Ruthless, by Gina L. Maxwell is a 272-page contemporary menage-ish romance novel and is the second book out of a 3-part series. It is written from a first-person POV, two-sided.

To give a quick run down on the overall series, it covers the story of three alpha males falling in love. They are interesting, men who decided in college to start a stripper business, because why not. And let’s be honest, there is actually legit good money. If I could do it again, I’d totally do it when I was in college, but I digress. You have three cocksure bachelors who don’t want to ever settle down, because…why should they?

I read the first book of this series, but will not write a review on it because I started this blog almost a month after reading it.

Spoilers Ahead ***

What I find interesting is this book is mid-length the emotional aspects of this book are brushed against…like a winds caress. Not as deep as I thought it would be. Not that I want to be stabbed in the face with emotions, but I’m a big appreciator of people overcoming real and tough obstacles, preferably with the person who ends up being their partner in the book.

Addison is a young lawyer who ends up working for a man she had slept with months ago, in a dirty alleyway. She wants a forever situation, but assumes she just won’t be able to have it with Roman, but hell, why wouldn’t you sleep with this man?

Roman, has rules.

1. You don’t sleep with friends of friends (his friend from the first book is hooked up with Addison’s best friend)
2. You definitely don’t sleep with your employees

Of course, he does both. His back story for why he is relationship allergic is relatable, abandoned by his mom who left him and his father for his father’s best friend. <– That right there? Is the most you’ll ever learn about that in the book. He also has a penchant of sharing his women. He doesn’t want to sleep with another woman, he just wants other men to touch his. (I’d get on board with that)

Overall, the characters were likeable and the story is relatable.

Generally, here are my thoughts:

1. Really fun dialogue, I would classify this under RomCom
2. There are moments where you see the characters getting over their issues and personal issues, but never with each other. That’s disappointing. It would have been nice to see them uplifting each other, Roman telling Addison she is good enough even if her parents say otherwise and Addison showing Roman that not all women are like his mom
3. I enjoy her style of writing, like I’ve mentioned in past posts, I don’t love first-person POV, but this really seems to be all the rage in romance
4. Sex scenes are good and not heavily overdone. The author does a good job showing attraction without constant banging
5. Good balance of exposition and deep POV so you can get a good sense about the characters and who they are

In summary, I give this a 4 out of 5. I enjoyed it. And am happy I’m branching out my authors and reading all different styles. To be honest, I’ve been reading a variety to get a sense on how to broaden my own writing.