Book Review – Stroke of Midnight by Andie J. Christopher

One thing that I’m going to try to do in 2018 is read and review more romance, because I love it and it is often my go-to palate cleanser after a tough read. So! I have deemed (some) Mondays to be the place for romance reviews! Welcome to Romance Mondays. 🙂

I saw Andie speak at a panel at the Baltimore Book Festival and bought her entire One Night on South Beach series for my kindle on the spot. She was real and funny and I loved her take on different aspects of writing sexy romance. I decided to read the first book in the series soon after, and I was seriously not disappointed. Stroke of Midnight was so so good! And I’m glad I finally have a reason to get some of these romance reviews in the books (yay Romance Mondays!).

In Stroke of Midnight, workaholic Alana Hernandez wants her New Year’s Eve to be filled with a sexy one-night-stand, something to take her mind off of her relatively boring life and stressful job. She locks eyes with a guy at the bar, and she’s done for. They don’t exchange names or any information – she just goes with him to his hotel room, and then she leaves in the morning before he wakes up. But then he shows up at a family gathering the next day, and Alana’s world is thrown into a tailspin.

Cole Roberts is in town visiting his buddy, and he doesn’t think twice about spending the night with the dropdead gorgeous woman he meets at the bar. But when he sees her again at his buddy’s family gathering – and realizes Alana is his buddy’s sister – things get complicated. Neither Cole nor Alana were looking for a relationship, but they can’t get enough of each other. They decide to keep it a secret from Alana’s brother to try to make things less complicated, but that turns out to still be more than either of them bargained for.

Can they overcome the odds and make things work, or will their secret relationship go up in flames?

3 Things I Loved

1. Alana. Okay, Alana is sexy, she’s smart (she’s a lawyer!), and she can shoot a gun with stunning accuracy. I loved her from the first page, probably because the workaholic side of me can relate to her immensely. She’s strong and she owns her sexuality and I was there for it the whole time.
2. Cole. At first glance, Cole is a bit of an alpha male (which I don’t always love), but as the story progresses, it’s easy to see that he’s just a softy who thinks he’s not worthy of love. AND THAT’S ONE OF MY MANY KRYPTONITES, Y’ALL. I loved Cole and related to him the whole time, and I just wanted the best for him. ❤
3. Miami! I’ve never been to Miami, but it was nice to read a romance that was set in a city that isn’t quite so common in books. I felt like I was there, like I could feel the humidity on my skin throughout the whole book. It makes me want to go there!

Dislikes/Problematic Content

This was a fun, diverse romance, and nothing overtly problematic stands out to me. Alana is Cuban, and her culture is fun and vibrant and almost like its own character in the story. Cole is a former Navy Seal, so the military past factors in as well. The only thing I remember not loving was the (unnecessary) protective streak in Alana’s brother, when he basically forbids Alana from seeing Cole. That irked me, but it’s handled in the story and there is a better ending for Javi (and he’s the star of the next book, which I hope to read this year sometime!). So yeah, no real issues that I can remember in this one.

Rating

A reminder of the rating scale:

• Red = DNF, I hated everything
• Orange = Ugh, no thank you
• Yellow = I mean, I’ve read worse, but there were problems
• Green = This was good! 
• Blue = Oh my gosh, I loved this book!
• Purple = This is the unicorn of books and I will be rereading it until the binding falls apart and EVERYONE should be reading it!

When it comes to contemporary erotic romance, this is one of the best I’ve read so far. I’ll definitely be recommending it to lovers of romance and Miami! I’m giving Stroke of Midnight a BLUE rating. ❤

Happy romance reading Monday!

-A.