Ball Peen Hammer by Lauren Rowe

So I read the book earlier this week and have taken a few days to try and get my head in the game and ready to write this review, because finding the words without giving too much away is not going to be easy because when I finished the story and felt completely shattered.

So the story is about a male stripper, a man designed to set every fibre of my body alight and the author pitched him perfectly because I think my emotions were hyper alert from start to finish.

Keane wasn’t just built for Sin, he knew it his way round it in the dark, he was intimately acquainted with it but was it all he was?

Now, I don’t say this lightly but the thing you will remember about Keane is not his smoking hot looks, his beautiful smile and rocking moves…No it will be him- all of him, his personality, his humour, his sensitivities (yes get ready ladies, this guy is going to knock your socks off!) and OMG his songs, I love this guy he was just extraordinary!

I thought I knew the mettle of the guy that was to come in the story but I stand corrected!

He was so much more, Keane Morgan had it all going on but he was so much more that a pretty face and underneath that incredible fit body was a truly beautiful man, a man that the world needed to stop looking at as little more than arm candy because what lay beneath was the measure of the man and he was so sweet, so genuine and so darn funny!

I was sure that it was going to take a very special woman to steal this man’s heart and I was right because I think Lauren Rowe had to dig really deep to find just the perfect woman for him but when she did, she nailed it – Maddy was made for him.

I adored Keane but I think I loved Maddy, she had a lot to deal with but she was up to the challenge, she was so pretty, that it was no surprise that Keane was interested but she had a wit that she wielded like a weapon. She was so clever and so sharp, she wasn’t afraid to call it like it was and she didn’t stand of any of Keane’s BS.

The book really does centre on just the two of them and their situation, their journey from being unwitting road trip buddies to being friends- to becoming so much more, is one journey that you will not want to miss, so get yourself comfy and settle down on the back seat of their ride and just absorb the shenanigans, really I was cheering them along all the way, heck if I’d had the pompoms I would have been their number one cheerleader!

I was so happy that Maddy was not only willing but able to show Keane that he was worth more than what he thought the world expected from him, that he had more to offer than he was being given credit for, she helped him not only grow into the man that he was always destined to be but she too was also able to open up and by helping him, she was also able to help herself to one thing she never considered that she would ever have…a man like him!

Now if you have read other works by this author you are no stranger to the fact that when it comes to writing the physical scenes, she doesn’t hold back but you might be a little surprised by this little beauty because not only does she absolutely ace that department, she also managed to present a connection between the two of them that had me reaching for the tissues and pressing highlight on the kindle screen like a mad woman! Really, it was so beautifully romantic that I would be surprised if there was a dry eye in the house.

So I think you get the idea that I loved this book, the writing was fantastic, the characters were simply superb and the setting was very cleverly worked. The author got it all spot on but I have one complaint…. I really want more from Zander. Heck he was …. Oh, I have no idea, words fail me.