BOOK REVIEW: APPEALED (THE LEGAL BRIEFS #3)

Link on Goodreads || Review on Goodreads

Review Published: July 2, 2018

There's nothing more enjoyable than munching onto a pack of peanuts while devouring a steamy courtroom in opposing prosecution! Emma Chase never fails to bring the real guns onto the table!

This was a light, second chance romance and short story about two people who failed to set their feelings straight fourteen years ago- can you believe how long these two idiots (I love them tho, they're idiotically adorable) kept jumping onto false conclusions after another?

Piece of advice kids, save yourselves the hassle and just fvcking ASK instead- seriously, will cut off enough bullshits to screw up your potential and future relationships. Just saying.

Where do we start?

S P O I L E R A L E R T

Brent Mason has commitment issues, hence why he uses intimacy to avoid going for relationships with women. Tragedy trailing from his past, it seems he has not yet addressed or gotten over some issues even as a thirty-three year old adult. It may appear that he's fine with the no-responsibility and no-strings-attached setup, but that implies how he's afraid to invest his emotions and get hurt, losing a part of him in the process. As a defense mechanism, he won't stick around long enough to avoid emotional attachment. Well, that was before Kennedy Randolph reappears in his life.

The fact that she's always been subconsciously buried in his, warms my heart. Could it be that Brent isn't capable of loving another woman solely due to Kennedy? Did she take his heart when she left, fourteen years ago?

Kennedy Randolph is a strong heroine who grew up with issues of her own. It wasn't easy being Brent Mason's childhood and best friend, let alone developing feelings for him. A shit ton of events led to heartbreak, disappointment and betrayal that ultimately became a problem that she couldn't rid herself with throughout the years- trust issues. I felt sorry for Kennedy when we were reacquainted with more details of her past and numerous times I wanted to shove Brent to a wall hard or smack him with a bat.

Bastard, he should've done something that time. ANYTHING. He didn't know?

"I didn't know it was that bad."

"You knew enough."

It's a fact that kids at least tried in one point in our lives becoming assholes during high school and college years- but that doesn't give any of us the right to be CRUEL. But then again, Brent wasn't all that bad- he'll make it up for Kennedy in the end. (And will learn to love him more along the way)

My words are strong and demanding. "That's why I'm here. I need you to tell me what else I don't know." She tossed back, "Why?"

My hand runs through her hair. "Because I don't think she will- not all of it. Because I want to make it up to her. Because, I feel like a black-out drunk who just sobered up, and I need to hear about the chunks of time I'm missing. Because... she was always the one."

Anyhow, I couldn't stop grinning about Appealed! It was neither slow or fast-paced, just the right ingredients to uncover the buried sexual tension and attraction between Mr. Mason and Ms. Rudolph. Good gosh, they'd get on each other's nerves, objection after objection, spit on each other's notions, set themselves prickly, irritated and after what seems like forever- tremendously grown into desperate hunger for sexual contact.

But they really had it GOOD, didn't they?

"Thank you."

And it's only then that I notice what's different about her. Why every cell in my body is content to just stand here and watch her. It's her eyes. The turquoise contact lenses are gone- her gaze washes over me in pure, breath-stealing brandy-colored beauty. And even though she didn't know I'd be here tonight- I want to believe it's for me. Some kind of sign. Because those eyes are mine- the girl behind them, once, was mine.

Set the courtroom ablaze... and don't forget the bedroom too!