Review: Arouse by Nina Lane

"One day I'm going to touch you in a thousand different ways and show you how to touch me," he said.

And he did.

Struggling with a tormented past, undergraduate Olivia Winter once led a practical but isolated life. Then she met Professor Dean West, a brilliant scholar of medieval history who melted Liv's inhibitions and taught her the meaning of both love and erotic pleasure. But after three years of a blissful, lusty marriage, Liv and Dean now face a crisis that threatens everything they believe about each other...and sex might not be enough to save them

Purchase Arouse --> Kindle Edition

Only 99 cents for a limited time!

My Rating: Date Me Now (4.5 stars)

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Steam Level: Super Hot

Most of our favorite romance books end where this one begins, Marriage. Just because you’ve committed to someone for the rest of your life and gotten married doesn't guarantee you a happily ever after, that’s when real life begins. I was surprised how packed full this book was with tension, angst, and passion.

“We are not freakishly happy. We are not freakishly anything. We’re two people who love each other. We had a tough time. We worked it out because we want to be together. Because we can’t imagine being with anyone else. Because we don’t want to be. “

That being said, this book also doesn’t skip over the pivotal parts of a relationship that we all love to read about. Through flashback we get to see the first time Dean and Olivia meet, their first kiss, the first time they make love. We get it all in this book, the before and after. They are both beautiful to read about in different ways.  

Olivia and Dean have reached a pivotal point in their relationship and as tension mounts, secrets are revealed, actions are taken, and questions are left unanswered. Every marriage in the world goes through a rough spot at some point in time, if you think differently you are wrong. No one is perfect and sometimes it takes mistakes to realize how phenomenal what you have really is.

Olivia is confused, she loves Dean with all her heart but the future she originally saw for herself is changing. She had a screwed up childhood and as Dean slowly helps her comes to terms with it she is realizing things that she never thought possible might just be possible. I thought this quote described her perfectly:

“That’s the thing about Liv. She’s pure. Despite experiences that could have irrevocably fucker her up, turned her into someone hard and jaded, she’s still wholesome. She has a wary edge, a guard against the world, but it never affects her core of innocence.”

Dean, I loved Dean. He is patient, he is understanding, he is gentle, but he’s also not afraid to show his inner caveman side when it comes to Liv.  I adored the way that he handled Liv, but he has secrets that Liv is still yet to uncover.

“…you might want to go,” I warned.

Darkness flashed in his expression. “Why?”

My eyes stung. I swallowed hard. “Here be monsters,” I whispered…

“Liv,” he said, his voice rough with tenderness, “you don’t have to be afraid.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’ll slay monsters for you.”

There is quite a bit of sex in this book and its erotic, hot sex. But it’s also emotional and every intimate scene is also pivotal to the story line which just makes it that much better.

”Chrsit, Live, soemtiems the way you look at me makes me feel like I can hang the fucking moon.”

This story is realistic and beautifully written. You will feel what the characters do.  Some parts of this book were a little slow, but in a good way as life plays out as it normally does. One thing I will say is that throughout everything, I never doubted once that Liv and Dean were not truly and passionately in love with each other. But it takes more than true love to make a marriage work, it takes communication, it takes commitment, it takes dedication, and sometimes we all get caught up in our daily lives and the important things can slowly slide to the side.

This is a beautiful and emotional story that shows what happens after ‘happily ever after’ that I would recommend to anyone but especially those of us that are already married. The ending isn’t really cliffhanger but there is more story to tell and I will absolutely be picking up the sequel, which is releasing May 14^th!!!!!

Purchase Arouse --> Kindle Edition

Only 99 cents for a limited time!

~Erin