Risk Taker
Mixed Messages Series, Book 3
Lily Morton
M/M Romance
Release Date: 07.22.18
Cover Design: Natasha
Snow
AMAZON US: https://amzn.to/2Oal9WI
AMAZON UK: https://amzn.to/2LD9u0F
BLURB
Being
in love with your best friend is hard.
Henry’s
the odd man out. All his friends are settling down, and his reputation as the
Hook-Up King of London seems more like a curse than a blessing these days.
Especially when it keeps photojournalist Ivo, his best friend and the brilliant
man he’s loved since they were fifteen, at arm’s length. But that’s where Ivo
wants him, right? Putting aside his feelings, Henry decides to give up casual
sex and look for the real deal. After all, he has no chance with Ivo - or does
he?
Henry
is everything to Ivo. Best friend, soul mate, the one person who has never let
him down. The one person he is loyal to above everything and everyone. But
Henry’s in a box marked best friend and that’s where Ivo’s kept him for nearly
twenty years, despite steadily falling in love with the gentle man. And
besides, why would Henry want to date Ivo? Burned out and injured, he’s the
walking embodiment of damaged.
Distance
has helped Henry and Ivo keep a lid on their attraction, but when they find
themselves in the same city for a change—Ivo hurt and needing assistance, and
Henry more than willing to provide it—the two best friends grow closer than
ever, forcing a realization, and a decision. Risk their friendship for their
hearts? Or can they have both?
From
the bestselling author of Rule Breaker and Deal Maker comes a tender love story
about two best friends who are perfect for each other, and always have been -
if only they knew it.
This is the third
book in the Mixed Messages series, but it can be read as a standalone.
REVIEW
Man, I love this series. I love this author. I loved Ivo and Henry. Lily Morton's Risk Taker
is the third book in her Mixed Messages series and to say I've been
looking forward to this book is an understatement if there ever was one.
I discovered Lily's books one weekend and devoured books 1 and 2 in two
days and have been dying for Henry and Ivo's book, and boy, it did NOT
disappoint. Lily Morton is the master of witty banter and it's alive and
well and as awesome as always in Risk Taker. It was also so great to see Gabe, Dylan, Asa, and Jude from the first two books.
Risk Taker is
a best friends to lover story (my jam!) mixed in with a bit of
hurt/comfort. Henry and Ivo have been best friends since they were
teenagers and briefly step-brothers. They've been the rock the other
leans on and have always been there for one another. Of course, Henry
has been madly in love with Ivo for all this time, not realizing the
same is true for Ivo. They've been apart for some time as Ivo has been traveling the world as a photojournalist, but when Ivo is injured on
his latest assignment, there's no place he wants to go but to Henry.
Sure they share a house, but Henry is and always has been Ivo's home. Of
course seeing Ivo hurt and in pain brings out all his protective
instincts and he takes care of Ivo until he's on the mend. During all of
this, there's the fact that while Henry is still and probably always
will be in love with Ivo, he doesn't want to risk their friendship or
really see a future for them so he decides to start dating.
Thus
begins the parade of dates for Henry. While hilarious at times, this
part started to annoy me in that Henry is still secretly pining for Ivo
and Ivo is just as in love with Henry but neither do anything about it!
I'm all for the slow burn and while it was glorious when these two
FINALLY got together (and even then there was still a feeling of not all
in for both because of Ivo's job) the book seemed to drag on and on
while these two figured things out. Sure there was lots of banter and
funny moments, this is a Lily Morton book after all, but yeah, I growled
a few times at Henry and Ivo for being so dumb.
There's a lot to love in Risk Taker.
The banter is fabulous, the characters likable (even if they deserve a
kick in the butt), and the romance is hot and swoony. Unrequited love at
it's finest, for sure. And as I mentioned, cameos by our faves from
books one and two. Technically this book can be a stand alone, but why
would you do that and miss all the fun and romance from the first two
books? Really, y'all, this series as a whole is fantastic and you'll
love Henry and Ivo just as much as the others. I hope there's more to
come *cough-Silas-cough* and Lily Morton is definitely an author who
should be on everyone's auto-buy list. Check this one out, people, it'll
leave you with the biggest smile on your face. Promise.
EXCERPT
The bell in the shop
rings as the door opens, and I smile as I feel his presence behind me.
