TOUR: The Judgment of Paris

THE JUDGEMENT OF PARIS

The Odyssey Duet #2

Author: Dr. Rebecca Sharp

Release Date: July 9th

Blurb 

Love is honorable but selfish. Love is a record of my wrongs.

Love had fractured in trials but held on for the truth.

And the truth was he’d hurt me, yet I loved him.

He’d left me, yet I followed him.

But I was done with Léo Baudin.

And as soon as the semester was over, I would be done with Paris.

But until then, I would learn the rest of his secrets.

The ones they whispered about behind his back. The ones that had the entire city watching his every move. The ones that held him hostage.

But to know his secrets meant to know him. And to know him was to fall further for the man who’d already hurt me so much.

I hated him for breaking my heart, but I should’ve learned by now that the things we loathe become the things we love.

And just when I thought there was nothing left to keep us apart, the ghosts of his past came back to life with a truth neither of us could’ve expected.

And lies that neither of us could’ve imagined.

As each layer unraveled, the choice between power and wisdom and love grew greater. And the consequences of our decision would be the judgment of this city.

But when all else fails, love always hopes.

Against all odds, love always perseveres.

The Judgment of Paris is the second book in the Odyssey Duet.

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MY REVIEW

The Judgment of Paris is the second book in the Odyssey Duet and it explodes with passion and angst.

The lust, hunger, devotion and yearning between Troy and Leo is palpable. I’ve never felt such an intense connection between two characters before. The passion between these two is so hot it’s panty melting. So intense its soul-searing. The devastation they feel is intense and real. Make no mistake this book will leave its mark.

I loved this couple and this duet. It was well written and the feels kept coming.

Although the sex scenes are hot, heavy and sexy, I found that it left no room for the story itself. This story ended up feeling like it was more sex driven than character driven.

I also had a difficult time with the history surrounding Leo’s wife, Amelie. I felt like it came out of left field and that it was put there simply to add drama.

Amelie, herself, is not the problem because we all knew something would arise with her. Rather the doom and gloom surrounding her family and who they are. It felt rushed, unexplored and like it didn’t belong. It made it feel like it was thrown in haphazardly. There was no real work up from book one about any of this.

Who is his ex-wife and her family, really? What does it have to do with this story?

Although Amelie’s family history left me with more questions than answers, the introduction to Quinton and the Valois has me all kinds of hopeful and excited that he will get his own book!

This is an overall astounding read that I recommend wholeheartedly!

I received an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

EXCERPT

“So, you don’t want this?” he pushed, his hand now gently cupping me. He was watching it—watching it squeeze the soft flesh and thumb over my nipple. He watched it like his hand didn’t belong to him, like after this moment he’d cut it from his body for betraying him. “You don’t want me to fuck you on this desk right now?”

“No,” I insisted, even as I pushed against his palm.

“Menteuse. I bet your little body has been begging for me. I bet that pussy of yours is soaked and clenching, desperate to be stretched and ripped by my cock. I bet your body wants to swallow me whole, right now.”

“I bet yours wants the same,” I shot back breathlessly. It was as close to admitting to it as I was going to get.

His thumb grazed along the edge of my tank, tracing the soft skin of my chest like he was teetering on a precipice of what was going to happen right now.

I wanted him to choose me.

I wanted him to need me.

But he never did.

“I don’t need your body, Miss Milanovic.” His hand dropped to the desk between us and his face drifted farther from mine. “If I did, I wouldn’t have left.”

I shriveled up and died. Right there. In the middle of the classroom, in the middle of Paris, and in the middle of everything that my life could have been.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Dr. Rebecca Sharp, while using a pen name, is actually a doctor living in Pennsylvania with her husband - the love of her life.

She enjoys working in her practice with her father as well as letting her creativity run free as an author. Growing up she's always loved a good love story and finally decided to give writing one of her own a go.

After graduating with her doctoral degree, she now enjoys spending that thing called free time traveling with her husband, cooking, and knitting.

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Synopsis 

I was sixteen when I vowed I would never marry him.

We shook on it. Pinky swore. Even put it in writing and all but signed our names in blood.

It was the one and only thing we ever agreed on.

