Friday, February 27, 2015

ARC Review: "The Virgin's Night Out" by Shiloh Walker


The Virgin's Night Out
by Shiloh Walker

Sloane Redding is the shy one, the timid one. The morning of her wedding, she's dumped by the man she'd thought she'd spend the rest of her life with. Humiliated, she turns tail and runs, leaving Nowhere, Alabama for a job in the city. Sloane sets out to remake herself. She succeeds...on the outside. On the inside? Different story. She still the shy Redding. Still quiet, still more interested in standing on the standlines. But all of that is about to change.

The night before her brother's wedding, she strolls in the lone bar in Nowhere wearing wicked red and she's got one goal in mind: to show her ex-fiance just what he lost.

The night before his best friend's wedding, D.B. "Boone" Cassidy walks into the lone bar in Nowhere, Alabama with one goal in mind. Get wasted. Former military, he's spent the past few years as a security specialist and all around troubleshooter. It should have been easy to spot the trouble that night...a sexy woman in wicked red. It should have been easy. Yeah, right.

One thing leads to another and his plans to get wasted turn into a night with the sexy woman in red . Boone gets the shock of his life the next day when he shows up at his friend's wedding to find out he'd just spent the night wrapped around his best friend's little sister...and that isn't the only surprise.

 
I really enjoy Shiloh Walker’s writing.  I’ve been impressed by her storytelling with every book I’ve read that she’s written.  (By god, she knows how to write the dark stuff.  I’ll be reviewing Darker Than Desire, the latest in the Secrets & Shadows series next month.)

I picked up this book thinking it was going to be a light, steamy read. It starts that way.  Sloan Redding is back in town with something to prove.  Having been jilted at the altar, Sloan left for the big city.  She is back for her brother’s wedding and looking for a little revenge.  After putting her ex-finance down at the local bar (as in punching him in the face), Sloan finds herself the focus of a super hottie’s attention.  After a blistering one night stand in which they did not exchange names, they coincidentally meet up again…at Sloan’s brother’s wedding.  It turns out the Mr. Hottie is DB Cassidy (aka Boone), her brother’s best friend and a member of the wedding party.  It's the very same Boone that Sloan has been corresponding with for years but never met.

One misunderstanding leads to another and Sloan and Boone decide to separate.  Circumstances bring them back together and they must work with and through some serious complications before getting their happily ever after.

What surprised me about this story is the change in tone after Boone leaves.  Up until then it is a fairly typical, albeit well written, romance.  Boone ends up in a foreign prison, tortured and with memory loss. The tone is dark and he comes back broken. It is a little darker than I would’ve expected, an added layer that makes this story unique.

Right in line with what I would expect from Shiloh Walker, this is a pleasing romantic read that deserves your attention.



Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

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