Review // No Rep by Lani Lynn Vale

"I don't feel pity for you... I feel anger for you. Passion for you. Need. Desire. Want. I'm pissed you didn't tell me. Sad that I don't get to see you every day. Mad that you keep ditching me because you think that's what I want. But I most definitely don't feel any damn pity for you. Not when you've persevered. When you've turned into this person that overcame a huge obstacle and made you into the woman that I see today."

No Rep by Lani Lynn Vale

Standalone - Madd CrossFit #1
Release - July 27, 2021
Genre - Romantic Suspense
Dual POV - 1st person
Heat Level - 4 out of 5 / several scenes
Format/Source - eARC provided by the author
Page Count - 208
Publisher - Indie

Buy it here: Amazon

Taos was tired.
Tired of everything that came with living. Not to the point where he was suicidal or anything, but tired enough that he just didn’t give a crap anymore.
He’d seen all the ugliness this world had to offer due to his job as a police officer for way too many damn years of his less than stellar life. After finding a way to sustain his spending habits that didn’t include having criminals point guns at his face, he quits without a backward glance.
Only, he just can’t step away from old habits.
Old habits that have to do with a beautiful young woman that makes his heart feel like it isn’t nearly as broken as it is.
Fran has experienced more than her fair share of crap. After an attack that nearly took her life, she stays hidden in her house, fearful that stepping out of her comfort zone will be the final nail in her coffin.
Then her sister forces her to face her fears, and she joins Madd CrossFit.
There, she meets the man that saved her life a year ago, and realizes rather quickly that he doesn’t even realize who he is to her.
He’s everything she ever thought a man should be and wants nothing to do with her.
Maybe she’ll have to give him a reason to look her way.
And damned if she doesn’t find a way to do it.
She didn’t plan on nearly getting killed for that to happen, though.
At least not again.

No Rep was written in such a refreshing way that I was honestly surprised by the tone this story took. As a long time LLV fan, I. Was. Shook!

While there were plenty of familiar things, such as the light and fun vibe typically found in an LLV novel, it was a touch more serious. And it had to be. Fran survived a serial killer and Taos hunted them. Makes sense. On top of that, there was no rush for the intimacy that was growing between the main characters. It wasn't a slow build, but it did grow organically.

Am I a fool for hoping that one day the author ages up baby Vlad to give him his own story? Man, that baby was sooooo cute!

I have digressed...

Fran almost fell victim to a serial killer. Taos was the cop who rescued her. She disappeared from life due to fear until her sister tried to inject some hope inside of her. That's where Taos' crossfit gym came in. Fran came out of her shell and she blossomed. Was it being around other people? Testing and building her strength? Or was it all due to Taos?

I'm going with a huge helping of Taos!

I enjoyed the suspenseful elements of this story. I couldn't figure out who the new serial killer was and it was exciting to see how everything would unfold. I loved what eventually grew between Fran and Taos and the way their happily ever after developed. I also appreciated meeting all of the side characters and I'm looking forward to reading their own stories. Jerk It, the story of Murphy and Mavis, is next!

My Notes

It didn't make sense that Fran would avoid Taos after he learned of how they originally knew each other. It was already established that she was into him and that they were building something together. I didn't get the purpose of her hiding anything from him or pushing him away because she was worried about how he would treat her. It was beyond obvious that something had happened to her, and that she lived with fear as a constant companion, even without knowing the details. So why would he treat her differently after knowing the specifics?

I was confused by the whole 'Taos has a biological brother named Greer that Fran is determined to find' storyline. I understand that he was adopted out and that despite Taos being a cop, he couldn't be found. Then by the end of the story (eight years later), Fran and her grandmother have found him. And.... nothing. She didn't even tell the man that she found his long-lost brother! Where would these details be found? Is there another book that will make this clearer?

Lani Lynn Vale is married to the love of her life that she met in high school. She fell in love with him because he was wearing baseball pants. Ten years later they have three perfectly crazy children and a cat named Demon who likes to wake her up at ungodly times in the night. They live in the greatest state in the world, Texas. She writes contemporary and romantic suspense, and has a love for all things romance. You can find Lani in front of her computer writing away in her fictional characters world...that is until her husband and kids demand sustenance in the form of food and drink.

Visit https://lanilynnvale.com/ for more information!