Four Seconds to Lose by K.A. Tucker

Received an ARC. Giving an honest opinion.

You know the moment when you start reading a book, and you immediately acknowledge that the remaining 99.9% is going to be really good, and leave you hungover like someone who started celebrating St. Patrick's Day at 9am? Yeah...that was me at 8pm Sunday night. Monday morning was rough and I wish I hadn't given up coffee because the lack of sleep caused by this book was plain nuts!

If you've read K.A. Tucker's previous books (Ten Tiny Breaths or Only Tiny Lie), you'll know who Cain is. If you don't have a clue what I'm talking about, you can remedy that by reading the aforementioned books. But all is not lost my dear book fiend. Because unlike some series' where all the characters are tried together and you need to know all the minuet details, this book can serve as a stand-alone.

So the basics.

Cain owns a strip club. Charlie is a dancer. Cain doesn't sleep with his staff. Charlie needs money. Charlie and Cain have an undeniable connection. Charlie doesn't really exist.

More often than not, I imagine myself in the story. I think about what it would be like to be one of the characters. Not necessarily the main one(s), but just in the background so I can observe like a diligent fly on the wall.

It really helps when the main object of my affection is portrayed in a way that I'd be willing to eat ice-cream off his body. And a he's decent guy to boot. And tall. And hot. Ice-cream can cool you down...unless you're eating it off his body. S*** - where was I going with this? No really...I absolutely just lost my train of thought. And now I'm staring at the cover, thinking how beautiful he looks from the back.

In the case of Four Seconds to Lose, I wanted to work in a strip club (please note my carefully chosen words here since this will end up on the world wide web, and the last thing I need is in 15 years for my son to read that I wanted to be a stripper. Though to each their own). I would gladly buy the highest heels, wear the shortest skirts, and discover what Victoria's secret actually is if it meant that Cain would be my boss.

One of the things that really stood out for me was how authentically male Cain's POV was. I mean this with wholehearted respect, but at times I had to keep reminding myself that these scenes were not written by a man. I really didn't comprehend the magnitude of this feat until Ben started showing up in more scenes. He was the perfect tormentor, and though I immediately sensed that this was more of a 'no harm no foul' type of banter, it really provided insight to what drives guys insane without an ounce of a female bullshit that can sometimes sneak in from the sidelines and make the guys look like delicate flowers.

All the characters that I love made appearances in this story, but it was never about them. Things happened to Cain and Charlie that forced me to suspend my idea of the perfect reality and embrace the craziness that was their lives. But I fell for this book so hard that their insanity was my Valium.

I really liked Ten Tiny Breaths. I wanted to marry One Tiny Lie. But Four Seconds to Lose? I would have it's freaking babies.