Afterburn/Aftershock – A Book Review

Never mix business with pleasure. Never bring politics into the bedroom. In a way, I did both when I took Jackson Rutledge as a lover. I can’t say I wasn’t warned.

Two years later, he was back. Walking into a deal, I’d worked hard to close. Under the tutelage of Lei Yeung, one of the sharpest businesswomen in New York, I had picked up a thing or two since Jax walked away. I wasn’t the girl he once knew, but he hadn’t changed. Unlike the last time we’d drifted into each other’s lives; I knew exactly what I was dealing with and how addictive his touch could be.

The inner circle of glamour, sex, and privilege was Jax’s playground, but this time, I knew the rules of the game. One adage rules all in the cutthroat business world: keep your enemies close and your ex-lovers closer.

~ Blurb from the back of the book

OK, first up, a confession. I find it hard, really hard to enjoy a romance novel. Not that I look down on the genre or anything like that. It’s just that I like the romance to be wrapped in a story that’s a lot more than about the romance if you get what I mean. There needs to be a bigger story than just a couple meeting, falling in love, fighting, and then getting their happier ever after.

So, honestly, I can’t say this pure romance novel worked fully for me, but overall, I can say it’s a good book for its genre.

Now with that disclaimer out-of-the-way, off to the review.

A Little Info about the Publication

But first, a little information about this imprint.

Cosmopolitan magazine, in conjunction with Harlequin Romance, has started a series called Cosmo Red-Hot Reads, which is

This book is one of these. It’s a two-part series – Afterburn and Aftershock combined in one book.

My Review

The story’s heroine Gianna Rossi is in the restaurant business. No, she doesn’t run a restaurant (but her family does). She works as an assistant to a high-flying lady boss who puts together deals between chefs and hotels.

Now, I wasn’t aware of such a profession before I read this book, nor did I know that the celebrity chef business was such a high-profile and glam one. But this book and all the characters in it ooze glamour.

Gianna and her boss are working on a crucial deal when it gets scuttled by a business rival and his friend. It turns out both men are ex-lovers of Gianna and her boss.

So begins a game of wits where both women fight to make their deal work despite the complications brought in by the men.

Jackson (Jax) Rutledge is the typical alpha male hot hero in the mold of Christian Grey of Fifty Shades of Grey (without the BDSM), and if you liked Christian Grey, you would like Jax also. He’s a youthful billionaire from a famous political family (a conservative Kennedy family). In contrast, Gianna is a regular down-to-earth girl from a loving family who isn’t all that glamorous.

When Jax and Gianna eventually get together at the end of Afterburn, there are tons of open issues between the both of them. How will they sort out the differences in their lifestyles and, more importantly, their value systems?

The next book, Aftershock, deals with that issue, and I really liked this book very much. Jax and Gianna are living together, and their business competition has died down. Still, there are so many new relationship teething issues, and I love that the book goes a bit beyond the happily ever after for the couple and gives us a peek into what’s next for the pair.

There are a couple of interesting plot twists, and lots of hot scenes before things eventually work out between them.

The nice thing about the ending is that, unlike most books, the hero ends up making most of the changes, foregoing some of his ambitions to build a life with Gianna. Nice, I like that.

Overall, I liked this book. It’s got a bit too many explicit sections for my taste, but that goes hand in hand with romance novel territory these days. But I did like the story build-up overall, and the characters of Jax and Gianna and the secondary characters are all well drawn out and fun to read about.

Huge thanks to Harlequin Publishing for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.