Stripped Bare by Emma Hart

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Before jumping into my next historical romance for the Rake Appreciation Society (hosted by Crystal and Jen), I decided to try another quick contemporary. After debating between starting a super quick read or continuing on with Holly Renee, I decided to go with Stripped Bare by Emma Hart. This is the first in her Stripped duology. I have read a couple standalones by Emma in the past that were 2 or 3-star reads, but I have also read her Kiss Me series and absolutely loved it.

I was intrigue by West and Mia's story. Now when this first started, Mia is at a bachelorette party for her best friend and has secured her a lap dance at the strip bar they're at in Vegas. She decides to get payback and book a private lap for Mia with the "very best." This would be West, former stripper and now one of the owners (although he does strip "for fun" from time to time). As he's doing the dance, they feel this attraction towards each other and end up meeting later that night at her hotel. Then Mia goes back home and a couple months pass. I didn't really enjoy the first couple chapters, but wanted to get their reunion before deciding if I wanted to dnf.

Mia's boss has a family emergency and needs her to take over a big client in Vegas that owns some strip clubs. Surprise! It's West she meets with and she learns he is the owner. This is when I really started to enjoy the book. While Mia gets a little aggravating pulling back from West so many times despite their attraction, I loved how patient and understanding that West was. He was so considerate of how Mia was dealing with her emotions. He never got pissed and stormed off. He understood when to push her and when to take a step back. Even in the big "climax" at the end, he just said he was going to give her space to think. He didn't walk away permanently or even threaten that it was permanent. He smartly realized that she needed to figure out what she wanted and needed to make the choice to go all in or not. He gave her the space and patiently waited. I loved West and he really made this book for me. Plus, he's a great dirty talker and a very dominant partner in bed. He calls her "mine" but in a very sexy and aware way that he's not actually owning her and their discussion about it was so hot. He just did it for me.

I'm not sure when I'll get to the second book, but I did love his business partner Beck and am intrigued to how his book plays out. In the epilogue, he shows up with a killer hangover and married to one of the strippers at their other club. I'm glad to read more Emma Hart and am happy this wasn't a miss for me.

Have you read Stripped Bare?

Bookishly Yours, 

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Stripped Bare, Emma Hart, 4-stars, 1 day, eBook, 293 pages, published in 2016