Kept by the Beast

Lumberjacks of High Ridge

De: Hallie Bennett

Narrado por: Olivia Rose, Finnley Cole

All Poppy wanted was a relaxing trip to the cute mountain town of High Ridge. She didn't plan on getting stranded with no one to call for help. What's a shy, curvy girl to do?

Asa is known as the town's Beast. Large and foreboding, women run in fear and revulsion. But when this mountain man happens upon a curvy damsel in distress, could she be the one woman to accept him for who he is?

Content Note: Two virgins stranded in a cabin...Things are heating up on the mountain when a curvy girl meets this beastly lumberjack in a steamy story of insta-love!

©2021 Hallie Bennett (P)2024 Hallie Bennett

sweet and short

love an insta love short and sweet story for my rides to work and this book definitely fir the bill

Story okay. Narration not so much

Male narrator was fine. Female narrator sounded to young for the character and oh my goodness seemed to be reading script with little emotion.

room for improvement

My favorite books are romance. My library is in the thousands (no, I will not admit how many). I also have been known to enjoy titles that most definitely fall under the category of erotica. So I can claim to be experienced (wink) or at least choosy in my reading materials.

I bought this story looking for a quick little feel good read. I liked that this story had main characters that weren’t too cool and living the ‘sex in the city’ lifestyle.
I was disappointed that this story somewhat missed communicating the attraction part of the equation for me. I just did not get the feels for either the Instalove or the slow burn hmmm, he really revs my engine. There was no God is he sexy chills.

Bennett’s choice of Asa’s language and actions creeped me out several times. For starters, it went from zero to ‘baby, why don’t you wait in my truck where there’s heat’ which would have worked without the over familiar ‘baby’. Poppy, yes. Baby, no. From considerate to Creepy in one word. (If Asa was a player and every woman is just baby - ?) But she just met this stranger and knows nothing about him except he stopped to help. If Micah had teasingly called him on it - ?

Sticky menus at the diner are more low-rent than weekend tourist shopping destination.
Why would a very small town have a country club set? Mean girl posse, yes. The character of Poppy gets points for ‘standing up’ for Asa by kissing him. Poppy is a much more developed and likable character than Asa but I’m still not feeling the attraction vs empathy for someone being bullied.

Screech when Bennett throws in the grilling on replanting trees instead of Asa taking pride in how he and his friends have done positive things to grow or improve the business since taking over. Missed opportunity to show what a really decent, thoughtful, hardworking guy he is.
From a quick public kiss in a diner to him unbuttoning her shirt to grab her breast and then his hands are down her pants? No build up of warm arms and additional kisses? Is this a romance or just erotica of both desperate to lose their virginity? There was no getting in the groove, or in the mood here. Then Asa’s language deteriorates to creep factor for me, not sexy. Even the F word can communicate different meanings depending on context and emotions. Bennett has words - aureola anyone - but doesn’t use them for best effect.
Bennett has potential, but she’s got a way to go compared to Michele Mills’ Curvy Girls or Olivia T Turner’s mountain men. She needs to build her writing group or trusted beta readers to help showcase what she’s got.

For narration, Olivia Rose didn’t work for me. She sounds like she’s 16, maybe 18 at a stretch. Plus, I’m so not a fan of voices in the higher ranges. Her voicing of male characters did not work for me.
Finnley Cole had a fairly pleasant masculine voice that worked for Asa. I suggest he work on the lisp. It was distracting.