Book Review — The Other Man by R.K. Lilley

“I’ve lived a violent life. But, Lourdes, listen very carefully, because this is a promise: I’d never hurt you. Okay?”

• Buy THE OTHER MAN (Kindle)

Sexy and thrilling, with twists that kept me glued to the page! Another winner from RK Lilley!

I first fell in love with RK Lilley’s books with both her Up In The Air and Tristan & Danika trilogies, so when I heard that she’d released a new standalone, I had to read it! If you’re new to her books, you can absolutely read this book alone. It’s slightly interconnected with her other books — there are characters from the previous two trilogies I mentioned in this as side characters, and there’s a stronger connection to her Wild Side series (which I haven’t read) — but you don’t have to read any of those to understand this book so the choice is yours. If you want to just dive straight into this book, you’ll be totally fine!

The blurb of this book had me so intrigued. Especially that last line…

He was brazen as hell from the moment I laid eyes on him.
He was aggressive, and dominant…
He was too good looking for his own good, with a hard jaw, and harder eyes…
I could tell at a glance that this man was dangerous.
For so many reasons. Not the least of which being that rough, dirty, sheet-clawing sex fairly radiated off him…
To say he wasn’t my type was putting it lightly.
But you couldn’t tell that to my libido.
Not even when I found out the truth.
My lover had lied to me from the very start.
Nothing about our meeting was a coincidence.

I love mysterious heroes so this totally had me desperate to read it!

The story is smoking hot right from the start. It’s erotic, sensual, and when you add in the many unanswered questions, I was drawn right in. This guy, Heath, was full of secrets. He was only 25 but had a body riddled with scars. He came to her time and time again giving her the wildest sex she’d ever had, but then always left without a good-bye. Who was he? What did he do? Where did he go? Why did he always leave? He was mysterious, secretive, dominant, possessive, complicated, damaged, almost uncivilized, yet clearly highly trained, and then somehow, surprisingly sweet and caring. I found him fascinating!!

“You’re trembling,” he rasped into my ear, making me tremble all the more.
“Fear or excitement?”
I licked my lips and gave him the truth. “Both.”

We do learn more about him as the story goes on and he was definitely the kind of hero I always fall for. I just love the tortured badasses. Something about them just melts my heart! I loved the way he tried to be accommodating and to make compromises. He realized what an impossible situation he was putting her in but still couldn’t change who he was and what he did. And my favorite thing about him was his complete devotion to her. He couldn’t give her much, but he never once made her doubt his feelings for her.

“I understand how it looks. It looks bad. And, hell, if I could tell you the full truth, it would probably look even worse than whatever you’re thinking. But I want you to know something, and it is the truth. I’d never hurt you. If it was within my power, I’d do anything to prevent you being hurt… You’re fucking mine, you understand?”

There’s a big age gap between them. He’s 25 and she’s 41. I’ll be honest, this isn’t something I usually like in books. It’s not at all a judgement, but it’s also just not really my thing either, y’know? But I pretty much just overlooked it in this case because I was enjoying the story enough that I just went with it.

A couple people have asked me so I’ll just say here that there’s no cheating in this book. There’s one point where the heroine kisses another guy (but she’s not in a real relationship with the hero yet) and at no point does the hero even look at another girl so… no cheating.

The first half of the story was more steamy, sexy, and erotic as their romance built. Then secrets began to come out… and in the later part of the book (maybe the last third-ish), it took quite a dark, suspense-filled, thriller-y turn (with a scary evil bad guy!!) that kept me flipping those pages right up ’til the epilogue.

This is definitely the whole package. It’s a little bit of an erotic romance, a little bit of a romantic suspense, a little dark, a little funny, a lot sexy… I really enjoyed it!

Rating: 4 stars! Standalone romance. 

• Buy THE OTHER MAN (Kindle)

PS: So again, you do not have to read any other books to understand this one. But, I’ve read her two trilogies and loved them, and she has another serial too that I haven’t read which is connected to this (technically this is a spin-off of that) so I’ll just list ’em all here so that you can grab them if you want. 

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UP IN THE AIR TRILOGY (full length books, same couple)

• #1 IN FLIGHT — Buy on Kindle | Buy in Paperback | My review
• #2 MILE HIGH — Buy on Kindle | Buy in Paperback | My review
• #3 GROUNDED — Buy on Kindle | Buy in Paperback | My review

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TRISTAN & DANIKA TRILOGY (full length books, same couple)

• #1 BAD THINGS — Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review
• #2 ROCK BOTTOM — Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review
• #3 LOVELY TRIGGER — Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review

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THE WILD SIDE TRILOGY (novellas, same couple)

• #1 THE WILD SIDE — Buy for Kindle
• #2 IRIS — Buy for Kindle
• #3 DAIR — Buy for Kindle
• FULL SERIES — Buy for Kindle (best deal)

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• THE OTHER MAN — Buy for Kindle