Romance book reviews. Reviews of books that make my heart race, have a beautiful love story, and a happy ending.

Romance book reviews. Reviews of books that make my heart race, have a beautiful love story, and a happy ending.

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Book Review — LEV: a Shot Callers Novel by Belle Aurora

Book Review — LEV: a Shot Callers Novel by Belle Aurora

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“I don’t know what love is. But if I could love anyone…” I pressed a gentle kiss behind her ear, pulling her close. “I would love you. Very much.”

I love love LOVED this book!! It was perfect!!! SO HEART-WARMING!!!! My heart is overflowing with happy feels!! Seriously, if you want a UNIQUE story that is SWEET, SWOONY, and SEXY, with a romance that is downright freaking ADORABLE, then read this book!!! I loved EVERY single thing about it!!

First, here’s the blurb:

From the moment Lev Leokov spots the young woman hiding behind her hair in the middle of the gentleman’s club, he can’t take his eyes off of her.  For the very first time in his life, he is affected. Having been told his entire life that he can’t process or understand emotion, he considers it a big deal.

When Mina Harris gets caught red-handed with a wallet that isn’t hers, she falls apart. She’s tired, lonely and hasn’t eaten in days.

Lev offers her an ultimatum… A nice warm bed, a hot meal and a job, or the cops.

Mina takes her chances with Lev.
After all, a person with nothing has nothing left to lose.

So basically, he’s wealthy and she’s homeless and absolutely at-the-end-of-her-rope starving! He catches her trying to just steal enough money to get a meal and instead of turning her over to the cops, he takes her home and offers her a chance at a new life.

I turned my face to look into his gorgeous eyes.”Tell me I can leave at any time.”

His eyes on me, I watched as they flashed. Finally, he lowered his face and muttered, “You can leave any time.” He stepped back and away from me. “Although I hope you choose to stay.”

Barely a few pages into the book and all my heart-strings were tugged!! By 6%, I could already tell that this book was going to deliver ALL THE FEELS. And it most certainly did! Again and again and again!

You guys, Lev will straight-up STEAL YOUR HEART. Ahhhh, this man!!!! I loved him!! He had such a heart of gold and I actually really appreciated his ‘directness’. He was a little socially awkward and didn’t understand emotions quite the same way as most people. He was somewhere on the Autism spectrum, displaying signs of I believe Asperger’s syndrome. But I loved the way his whole family and Mina just loved and accepted him exactly as he was. He just saw the world a little differently. Things that were normal to other people were incomprehensible to him, while other things that appeared logical and straightforward to him could often spark hurt or anger in the people around him. But I absolutely adored the way they showed endless respect for the fact that he wasn’t damaged, he was just different. They respected for being exactly who he was and never expected or wanted him to be anything other than himself. I really thought this whole element of the book was portrayed so beautifully!!! I LOVED HIM!!!!!!! He was so sweetly protective of Mina (and his family) that it melted me over and over again.

“Who sleeps in my bed at night?”

I buried my nose in his neck and mumbled, “I do.”

“You do,” he confirmed. “And who makes me smile?”

“I smiled against the stubble on his throat. “Me.”

“Exactly.” He turned to kiss my cheek. “No one else. It’s you. It’s always been you.” He spoke softly, “I just needed to find you. Now that I have you, I won’t be letting you go. Okay?”

“Okay,” I whispered.

Ok I know that teeechnically what I’m about to say is a tiny bit of a reveal, but it’s something that’s shown to the reader quite early on AND it’s something that would have made me want to read the book even more if I’d known about it beforehand so I’m just going to tell you that… Lev is a dad. He’s a single father fighting for custody of his adorable little girl. ALL THE SWOON!!!! Could this man get any hotter?! *thud*

And Mina was such an awesome chick! You guys will love her! She’d been dealt a really shitty hand of cards in life and had ended up at the absolutely lowest place. But given a new opportunity, she grabbed it and worked hard to build her life back up. I’d totally be friends with her given the chance!

Another thing I loved about this book was the family. Lev was very close to his brother and sister and they had a large extended family so there are a lot of side characters in this book and I LOVED THEM ALL. Holy crap. I’m not usually the kind of reader who is all that interested in getting the stories of side characters but I WANT TO READ ALL THEIR STORIES! Every single one. And I’m not even exaggerating. If I had them all in front of me right now, I’d be putting my life right on hold to binge-read the lot of them!

