Worked Up by Tessa Bailey 
Series: Made in Jersey #3
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Also by this author: Thrown Down, Too Hot to Handle, Raw Redemption, Risking it All, Disorderly Conduct, Too Beautiful to Break, Follow, Indecent Exposure, Mouth to Mouth, Sink or Swim, Reborn Yesterday, It Happened One Summer, Window Shopping
Goodreads
Factory mechanic Duke Crawford just wants to watch SportsCenter in peace. Unfortunately, living with four divorcee sisters doesn’t provide much silence, nor does it change his stance on relationships. But when a fellow commitment-phobe stumbles into his life, getting him good and worked up, he can’t deny his protective instincts.
Samantha Waverly’s brother just put her in an impossible situation. The only way out? Marry huge, gruff, gladiator look-alike Duke—for show, of course. She doesn’t make promises—she knows too well how easily they can be broken—and this is no exception.
As the blistering attraction between them grows, the lines around the no-strings relationship blur. But Duke and Samantha’s marriage is only for show…or is it?
Worked Up
Tessa Bailey
It seems I can count on Tessa Bailey to break me out of my book funks. I had several DNF and meh books in a row. Looking to see what was up next on my TBR had become a chore because everything had been so underwhelming. Then it was time for Worked Up. Thank God for PMB (and Tessa Bailey for writing them!). I was also looking forward to this book because I ADORE this series!
Samantha (best name ever BTW!) is in NJ to visit her brother, Renner. She meets Duke at a bar and he ‘saves’ her from things he sees as troubling-junk food, guys hitting on her, etc. Its adorable because he kind of does it with a bit of reluctance and a sense of frustration in having to save another woman, but Samantha isn’t in any danger so its not like she really needs saving. Samantha is quirky in a way that isn’t annoying. Sometimes when an author writes a quirky character, it gets over the top. Sam was perfect!
Both of them are commit-a-phobes. They both feel the crazy attraction, but won’t do anything because of their issues. Samantha is fresh out of an engagement she never really wanted, and Duke has his 4 divorced sisters living with him. Duke is a fixer, so he proposes a ‘solution’ to Sam’s problem with her brother. Unorthodox, yes, but she agrees. The conflict of the book comes from a will-they-won’t they scenario, but its not the typical will they get together. This is more of a will they stay together. And Duke brings the swoon-HARD!
If you love steamy romance, Worked Up is great. If you like unique characters, Worked up is perfect. I really think Duke and Samantha were different that other romance novel characters I have read recently and I loved that so much!
He was playing hero again, physically incapable of letting the poor damsel on aisle 3 go home without the proper nutrition.
Sweetheart, I have four sisters. When nothings wrong, the world is on fire.
- POV: 3rd
- Tears: No
- Trope: anti-relationship
- Triggers: none
- Series/Standalone: standalone within an interconnected series (But seriously, Thrown Down was a 5 star read!)
- Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
- HEA: View Spoiler »
Out of Bounds by RS Grey, Going Down Easy by Carly Phillips, Wasted Words by Staci Hart…then you will probably like Worked Up!
I had a hard time with this one because of how fast everything happened but I liked Duke a lot! I’m glad you had fun with this one, Sam! Great review!
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