All Of You – Christina Lee – The Book Hammock

I want to say something before I start yapping here. @ltlerthqak wants to make Bennett a verb and I can’t NOT agree with her. Double negative, I know. I don’t care. I’ve been Bennettized and I regret nothing.

Book blurb

Avery has just met her hot upstairs neighbor. He’s irresistible. Tattooed. And a virgin.

Nursing student Avery Michaels wants nothing to do with dating—she’s perfectly happy single. Privy to too many of her mother’s bad decisions and even worse taste in boyfriends, all Avery can handle is a string of uncomplicated hookups whenever the mood strikes.

When she meets smoking hot tattoo artist Bennett, she wants him—for just one night. But he won’t accept a no-strings-attached arrangement. He lives by a straight-laced code of values based on his own troubled upbringing.

Bennett sees something special in Avery and he wants more from her. Way more. As Avery wrestles with her emotions for Bennett, danger and tragedy force them to open up to each other. And Avery must face the terrifying realization that she wants more from him, too.

So she needs to make a choice—let Bennett go or finally let him in.

My thoughts

I. Don’t. Care. I want Bennett. Someone create him from thin air for me. Sorry, not thin air – book pages. I kid you not, he’s book boyfriend material if I ever saw one.

Christina Lee has started her journey as a novelist with a bang.

The blurb kind of tells you the story. It’s not the most original premise, the story is mostly predictable, too. But that doesn’t matter. At all. Because the book is well written, well edited, has two wonderful MCs and fantastic supporting characters.

Avery is a strong woman, emotionally damaged, but she’s determined, she’s independent and she’s fierce. She’s gorgeous and uses her looks but Avery is also responsible, considerate and compassionate. And since meeting Bennett she has been in limbo emotionally and very, very….

Bennett is everything Avery is, but he’s also very much innocent. He has taken his family’s mistakes to heart and is determined not to follow in their footsteps. And Bennett falls hard for Avery.

Avery initially is determined to conquer Bennett. Physically. Use and lose. But since he won’t bite…

“Honey child, that’s roots taking shape.”

“Roots?” I slanted my head sideways. Mrs. Jackson was always quoting something.

“‘Two seeds destined to grow in concert, planted together in the field of love.'”

And this is just in the beginning of the book. But when you deny your feelings…

“Want to watch a movie upstairs and sleep over again?”

My heart flapped and wavered.

Mine, too.

I loved this book. I loved the story and the way the Bennett and Avery grew throughout, individually (as result of their effects on each other) and together as a couple forming. They take to playing Five Fingers with each other, and they learn a lot about each other that way, including their true feelings towards one another. And apart from it being adorable, it’s sexy as hell. And I want him.

Bennett is one of those male leads that swoops into a reader’s heart from the very first line he utters. He is especially appealing since he’s pure and naughty.