing, law and teaching, she’s returned to her first love: writing. A self-admitted caffeine addict and gym rat, she currently lives in upstate New York with her husband, two parakeets, and a cat with a very unusual foot fetish.
Find Rebecca Online:
https://www.facebook.com/rebeccagraceallen
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