After Hours

By: Cara McKenna

Narrated by: Lucy Rivers

Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Erin Coffey has been a nurse for years, but nothing's prepared her for the physical and emotional demands of her new position. Needing to move closer to her dysfunctional family, she takes a dangerous job at Larkhaven Psychiatric Hospital, where she quickly learns that she needs protection - and she meets the strong, over-confident coworker who's more than willing to provide it.

Kelly Robak is the type of guy that Erin has sworn she'd never get involved with. She's seen firsthand, via her mess of a sister, what chaos guys like him can bring into a woman's life. But she finds herself drawn to him anyway, even when he shows up at her door, not eager to take no for an answer.

What Erin finds even more shocking than Kelly's indecent proposal is how much she enjoys submitting to his every command. But he can't play the tough guy indefinitely. If they want to have more than just an affair, both will have to open up and reveal what they truly need.

©2013 Cara McKenna (P)2013 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A Dear Author Recommended Read! After Hours is a gritty romance... blunt, beautiful, and believable. It is a harsh tale well-told and I like it so much I've read it three times in the past month." ( Dear Author)

" We got a little something between us."

After Hours is a deeply passionate and sensual read that I truly enjoyed. The story is well-written and very unique. An aspect of the story that I found interesting was the fact that the majority of the plot was centered on a psychiatric hospital. The author essentially gives you a different perspective and makes you feel sympathetic towards the psych patients. Erin the LPN who relies on no one and Kelly who has to have having complete control. These two individuals meet at work, become friends and got to know each other from the very first day. They are drawn to each other immediately. Kelly's words..."We got a little something between us." He propositions Erin in having a weekend of passionate sex but with him having complete control. Eventually, Erin gives in to his attraction and has the best sex of her life. They slowly build a relationship together but it's hard since they are both guarded from past events. I enjoyed the banter back and forth between them. I loved that Kelly was a tough manly guy but still sweet inside. Erin was a strong independent woman always putting others before herself. We learn right away that Kelly is extremely dominant & demanding between the sheets. Overall, the premise of the book was good. I will spare you from spoilers. I would not categorize this book with the typical romances. The story flowed well and didn't disappoint me at all.

This book ROCKED MY WORLD!!

What did you love best about After Hours?

This book is so real and raw. I took a chance on this book and I'm so glad I did. All of the great love stories out now comparable to FSoG are about small town girl meets rich billionaire but this is a real love story about two working class people that go on normal dates, live normal lives but have amazing sexual chemistry! I do not have the words to tell you how much I LOVED this book. I have not read one like this one in a long time. I do not give 5 stars away...this is DEFINITELY worth a credit or buy it...you'll thank me later!

Exceeded Expectations

I wasn't expecting a great deal from this book and was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it. The writing was tight and the story moved along quickly. The sexual scenes were well written, including the dialog, which can often sound stilted and unnatural. The writer did a good job describing the somewhat unique workplace, giving it enough attention that you believed the characters worked there.

In this genre, plots that depend upon some dramatic event, crisis or perilous situation to bring the book to climax and bring the characters together often sound forced, false or jarring. This plot, thankfully doesn't go this route, even though the workplace and one of the secondary characters certainly provide the opportunity. I was glad the author didn't resort to this tactic. She let the characters develop, go through rough patches and find their way back to each other, without endangering their lives or surviving an artificial crisis. I found that refreshing.

This isn't one of my favorite narrators, but she did an adequate job with this book.

3 ½ stars. Lots of sex.

Not enough warm interaction. Great audiobook narrator.

AUDIOBOOK NARRATOR:
I was pleased with Lucy Rivers. Her voice is clear, not elderly, not teenagerly. She enunciates well, speaks at a slow good pace. Nice emotional interpretation. She’s not perfect for men but good doing them. I wanted to buy more books that she narrates so I studied her list. Sadly, most of her books are 1st person New Adult - so I did not get them. I hope more authors will use her.

THE STORY:
Erin is 5'3" pretty and smart. She starts a new job as a nurse at a psychiatric hospital. She meets Kelly 6'3" big muscles, mean looking, bouncer-type orderly who is there to restrain patients. Kelly tells Erin they are going out. He orders her drinks and food without asking what she likes. But he does ask if she will spend the weekend with him for nonstop sex.

