Review – Ladies Man by Katy Evans – Bookalicious Babes Blog

Ladies Man by Katy Evans

Incredible, intense, and intoxicating, Ladies Man is an all-consuming friends-to-lovers romance that wraps itself around your head and heart—relentlessly tugging and tearing, never letting go. With the pages as the canvas, the mesmerizing and meaningful words are painted, flowing into feelings that touch every part of you. This beautiful, broken, and brilliant book bleeds into you. Belongs to you. Becomes you.

Like the rest of Katy Evans’ enticing and emotional reads, Ladies Man is claiming and consuming me as I read just the first page. I can’t stop devouring these powerful and poignant words that are stealing my thoughts, becoming my dreams. Emotions flow fast and hard, pouring off of the pages. This story just began and I already don’t want it to end.

The build-up is slow. Steady. Swoon-worthy. Sensational. Pure magic. I don’t have to read much of the book to realize that Ladies Man is more than the title. More than the striking cover with the gorgeous and rugged Viking staring so intently. More depth. More passion. More meaning. More everything. For several hours, this book became my world, blending with my reality as the words—each full of meaning—spoke to me with lessons of hard-fought love and life.

Oh Tahoe Roth. Malcolm Saint’s best friend. My valiant Viking. Beautiful and broken. Blond hair. Blue eyes. Yummy facial scruff. Tall. Muscular. Rugged. Cocky. A Golden God.

“Tahoe Roth is hot to the extreme. Six feet four, at least two hundred pounds of man. A power box of testosterone.”

Regina ‘Gina.’ Rachel Saint’s best friend. Beautiful. Brunette. Brown eyes. Curves in the right places. Ever since she turned him down a year ago, Tahoe has invaded Gina’s head.

“You’re staring at the guy who’s been haunting your dreams, and you don’t know what to do about it. What to do about him.”

Gina doesn’t want to want the tantalizing but terribly annoying Tahoe. Perhaps a dirty night with one of the leading players of Chicago will do the trick. At his birthday party, Gina offers herself on a silver platter to Prince Player, a night where she plays vixen to his Viking. One night to screw him out of her head for good. One night to taste Tahoe and then feast elsewhere.

“I’m not a one-night-stand kind of girl, which is why I’m giving you the chance only a few others have ever had. One night with me.”

Holy shocker. The Tahoe Train turns her down. On his birthday. A present that would have changed his life and hers.

“I’ve got nothing good to offer you, Regina.”

And just like that, only three percent into the story, my heart starts to crack for this complex but caring man.

“You need a guy who will always be there for you. One who will never let you down.”

“And you need a thousand women to make you feel good, and I’m only one.”

“Friends then.”

Friends who fantasize about each other.
Friends who should be lovers.
Friends who walk a fine line towards more.

“I hadn’t realized I was stroking his chest. He’s watching me with a heavy-lidded gaze. The air thickens with awareness. Our eyes hold. His expression is so hungry, and inside that gaze is that primitive look, so intense it borders on pain.”

Push. Pull. Push. Pull.

This cat and mouse game runs rampant as they are friends but aren’t.

The desperation. The attraction. The need. The want.

The angst and anticipation burn as they pull me over the edge, teetering in hope where I struggle to balance as my emotions are suddenly scattered everywhere.

“He may look like an Adonis, but there’s a darkness in his gaze. Sometimes I wonder if I’m the only one who sees it. I see it now as I stare at his gorgeous, haunting face, with a shadow of a beard and full pink lips that I continue to see in my dreams.”

It’s New Year’s Eve and once again, Gina and Tahoe find themselves at a party. Nearing midnight, they have no choice but to kiss. That kiss. It’s electric. A game changer.

“God, this mouth belongs to me, this mouth was made for me.”

Their chemistry is insta-hot. Electric. Palpable. So much anguish as Gina and Tahoe struggle to remain friends when they are already so much more.

“No one is the way they seem. We all hide little pieces, either because we don’t want to be judged, or because we don’t think we’ll be understood, or simply because we don’t want those pieces of us to belong to anyone but us.”

Oh how I’m falling in love with Tahoe. Protector of Gina. Her tamed beast. Her T-Rex.

Tough but tender. Fierce but loyal.

This man wears many layers as does Gina. Tahoe shields himself with meaningless sex to dull a painful past and guard his heart while Gina wears a mask of makeup as a barrier to suppress her emotions.

“I’m bare—more self-conscious about my face than I am about my body. My plump lips and wide, expressive eyes. And right now, Tahoe Roth is taking it all in. Taking all of me in.”

Each is wearing a mask that only the other can unveil as they are kindred spirits. The calm to each other’s storm.

“He’s looking at me as if he can’t get enough.”

The words are arrows piercing my heart, pulling it into this story as I’m consumed more than ever. The passion pours off the pages as I feel it all. The feels start to freely flow. I feel the desperation of Tahoe and Gina. Their hunger. Their anguish. Everything.

The friends who see each other inside and out, but are afraid to take a chance. To ruin what they have. Afraid to get burned again.

“I can’t get on the Tahoe rollercoaster. Maybe before, when it would be a one-night stand, it was an option…I am so scared to get hurt again. To get hurt a thousand times more than I ever have.”

The story is over but the feels don’t stop flowing, as Ladies Man still holds on to my heart. Happy tears. Hopeful tears. Sad tears. Sappy tears. I swooned. I sweated. I ached. I anguished. I lusted. I loved. HARD. All of it. I love Ladies Man so very much as this book is like Tahoe: full of many layers. Deep layers that penetrate it all: heart, head, and soul.

A sweet surprise. Ladies Man is a hidden gem. So much more than a troubled billionaire romance full of heat. It’s heavy on heart too. It’s even more than a hard-fought friends-to-lovers romance. Ladies Man is a story about hope. Healing. Self-discovery. Self-preservation. A book that is meaningful, lingering long after the story has ended with a valuable life message: Don’t change your true self for anyone as when you do, you risk losing your best you.

Five fierce and fabulous stars but defintely worth more

View all my reviews

TAHOE ROTH.
Irreverent, cocky, playful and naughty.
He’s not the guy you date.
He’s the one night stand.
The one your mother warned you about.
The one your body craves.

You’d think the man who called me succulent would want to strip me down and spread me out on his bed—like he’s done with countless others.
But he passed on my offer….
Just like I’d once passed on his.
He’s wary, like I am.
He’s broken, like I am.
And everyone knows two broken parts can’t ever make a whole.
Tahoe and I are strictly friends.
So I distract myself with other men.
He doesn’t think my new man is good enough. This blond blue-eyed beast doesn’t think any man is—himself included.
But the more time we spend together, the more confused I feel.
I’m trying to open myself to love.
Yet I’m quickly realizing that the only man I want is Tahoe Roth.
The one man who will surely break my heart.