When Lexie Marshall places an ad for a cycling companion, she hopes to find someone friendly and fun to cross the TransAmerica Trail with. Instead, she gets Tom Geiger—a lean, sexy loner whose bad attitude threatens to spoil the adventure she’s spent years planning.
Roped into the cycling equivalent of a blind date by his sister, Tom doesn’t want to ride with a chatty, go-by-the-map kind of woman, and he certainly doesn’t want to want her. Too bad the sight of Lexie with a bike between her thighs really turns his crank.
Even Tom’s stubborn determination to keep Lexie at a distance can’t stop a kiss from leading to endless nights of hotter-than-hot sex. But when the wild ride ends, where will they go next?
Title: RIDE WITH ME
Author: Ruthie Knox
Series: standalone for now but a sequel is in the works (dare I hope for Taryn’s story…?)
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Random House LoveSwept
Year of release: 2012, February 13
Format: eBook
Source: Requested a digi-ARC from the publisher via NetGalley
First line:
Tom wiped the chain grease off his hands and answered the shop phone.
Last line:
After all they had five thousand miles to iron out the details.
Memorable Scenes:
– Tom licking Lexie’s tire tube when he helps her patch it > this whole book made me smile but I could so relate to Lexie’s shocked reaction both at Tom’s action here and at herself being turned on by it
– the hot sauce duel > BRILLIANT, BRILLIANT scene!
– Lexie’s birthday at the bordello room > funny, emotional, sweet and hot as hell
QuickScore-Verdict:
I loved how his book was focused on Tom and Lexi. It was really character-driven and it had been a while since I’d read a character-driven contemporary that let the main characters shine in the simplicity of a growing, developing relationship. I must admit it was Tom who stole my heart. He is so deliciously taciturn, anti-social and kinda rude but yet so likeable because he is never mean or cruel. But let’s not swipe Lexi under the rug, she was just as important and definitely contributed to my enjoyment of RIDE WITH ME.
This book put a smile on my fact from the very start to the very last word. The writing, the characters, the premise, it all worked splendidly together and I loved Ruthie Knox’s voice that made the story and the characters come alive. Every once in a while you stumble upon a book that makes you realize how talented and imaginative authors are. RIDE WITH ME is such a book and Ruthie Knox has shot straight to the top of my favorite contemporary authors list.
Favorite Quotes:
“Please, Tom. You can’t ride your bicycle across the country alone. It’s insane. You’ll end up being slaughtered by a serial killer.”
“Taryn, I’m thirty-five, single, tattooed, and anti-social. I’m the serial killer.”As soon as the sauce hit her tongue, her taste buds dropped dead. You’d think that would be a good thing, but it didn’t make any difference, because on their way out those taste buds had rung the alarm, and now every nerve ending in her body was positively writhing in pain. Somewhere in the vicinity of her brain stem, a siren was going off so loudly she thought it might deafen her.
Lexie in the shower was his every erotic fantasy come to life. No surprise there. Lexie was just about anywhere his every erotic fantasy come to life. It was as if the universe had made the woman just for him.
Pearl's World Of Romance 