OPINION:
I enjoyed Kelly’s personality. He’s all cave man. He does neat things. I liked Erin and her interaction with patients, her sister, and the sister’s bully boyfriend. But I did not like the way she treated Kelly. She played hard to get and acted indifferent to him. She was attracted to him and desired him as a boyfriend, but she didn’t want to admit it to herself. And she thought he if she showed interest, he’d lose interest. Those are real life things, but not necessarily fun to read about. When Erin’s car broke, she called Kelly for help. He came and helped her but she was mean to him because she didn’t like needing someone’s help. And when he did something really cool to protect Erin and her sister from a bully, I loved it. But Erin was mean and angry about it. So, I did not enjoy her. The effect was emotional distance. I did not feel as good as romance usually makes me feel.

The author has some good ideas. “Use the word “doctor” as often as possible when speaking to Dr. Morris. It’s courtesy but also currency.” Kelly has a calming effect on patients. He walks among them. He’s like a wall that they can lean on (figuratively).

The sex scenes are good. There is a little spanking and slapping. The cave man demands were fun. But some of the sex scenes felt too long. My mind wandered at times.

At the end of the book I felt like it should have been shortened. Something about it was too drawn out.

I was annoyed that the author used a female name for the hero Kelly. It requires the reader’s brain to do a special translation every time it is used. It reminded me of the Johnny Cash song about a man called Sue.

I would have preferred 3rd person.

Narrative mode: 1st person Erin.
Genre: erotic contemporary romance.

Hooray for Erin

I enjoyed this book immensely, I'm alway interested in stories and how they address mental illness. I liked how spunky Erin was, some of the scenes I was thinking OMG, I couldn't imagine she would do that! Or OK Erin stop talking... Please!! A thoroughly entertaining listen that definitely kept my attention. Oh yeah and hot sex!

4.5 Stars!

After reading this book some time ago, I chose to listen for a "re-read." This is probably my favorite book by McKenna. I love the delicate handling of the work place relationship and ensuing romance, as well as the gentle and realistic prose during the erotic scenes. I'm not a regular reader of erotic romance and it's probably because this author no longer publishes. There is no one like her. As for the audio, Lucy Rivers did a fine job, but I think I prefer reading this book over the her interpretation of the material.

Overall, good

Spice level 1.5-2/5
Narration 4/5

Well this book was not nearly as spicy as I was hoping, but I did really like the main character, her love interest, and I thought their story was sweet.

I got the impression this was going to be a little bit more on the dom/sub spectrum, but it really wasn’t. He’s just a big strong dude with a heart of gold.

Some of the dialogue in the more intimate moments seemed a little, well honestly, boring, but I used my imagination, and decided the main character’s bedroom vocabulary would have been a bit more confident and diverse.

Overall, I still really liked the story, and would recommend, but wasn’t exactly what I thought I was getting into.

We want more! We want more!

Mature & sexy. I loved the fact that there was no over-the-top aspect. No one was wealthy. Both the main characters were what many would consider blue collar, though both may still be middle class. There was no love-at-first-sight, though there was quick interest. The coming together made sense. And I enjoyed insight into Erin's internal conflicts in relation to her relationship with Kelly, the main male character. Kelly is an over-the-top alpha male, but it's explained, for a nice change. And he shows more complexity and therefore doesn't come across as just a brute. PLEASE, PLEASE GET MORE CARE MCKENNA! Be warned, that the author does use p***y, if you have a problem with that. But the sexual encounters are not explicit, though they are detailed. And there are only about three full encounters in the whole book. So it's not gratuitous sexual activity in any way. And one of my favorite aspects is the back-and-forth verbal play between Erin & Kelly. It's not exactly funny, but it shows such chemistry and a willingness to be themselves have fun with each other that it does produce a smile. I found myself smiling many times throughout this listen and not because of any sappiness. The ending leaves room for a continuation, and I would be soooooo interested. GET MORE MCKENNA!

Loved it

Loved this storyline. I will have to listen to more books by this author. She’s got the romance thing down!

Awesome story, horrible narration

I bought this book years ago and it's been a favorite for a long time. I think getting the audio version might have ruined it for me though. This is a very romantic, very erotic story, and Lucy Rivers sounds like a school teacher reading a children's book. It doesn't sound good at all. I never really could listen to the story I love because I couldn't get past the awful narration. Just try to imagine one of your old elementary school teachers reading about sex, in the same chipper tone and proper speaking that you'd expect her to read Charlotte's Web or Harry Potter in. Absolutely horrible! I had been planning to get another Cara McKenna favorite, Unbound, but since it's also narrated by Lucy Rivers, I'm definitely passing on it. And that's really a shame. Audio books are so convenient, but I can't sit through another one like this. I highly recommend any Cara McKenna book, but pass on the audio books that are narrated by Lucy Rivers. Prim and proper school teacher voices along with erotic stories are a very uncomfortable combination. I very highly do NOT recommend that.