To the world, he’s Prince Ian, Duke of Montcroix, second in line to the Chamont throne. Panty-melting accent. Royal charm. Hypnotic presence. Blindingly gorgeous. Laundry list of women all over the world who would give their first born for the chance to marry him. Most eligible bachelor in the free world …

But to me, he’s nothing more than the son of my father’s best friend—the pesky blue-eyed boy who made it his mission to annoy the ever-loving hell out of me summer after summer as our families vacationed together, our parents oblivious to our mutual disdain as they joked about our “betrothal.”

He was also my first kiss.

And my first taste of heartbreak so cataclysmic it almost broke me.

I meant it with every fiber of my soul when I swore I’d never marry him.

But on the eve of my 24th birthday, His Royal Highness has the audacity to show up at my door after years of silence and make a demand will forever change the trajectory of our lives: “We have to break our pact.”

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EXCERPT 

“Ms. Belleseau,” he says before moving aside. “Welcome. Won’t you come in?”

Her eyes lift across the small space until they find mine, and her hands clasp in front of her waist. She’s in jean shorts, a white tank top, sandals, and a wildly colorful cardigan. Her long hair is piled on top of her head—hardly the look of a queen, but I like it nonetheless.

My all-American sweetheart …

“I’ll do it,” she says as Harrison locks the door behind her. Emelie takes a few more steps closer, until we’re only a few feet apart. “But I have terms and conditions.”

“Such as?”

“No sex,” she says.

I hide my disappointment with a smirk. “Glad we’re getting that one out of the way. What else?”

“No romance.”

“Easy.”

“Limited public engagements,” she adds.

“I’m afraid that one isn’t up for negotiation,” I say. “But you’ll be pleased to know that we aren’t allowed to demonstrate any public displays of affection, so any and all public engagements will require nothing more than a smile, a curtsy, and a few kind words.”

“Fine.” Her arms fold across her chest, like she still isn’t comfortable with the idea of this arrangement. “You get me until my twenty-ninth birthday and not a day longer.”

“Deal.”

“Oh. And I’m allowed to see my family at any chosen time, regardless of schedule or engagements,” she says.

I hesitate—logistics and all of that.

“That’s my non-negotiable,” she says. “My mother and my sisters are my everything. If I want to see them, you’re going to make it happen or the deal is off. And my friends too. I want my friends to be able to visit."

That’s her non-negotiable? I figured it would’ve been the sex …

“All right,” I say. “Shall we pinky swear on this as we did with our last agreement?”

She fights a smile—a good sign—but her poker face returns in an instant, rendering her back to unreadable.

“You have my word if I have yours,” she says, not moving so much as an inch closer. Her chin lifts and her shoulders straighten as she looks me dead in the eye. I can’t tell if she’s feeling good about her decision or giving me her best poker face.

“Apparently pinky promises aren’t as binding as we thought now, are they?”

My joke falls on deaf ears. She isn’t amused.

Her arms lower to her sides, as though she’s feeling slightly less defensive than when she first walked in the door.

“You’re going to make an amazing queen, Emelie,” I say, envisioning her in my great-grandmother’s glimmering Belcast tiara. “Welcome to the royal family.”

MY REVIEW 

I enjoyed both characters. Emelie and Julian.  I was interested in the plot and like the writing. 

What I did not enjoy as much was the execution and the pace.  The relationship between Emelie and Julian felt rushed.  The relationship curve from hate to love, for me, came about too quick.  Too much, too fast after so many years.  As result, I didn’t feel the connection between these two that I should have.  I loved both characters separately but together, I did not feel the spark or passion between them.

I also have to say that I didn’t agree with how the ending came about.  The decisions the characters made, for me, seemed abrupt and out of character.  It doesn’t feel like there was any weighted thought on the major decision they made nor the repercussions.

With that being said, I liked the story overall.  This book does not put me off this author.  I am interested in seeing and reading what she comes out with next.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Wall Street Journal and #1 Amazon bestselling author Winter Renshaw is a bona fide daydream believer. She lives somewhere in the middle of the USA and can rarely be seen without her trusty Mead notebook and ultra portable laptop. When she’s not writing, she’s living the American dream with her husband, three kids, and the laziest puggle this side of the Mississippi.

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