Book Blurb:
★ A TOP 25 AMAZON BESTSELLER ★
Rock bottom has never felt so good.
At least, that’s what I tell myself when I bargain with the enemy and score a renovation for my hair salon.
The enemy? Nick Stamos, my best friend’s older brother.
He’s got a body and face the Greek gods would envy but his personality needs a major overhaul.
He’s surly.
A rule-follower.
Did I mention he’s seen me n*ked?
I may have crushed on him for years, but the only place I want Nick swinging his hammer nowadays is at my salon.
Except, he needs something in return. . .
A fake girlfriend.
And I’m just reckless enough to say yes.
HOLD ME TODAY is a steamy slow burn romance. It’s the first book in the highly anticipated series, Put A Ring On It, and can be read as a standalone.
My Review:
Holy crap I cannot even begin to tell you how good this book is. I am not even sure that giving it a five star rating does it justice. Hold Me Today quite literally had me consumed for a couple of days and brought out all of the feels. I have read quite a few books by Maria Luis in the past and have been a fan for a while but this is by far her best book to date.
Ermione ‘Mina’ Pappas has struggled her whole life with feeling like she doesn’t fit in and not knowing her place in the world. She has been raised amongst secrets and lies that have left her feeling ashamed and lacking in confidence. She has never really felt like a part of her family or even part of the same culture due to her struggles with learning Greek. She feels like an outsider everywhere except when she is with the Stamos family who have always accepted her. Effie Stamos has been Mina’s best friend since childhood and her home has always been Mina’s sanctuary. So when Mina’s new business on the verge of ruin before it’s even begun, the obvious person to turn to for help would be Effie’s brother Nick who has his own construction business. The problem is that not only do Mina and Nick argue constantly, but actually Mina is secretly in love with her best friends’ brother and has been for years.
Nick Stamos is your typical good Greek boy. He always follows the rules, works hard and respects women. He has worked hard all of his life to give himself all the things that he never had growing up, which is how he has ended up running a very successful construction business. He has always been unlucky in love and has been exceptionally hurt in the past. But he is not disillusioned and wants to find a love like his parents, which is how he ends up as a contestant on a Bachelor style reality show to find love and he almost ends up getting engaged to a woman he doesn’t have any feelings towards. When his sister’s best friend Mina asks for his help fixing up her hair salon, he knows he will say yes but decides that he should get something in return. She agrees to be his fake girlfriend to help keep the press away after his loss on the reality show. But somewhere along the way, what was fake becomes real and Nick realises that he has spent his whole life searching for something that has been under his nose this whole time.
The relationship between Mina and Nick is exactly what you want to read about. They are so incredibly cute together. From the very beginning it is obvious that there is some pretty heavy sexual chemistry between them. When they are together there is banter and a constant back and forth but it is obvious that they don’t really hate each other the way they claim to. Mina is such an amazing character. She is so beautifully broken and realistic. She is kind, feisty and incredibly opinionated. She literally jumps off the pages at you because she is so bubbly, but when her insecurities are visible I just wanted to hug her. What I loved most about her is that she is the type of girl that you would want to be like or hang out with and that made her so real and relatable for me. But Nick, oh wow, I literally cannot tell you how much I love Nick. He is quite literally the perfect man. To the outside world he appears to be grumpy, sensible and boring but he can be oh so bad when he wants to be. Who doesn’t love a good boy that you can introduce to your mother but a dirty, talking bad boy in the bedroom. I seriously think I would have married him, so the fact his ex-left him for another man just blew my mind and she was obviously crazy. What I really loved is the way Nick has been looking out for Mina her whole life and even when he didn’t realise he was in love with Mina he behaved like he did. He is a natural protector but that was even more so when Mina was involved. When they do eventually realise their feelings they are so sexy and there are some extremely hot sex scenes that will leave you very hot under the collar.
Whilst this book is a standalone it is the first in the new Put a Ring On It Series which focuses on the characters who star in the reality TV series competing to win the heart of Savannah. Nick finishes second and makes friends with brooding bad-boy football player Dominic DaSilva and it is very clear that he is going to be the star of the next book. This book can be read without having read any of Maria Luis’s other books but there is a cross over as some of the characters also star in the Blades Hockey series and I loved the little glimpse we got into that world. But you do not have had to read the Blades series to follow this book.
Overall, I cannot express how totally amazing this book is. Maria Luis is officially the Queen of Banter and this book is full of it. The way that she writes is so fantastic and her words flow off the page and she brings the characters to life in a truly beautiful way. This book is sweet, funny and sexy. It is a slow burn but when things really do get going the sexual chemistry burns off the page and it is so very hot. Maria Luis is a truly fantastic author and not only do I recommend this book but any book that she writes because I can almost guarantee that it will be fantastic because Hold Me Today really is!
This book is available for Free on Kindle Unlimited or can be purchased here:
Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2IAPQ6o
Emma's Romantic Reviews 