Hate to Want You

August 28, 2017
In Rai’s emotional contemporary series launch, dysfunctional families, mental illness, and true love vie for center stage. After a protracted absence, 30-year-old Olivia “Livvy” Kane rolls back into her hometown of Rockville, N.Y., setting everyone’s teeth on edge. Her childhood friend and later occasional lover, Nicholas Chandler, has particularly mixed feelings about seeing her. The formerly inseparable sweethearts have only rendezvoused of late for an annual night of passion. Otherwise, each has ostensibly participated in an ongoing feud between their two families. Livvy plans a longer stay than usual as she helps to nurse her passive-aggressive mother back to health after hip surgery. The visit acts as a catalyst for deeply entrenched bitterness—between and within families—to surface, though hit-or-miss characterizations sometimes lessen its impact. The story line is complex but the ending feels rushed as Rai concludes with a much too easy—almost flippant—dismissal of the blood feud she spent so much effort building up.

multigenerational family drama of painful betrayal and dark desire. Livvy Kane and Nicholas Chandler were high school sweethearts, but her father and his mother died together under mysterious circumstances, shattering Livvy's and Nicholas's perfect world. More than a decade later, Livvy finally returns home, but nothing has been resolved. Morton excels at balancing Livvy's sarcasm and vulnerability without sacrificing her defiant inner strength. While a particular weakness is that every female character voiced by York sounds petulant regardless of the situation, he does deliver a believable performance of Nicholas's struggle between his duty to his family and his desire for his own happiness. Both narrators are adept at narrating scorching romantic scenes--a trademark of the author. The start of a promising series. K.M.P. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

August 1, 2017

Ten years ago, a devastating tragedy shattered the business and personal relationships between Olivia Kane's and Nicholas Chandler's families, making it impossible for the two to be together. Their solution is that Livvy would text Nicholas every year on her birthday, wherever she was in the world, and he would meet her for one ardent night, giving them the chance to be who they once were. But Livvy has come back to town, if only temporarily, and her presence not only dredges up the past, it zeroes in on their relationship--if only Livvy and Nico can get on the same page and figure out how to make things right. Jealousy, resentment, and betrayal are at the core of the conflict in this story, a pattern card for dysfunctional families. VERDICT Emotional anguish; page-singeing, explicit sex; relatable, sympathetic protagonists; and a realistic, well-crafted plot add up to an irresistible read that erotic romance fans will be sure to savor. Rai (Serving Pleasure) lives in Washington, DC.

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