Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Seduced by Stratton

Seduced by Stratton by Katy Regnery

Seduced by Stratton is the fourth of six books about the Philadelphia-based, wildly-handsome English brothers who are all on the look-out for love.

(Except for Barrett, Fitz and Alex, because they're taken. And Weston, who is still riding the ugly-love roller coaster with one of the Atwell sisters....)

Stratton English, the hottest, youngest, most devastatingly handsome CFO in Philadelphia, has a problem: women make him nervous. Really nervous. Catastrophically nervous. Socially awkward to an extreme, he's apt to blurt out the first thing that comes to mind, and it's rarely something a woman wants to hear. Quietly in love with his neighbor, Amy, he has no idea how to make his move, but he is committed to figuring out a way to seduce her.

Valeria Campanile, who Stratton knows through one of his four brothers, is a PhD candidate who moonlights as a dance instructor on the side. Ironically, even though Val studies Courtship Rituals, she can't seem to find herself courted. Pursued by boys from the "old neighborhood" who promise to overlook the fact that she's so smart, she longs to meet someone who romances her mind as well as her heart.

When Stratton helps Valeria with a financial problem, she is anxious to return the favor. But will Stratton, who needs Val's expertise to win Amy, find himself seducing Val instead?

About the Author

Katy Regnery, Amazon bestselling author, has always loved telling a good story and credits her mother with making funny, heartwarming tales come alive throughout her childhood. A lifelong devotee of all romance writing, from Edwardian to present-day, it was just a matter of time before Katy tried her hand at writing a love story of her own.

As it turned out, one love story turned into a series of six Heart of Montana romances, following the love lives of the Yellowstone-based Lindstrom siblings. When Katy’s fans asked her to turn up the heat, she wrote the New Adult/Adult Contemporary hybrid romance, Playing for Love at Deep Haven, which offered steamier romance to her readers. Katy is also proud to offer The Vixen and the Vet, a standalone romance that benefited Operation Mend, an organization that helps heal the returning wounded of our armed services. The English Brothers is Katy’s second series and first indie series.

Katy lives in the relative wilds of northern Fairfield County, Connecticut, where her writing room looks out at the woods, and her husband, two young children, and two dogs create just enough cheerful chaos to remind her that the very best love stories of all are the messy and unexpected ones.

Where you can find Katy...

Excerpt from Seduced by Stratton

Stratton had finished most of his work for the day and instead of starting a new project at four-thirty, he took out his Kindle and spent a little time reviewing the ten rules for seduction in his latest book:

Make a Connection
Get Close to Her
A Little Quarrelling Can Be Good
Say No Once in a While
Build the Sexual Tension
Channel Your Inner Romantic
Have an Intimate Conversation
Make Your Move
Be Direct
Ask Her Out

Stratton sighed heavily, taking out a sheet of paper and writing them down. In college, at Columbia University in Manhattan, he’d found this an excellent technique for storing knowledge. But as he wrote the words, he reviewed the actions, and his heart felt progressively heavier and more defeated.

He’d already bombed out on rules one and two last night by hitting Amy in the hip with a smelly garbage bag. What about the rest...?

A Little Quarrelling Can Be Good. Really? That made no sense to Stratton. Was the advice that he should pick a fight with her? Why? How could fighting with someone lead to anything good? Sheer nonsense.

Say No Once in a While. Why would he say no to the woman he loved? What if she called feeling sad, needing him, and he said no to her? It would hurt her feelings. Maybe she’d even turn to someone else. That sounded like terrible advice.

Build the Sexual Tension. He couldn’t count the times he’d thought about putting his arm around Amy as she sat beside him on the couch eating ice cream, but since she was always in such a fragile state over Étienne, it seemed underhanded. They didn’t get together when she was feeling flirty and receptive. They got together when she was red-nosed and weepy. It simply wasn’t the optimal time to build sexual tension—if Stratton had the first idea of how to do so in the first place.

Be Direct. No problem. He grinned. Finally one that he could handle.

But then he stopped grinning, because while his modus operandi was being direct, around Amy, he wasn’t. Last night when she told him she suspected that Étienne was cheating on her, he tried to be direct, but she’d looked so hurt, he’d changed tactics immediately and lied. Being direct was a lot harder than it seemed.

Channel Your Inner Romantic. This one actually had quite a lot of appeal to Stratton. He’d had a lot of time to figure out the ways he’d romance Amy once she was free of Étienne. He moved on to the next rule.

