ARC Review: Hot and Heavy (Italian Stallions #5)

Hot and Heavy (Italian Stallions #5)

Mari Carr

Blurb:

What’s better than one sexy protector? Two.

Hazel knows she’s in serious trouble when her shady uncle threatens to implicate her in his crimes. When two police officers show up at her apartment, she’s forced to flee Boston in the dead of night. Philadelphia feels like a big enough place to hide…until the seedy motel she’s staying in burns down.

Kayden and Aldo’s protector instincts rise to the surface after they spot a shivering redhead standing alone at the scene of a fire. Discovering everything she owned was destroyed, the sexy cop and charming firefighter offer her a place to stay.

None of them is able to resist their instant, scorching attraction to each other. The three give new meaning to the term “hot and heavy.” Aldo and Kayden want more…hell, they want it all. But Hazel is in too deep, and as her lies begin to unravel, she’s caught between a rock and a hard place.

Especially when the past catches up to her. Unless she puts her fears aside and offers Aldo and Kayden the one thing she’s never given before–her trust–she stands to lose everything.

Themes:  Erotica, Menage

Rating: 4.5 stars

Heat Rating: 

Review:

Every once in a while, a story ticks just about every box for a reader as the story progresses and I have to say, Hot and Heavy did that for me and I am so thrilled to have had a chance to read an advanced copy and share my love of the story with others. Mari Carr’s world of Italians hotties and the women that are grabbing their hearts has become more and more interesting since she let us into it, spinning off from our favorite Wild Irish series and introducing a whole new batch of sexy men that took us by storm.  Each new couple or triad has presented new challenges in relationships, new trauma to overcome, and new dangers to protect one another from and the stories of their love just get better and better.  I look forward to each new adventure with the wonder and anticipation that of a child awaiting Santa on Christmas morning. This latest installment finally gives us the story we have been dying for, Kayden and Aldo finally come out of the shadows and let us see their love and we get to understand their full story and see them find their happiness and future with their mate.  I am dying for more in the series and cannot wait to see where Maris takes the storyline with her next matchup next, but having heard rumors of the next two stories I know what’s coming is going to be explosive and steamy as hell.

Kayden and Aldo have been best friends for as long as either of them can remember, but when Kayden’s parents were tragically killed their relationship changed forever.  Becoming lovers was not something they ever regretted, but they both know they can never be completed without a woman to love together and round their relationship.  When they are called to a late-night intense fire at a family friend’s motel, they never imagined they would find that woman and have to fight to convince her to let them help her, but they’ll do everything they have to in order to keep the firecracker that’s captured their hearts.  Hazel is on the run from her family and has a secret that she can’t let out, but the two sexy protectors that are trying to take over her life are nearly impossible to resist.  At the lowest point in her life, they swoop in and bring her solace and peace that she’s never felt before, giving her broad shoulders to lean on and a whole group of people that offer her support.  But he more she is around them the more she falls in love with both and despite the sensual relationship they have begun she knows that she has no chance at a long-term future with two such beautiful and heroic men, much less the extended family that has rallied around her.  When Hazel’s past comes back to haunt her, she knows she has to leave Kayden and Aldo behind, but sometimes the need to protect is stronger than the fear and she knows that she can’t leave them to clean up her mess either.  Can Aldo and Kayden convince her to trust them enough to offer her heart or are they all destined to lose the greatest chance at love they’ve every found?

I’m going to try really hard to not give away too many details as I describe the greatness of these three characters, but I have to begin by saying that these three are definitely my favorite lovers since some of the original lovers from the Wild Irish series. Hazel is the kind of woman that we all want in our corner; she’s had to work hard all her life, with everyone and everything against her, to make something of herself despite the odds.  She’s dedicated to being better than her family and the name they’ve saddled her with, educating herself, staying honorable and sweet, and working hard to be trustworthy.  She is smart, if a little to trusting of those that ultimately break her trust, sassy, and stands up for what is right, even at her own expense.  Even though she leans on Kayden and Aldo when she is overwhelmed, she never forgets or lets them forget that she has her own mind and can stand on her own two feet, some might call it stubborn, but she is determined to be treated as an equal in every decision of their relationship.  I want to be Hazel when I grow up. Kayden and Aldo are two sides of the same coin and at times you imagine they were always meant to be in a relationship when they found the woman to compliment them.  Kayden is the ultimate protective alpha, obviously made even more so by the lose of his parents which left him the sole caregiver for his little sister.  This is compounded of course by being a cop, so of course when you bring all of that sexy alpha into a relationship its not real surprising that even with the strong-minded Hazel and Aldo, he is the leader in the bedroom.  But he is also determined to care and provide for them, emotionally, physically, and sensually.  I loved seeing his playful side when he and Aldo came together to please Hazel, but mostly I enjoyed seeing his mind working in order to find solutions to problems when obstacles popped up to what he wanted.  He is smart, passionate, intense, and resilient no matter what happened.  Aldo was the more playful and easy-going of the two lovers, keeping everything from being overly intense and dark, but he had his own sensual alphas nature and his own fears of losing his chance at happiness.  His protective nature was less extreme, but showed in his relationships with his family, his career as a firefighter, and the way he cared for their woman and his man.  I enjoyed getting to see his interactions with Kayden and Hazel together, that level of sweetness and caring keeping Kayden from being too dark and grumpy and allowing him to maintain a level of hope until they reached their goals. All-in-all their personalities were perfectly matched to make a relationship work with just enough fireworks to make it interesting long into the future.

When you read a series like this one you always expect a certain level of passion and heat, but most people don’t look at the covers of these stories and expect that they are going to be beginning an epic love story with pain and love for the ages.  But that’s Mari Carr for you—she likes to break you heart before she teaches you the true meaning of love, no matte what form she puts it in and what she puts her lovers through first.  Hot and Heavy takes you through the journey of a woman that has always been on her own even in the midst of those she’s called family as she finds the people that will support and love her like her family always should have.  Hazel’s past and present have led her to run from her life, and now she finds herself at loose ends in a town she doesn’t know and in need of a helping hand badly, so when two sexy protectors take her hands, she doesn’t fight as hard as she normally would, never realizing her life would be altered forever.  Aldo and Kayden have been searching for the third piece of their hearts for a long time, never knowing that fate would put her directly into their paths one dark night and all they’d have to do is reach out and convince the shaken woman to trust them.  As the three of them build that trust and slowly fall in lust, the fire between them quickly blazes out of control and combines them into a beautifully twined sculpture of love, like lightning into sand.  With a little luck, a lot of love, and the trust that they’ve earned, Kayden and Aldo show Hazel that they truly can be her future and together the three of them are meant to be happy for the rest of their lives, together as one.  I loved every moment of this story, not just the story between the three lovers, but seeing past relationships developing, continuing and of course getting glimpses of future couples and I cannot wait for the next story in the series (Naughty and Nice).  Mari Carr as always dazzles readers with the way she builds trust and blooms love between three unlikely lovers.  Magic!

*eARC provided by author for the purpose of an honest and unbiased review.  No compensation was provided.