BOOK TOUR: Icy Pretty Love by L.A. Rose [Excerpt + Review + Giveaway]

Icy Pretty Love
by L.A. Rose
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance
Date Published: November 15th, 2014
Format Acquired: ARC from Author
My Rating:

Glass-doll beauty. A shy, proper smile. Georgette Montgomery is the perfect billionaire’s fiancé.

Or she would be, if she existed.

A dark past. A smile that hides everything. At nineteen, Rae Grove escapes her disaster life by pretending to be other people—specifically, whoever the man paying her that night wants her to be.

Until she’s offered enough money for a one-way ticket to a better life. All she has to do is fly to Paris and pretend to be the fiancé of young business tycoon Cohen Ashworth for one month. Within an hour of meeting Cohen, Rae knows three things about him:

1. He hates everyone and everything.

2. He has abundant wit and a knife-sharp tongue.

3. He uses 2 to make everyone aware of 1.

Before long, Rae’s determined to crack open his unbreakable shell. Cohen’s determined to stay unbroken. 

But no one escapes unscathed when two opposite worlds collide.

“So you want me to change.” His jaw is taut.

“You need to change, or you’re not going to get what you want,” I say. He needs to hear it. “And you’re going to be miserable your whole life—”

“I don’t know how to change!” he says loudly.

I stop, half-expecting the divider separating us from the driver to roll down, but it doesn’t. We’re still alone in the backseat. I should be afraid, should be recoiling the way 

I do whenever a man raises his voice to me. But when I reach for the fear, I don’t find it. All I find is…pity?

“I know what I am. What I’m like.” His voice cracks, just slightly, but he masters it. “If I 

could be different, I would. Do you understand that? I’m not like you. I can’t slip on someone else’s persona like changing my clothes.”

That stupid twinge of pity turns into a full-fledged needle. I’m very familiar with that shadow in his voice, because it’s been in my heart for years. Self-loathing. At least I can escape myself by being other people. He doesn’t even have that luxury.

Stop it, Rae. Don’t you dare feel sorry for him. He has everything you’ve ever wanted, remember?

“That’s bullshit,” I say bluntly. “You can change. Anyone can change.”

“Show me.”

“What?”

He turns his full gaze directly on me, and I lose myself for a brief second in those ice eyes. “Show me how to be someone else. You do it so easily. You’re getting paid enough, I might as well get some use out of you.”

“You mean like…give you niceness lessons?”

He grimaces. “I’d rather we didn’t call it that.”

“Well…” I hesitate.

“Please,” he says emotionlessly. And if I had to bet on it, I’d say it was damn near the first time that word had passed through those perfect lips.

I'd have to say, prior to reading this book, the title and blurb had been quite misleading, but despite that, I wasn't at all disappointed at how the story flowed throughout. 

L.A. Rose has released another hilariously adorable romance and puts together two characters of equally different personalities together into an adorably romantic Paris love affair. 

In need of a large amount of money to start over with her life, callgirl Rae Grove accepts a rich man's request to be the fiance of a young businessman. What she didn't expect was a jerk in the form of Cohen Ashworth. She thinks he hates her, and the feeling is somewhat mutual, but when Rae starts to tolerate his distasteful personality, he deems that she provides "How to Be Nice" lessons during her one month stay.  

Free lodging in a billionaire suite, free designer clothes, a hefty amount of money as payment at the end of the month and getting to be the classy Georgette Montgomery, seems like a really pleasant deal. With Rae's happy go lucky personality, and her ability to tolerate the clashes between her and Cohen's personality, nothing else could go wrong in a single month that she can't handle, right?

Nice isn't in Cohen's vocabulary. In fact, he's nothing close to nice and is incredibly rude when pissed off, especially when a girl suddenly pops out of nowhere claiming she was hired by his father to be his fiance for a month, for the sake of an image makeover. He comes off as a total jerk with a dislike for people (like any other introvert), although in only certain scenarios, but his outbursts are quite uncalled for. It's a turn off for a male character to be very overbearing, incredibly rude and a total pessimist, but upon finding out the real reason behind his actions made me feel for his character very much because of the heartbreaking backstory. And the fact that he's the one with the most character development in the story makes me want to orchestrate a slow clap for him. 

As a reader of L.A. Rose's books, I've noticed a similar pattern to the author's heroines. They're not entirely similar, but I can imagine them to easily befriend each other. Her females are all perky, carefree and absolutely nonchalant towards life, which is how Rae Grove is. I've enjoyed all the female leads by the author, and so far, they're the type of characters I'd so want to be friends with. 

Don't let me even get started on the humor of this read, because L.A. Rose is queen of sassy and witty. She writes hilarious quotes and comebacks that I never often think of when conversing. I adored every bit of the dialogues in the book, the hilarious banter between Rae and Cohen, which leads me to their love-hate relationship. Looking at it in another angle, Rae appears as a hyperactive puppy, while Cohen's a prissy unamused cat, but they end up keeping the whole relationship civil and mutual. 

The only downside to this read was Rae's back story, which appeared to be quite vague and unclear about the exact scenarios that had happened, in comparision too the way Cohen's was described. I felt his was more elaborate, meanwhile, Rae's appeared lacking. 

Overall, I still enjoyed the whole read. L.A. Rose has definitely become one of my New Adult favorites, and every time, her books never fail to crack me up. 

*AMAZON*

*BARNES & NOBLE*

*KOBO BOOKS*

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L.A. ROSE

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L.A. Rose recently made it out of college alive and with an English degree. She's a habitual beach bum, a cuteness aficionado, and a not-quite-recovered romance addict. She's a big believer in laughter as medicine and steaminess as...more medicine. You can never have enough medicine. Icy Pretty Love is her third New Adult standalone.