“Is there a
particular reason, Henry, why I am standing in an art supply shop rather than
sitting in a perfectly good restaurant eating lunch?”
I shift the basket
over my arm and turn to face one of my best friends. “Gabe, you really should
be a bit more highbrow. Otherwise, you’ll never keep that pretty totty you’ve
got.”
His perfect-looking
face scrunches up in disgust. “Totty. What an utterly disgusting word.”
“I know,” I say
cheerfully, turning back to the shelf I was perusing and chucking in another
tube of Rose Gold oil paint.
“Makes you sound like
your father,” he says snippily, and I nudge him.
“Now that’s petty.
Anyway, I’m nothing like him. I have all my own teeth, and my complexion is
milky-white perfection, if I do say so myself.”
He snorts. “Apart
from those freckles.”
I shake my head and
touch a finger to my face and my bête noire, the multitude of freckles that
span my nose. “I wish that cream I got off the internet at uni had worked,” I
say forlornly, and he laughs loudly, making it echo around the shop.
“I did so enjoy the
way your face turned that shade of green. Made you look like Grotbags from The
Rod Hull and Emu Show.” He reaches over and grabs a tube of paint. “It was this
shade precisely. Hmm, Pistachio Green.” He chucks it into my basket, and I
patiently remove it and put it back on the shelf.
I toss a couple of
tubes of Prussian Blue into the basket while he leans casually against the
shelf looking like the perfect picture of a lawyer in his dark grey,
hand-tailored suit.
“Why are we here,
Henry? Because if you’re thinking of giving up the law and becoming an artist,
I really will have to stage an intervention.”
I laugh. “I think I’d
make a very good artist.”
“Piss artist, more
likely,” he says, poking my arm with one long finger. “So, if we’re not
shopping for what would be the shortest career in art history, who are we
shopping for?” His gaze sharpens, and I mentally groan because aside from Ivo
there is no one who knows me better. “Hmm. Would we be shopping for a six foot
four blond photographer who a certain red-headed lawyer has had the hots for,
for years?”
“That’s such a
non-Gabe expression,” I sneer. “Has Dylan been influencing you?”
He looks startled and
shakes his head. “Those fucking phrases of his and Jude’s. They’re messing up
my vocabulary. Yesterday one of the senior partners asked me if I was okay and
I said I was cool. He went out and asked his assistant to tell maintenance that
the building heating needed to be turned up.”
I laugh helplessly,
and he gives me a rueful grin. “Don’t distract me, Henry. Is Ivo back?” I nod
slowly and his expression darkens. “Is he okay?”
I shrug, picking up a
brush and studying it intently so I don’t have to look at him. “Not really.
He’s got a hole from a fucking bullet in his side, and broken ribs and bruises
all over him from being near a car bomb when it went off.”
“What?” he says
instantly. “Is he okay?” Gabe has always had a complicated relationship with
Ivo. He loves being with him, and they can talk for hours, but he hates the
effect that he unknowingly has on my life.
“He’s fine. Silas
checked him over.”
He checks with his
hand out to grab the brush from me. “Henry, isn’t Silas a vet?”
I shrug. “He was very
good at biology at school.”
“I was good at it
too. You don’t see me turning up at St Bart’s Hospital and performing a few
appendectomies during my lunch hour though, do you?”
“The only biology you
were any good at was the male anatomy kind,” I say tartly, and chuck the brush
in the basket.
He smiles. “That I
was. I’m a very learned man in that area.”
I
snort. “You’re practically PhD material.”
About The Author
Lily writes contemporary romance novels, and specialises in
hot love stories with a good dose of humour.
Lily lives in sunny England with her husband and two children, all
of whom claim that they haven’t had a proper conversation with her since she
bought her first Kindle.
She has spent her life with her head full of daydreams and decided
one day to just sit down and start writing about them. In the process she
discovered that she actually loved writing, because how else could she get to
spend her time with hot, funny men!
She loves chocolate and Baileys and the best of all creations –
chocolate Baileys! Her lifetime’s ambition is to have a bath in peace without
being shouted by one of her family.
Giveaway
I love Henry and Ivo❤️❤️❤️
ReplyDeleteCongrats and thanks for the post. Tbh, I haven't started the series yet, but this one sounds great.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read this series
ReplyDelete