There’s just so much in this book that I loved that I could seriously go on and on but I’m trying not to give away too much. But I most especially appreciated that there was really no stupid drama. Yes, there was certainly conflict. But there were several incidences where things could have easily turned stupid (a big pet peeve of mine), but the characters instead handled these situations so well that I couldn’t help but have respect for them. It’s such a good feeling when you genuinely can respect the decisions made in the story and that you want to just cheer them on instead of slapping them silly. SUCH a good feeling.

Oh and the story is told in alternating POVs, both in first person.

This is the first standalone in a new series of standalones. It has a fully resolved ending. NO cliffhanger. If you wanted to, you would be completely fine to stop reading at the end of this book. But there will be more books coming following different couples we’ve already met. And I can’t wait for them!

I loved everything about this book and I highly recommend you ALL pick it up and fall in love with Lev. It’s swoony, sweet, heart-warming, oh-so-sexyyyyyy, and positively awesome. It’s such a feel-good story with amazing characters and a really unique story. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!!!

“They say penguins mate for life.” 

He reached up again and jerked hard at his tie. 

“And I want to be your penguin.”

Nawwwwww, how sweet is that?!

I have only one thing left to say…

Dear Belle Aurora…..
PLEASE WRITE FASTER!!!!!!
Love, Aestas.

Rating: 4.5+ stars! Standalone contemporary romance.

LEV promo

Comments

  4. Your review is spot on! this book was utterly amazing, and definitely
    made me feel the feels. I adored Colleen Hoover’s Ugly Love probably my favorite
    book of all time, but this one is definitely tied. The emotions, the love, the family
    aspect, the author did an excellent job. My favorite part about this romance, was that is was no
    bullshit. No unnecessary drama between the characters!

    Again great review 🙂

    Reply

  5. I wrote very similar review on Amazon. I think there is trend lately where conflict in books is not over the top and resolves without crazy misunderstanding drama. I read a few like that recently. I love her books and can’t wait for Sasha story!

    Reply

  6. This romance novel was so refreshing that I couldn’t just sleep without finishing it. The hero was so different from any other novels and just perfect in his clueless way. Whole of the novel kept me hooked till the end. Thanks for a great review ,it totally was worth it.
    I look forward for ur recommendations nd would like to say that you ROCK!!!! Your reviews a BANG ONN!!!!

    Reply

  7. Oh, Aestas, now I NEED to read this one, just right now…thanks for the recommendation, sweetie, always with good books for us…
    Here my love for you from Brazil!

    Reply

  9. I have heard so many good things about this book so I had to come here and check your review. I can always count on an honest review from you and I always come here when I am wondering if I should buy a new release or not. I also love to use your blog to know when future books are due to release. I love that you have so much amazing and useful information all in one spot! Thank you for your hard work. I just want to tell you about my favorite book of 2015 that is by a newer author. It’s only her 2nd novel and it is one of those books that makes you feel everything that is in it. It’s called Love After Pain by Torrie Robles! I only mention it because if you are a book lover and avid reader like me, which it’s obvious that you are, it’s one you will definitely enjoy. I would even be willing to ask the author for a copy for you, I have talked with her after I read her book and she is a wonderful person. I read almost every book that you recommend! Thank you again, your blog is so helpful to so many people!

    Reply

  13. Hello Aestas! Thank you very much for sharing with us this beautiful and perfect reviews!! I’m from
    Italy and I buy only English books that you suggest!! You are the only blogger whom I trust her opinion!!! I really wanna thank you because since I’m following you, I don’t waste money anymore!!! Kisses from Italy!!

    Reply

  16. I’m currently reading this book and I absolutely love Lev!! He is so sweet and gentle and protective.
    Awesome review! 🙂

    Reply

  19. Loved this book so much. Lev is great character.
    Someone close to me has the same “issues” with Lev. It is not easy, especially for them. They are very very smart and definitely very unique.

    Reply

  21. This is on my next to read list after Retrieval series but I just wondered have you read the whole Friend-Zoned series by the same author. I was my first full erotic series and I fell in LOVE! Please can you read them I’d love to know what you think!

    Reply

  23. Hey,
    I read this book a few days back and must say I absolutely loveeddd it!!! It is amazing.

    By the way,I’ve been trying to remember the name of a book but can’t seem to figure it out..so can anyone help me??
    The story goes like this:
    A girl(heroine) rescues her neighbor’s dog who was being beaten by his owner.she packs him up in a bag and goes to the pet store but it was full so she goes to the place recommended by them and meets a mysterious and broody man(hero) and leaves the dog with him..and the story continues..(I don’t remember much)

    If anyone knows the name of this book please let me know..I would be glad.
    THANK YOU😊

    Reply

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