Have an Intimate Conversation.

What the—Intimate? Like about deep and important things? Or with dirty words? His mind short-circuited. He didn’t know how to “talk dirty” to a woman. Did that mean to say the sorts of things they said in porn movies? Like, maybe he should rent some porn movies and memorize some dirty sentences? He wished the author had defined “intimate” to mean “deep thoughts” because he felt very annoyed and uncertain about the advice.

He wrote down the words Ask Her Out and Make Your Move, but he was feeling so deflated, he stared at the list like a fat alpaca would stare at Everest. If this is what it took, than seducing Amy away from Étienne would be impossible. Unless...

Unless he had a coach. Like Alex, but not Alex because Stratton couldn’t stand the teasing. Plus Alex was too far away and wouldn’t take it seriously. Hmm. Barrett? No. Barrett wasn’t especially smooth himself, and while Fitz seemed pretty smooth, he was about to get married. He couldn’t be Stratton’s wingman. That left Weston, who was studying furiously for the bar exam, which he’d be taking the week after Fitz’s wedding. As far as brothers went, Stratton was shit out of luck.

Not to mention, he wasn’t sure that—aside from Alex—his brothers were all that adept at seduction. He wondered if their success actually had more to do with luck and fate than skill. He suspected that it did. Heck, they’d all ended up with women who’d been important to them in their childhoods or adolescence. Stratton was breaking new ground altogether. What he needed was a professional. A master of seduction. Someone well-versed on courting rituals with heaps of knowledge. Étienne was a formidable rival and since Amy hadn’t shown any concrete interest in Stratton on a romantic level, it was going to take a full-scale attack to get her to see him in a new light and leave her piece-of-shit boyfriend.

He looked back at the book, skimming the chapter after “Make Your Move” entitled “Seeking Help,” and his eyes latched onto the sentence: “Practice with a female friend.” Huh. Not a coach to guide him, but a friend on whom to test and perfect his moves, and maybe get some feedback about his technique. He nodded at his Kindle, appreciating the simple logic of the advice, but then he grimaced. While it was a good idea that had merit, Stratton didn’t have any female friends aside from Emily, Daisy, and Jessica, and he couldn’t imagine Barrett, Fitz, or Alex taking kindly to him practicing his seduction techniques on their women. He could call his cousin Kate, but she lived in New York, and anyway, she was his cousin. He sat back in his chair, tenting his fingers under his chin in thought and frustration when his phone buzzed.

My Review

Thanks to Katy for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I swear every time I read another English brother's book I say he's my favorite, but I had a feeling when I would read a teaser for Strattons story that he would be my most favorite. I wasn't disappointed. He was by far my most favorite one ever!!

Stratton has read so many self help books, he's looking for help on how to win the girl of his dreams. Amy lives across the hall, he met her the day that he moved in to the apartment building. What he didn't expect was the guy she was dating to be a rival that he knows is a awful person. So now he's in love with her and needs to steal her away to save her from the douche bag. The sad thing is nothing is working, he's stuck in the friend zone. He's her go to for support when the douche messes up. When he met Valeria he was attracted to her but he couldn't do anything about it because of Amy. The more time he spends with Valeria the more confused he is. He loves Amy right? He couldn't possibly abandon her and go to Valeria. Right?

When Valeria met Stratton at a girls night a little while ago she was in lust. I mean who wouldn't be those English brothers are hot!! So when she meets with Stratton to talk about how to save her Aunt's dance studio she can tell that he's attracted to her but he's holding back something.  Her studies are about dating rituals so she knows the signs and he wants her; that he doesn't have a girlfriend but still he holds back. Valeria has enough self worth though that she doesn't stand for his hot and cold moods. 

Oh I wanted to smack them both at one time or another. Stratton and his need to fix and save was as endearing as it was frustrating. I wanted to hug up Valeria and hide her away when Stratton would say or do something that would hurt her.  In the end though this was the best one yet. I felt like I was watching this instead of reading it. The author's writing pulls you in and keeps a hold on you. I couldn't read it fast enough but at the same time I wanted to slow down time so that it would last longer. If you've not read any of the English brothers I want to know why!? Its so so good, you have to, you'll regret it if you don't! I am now impatiently waiting for Weston's story. *looks at the calendar* 

No comments:

Post a Comment