Eyes Wide Open by Raine Miller Review and Giveaway

“My kinky, foul-mouthed romantic gentleman lover.”

The hot, kinky, posessive, over-the-top-in-love, dominant, alpha, Ethan Blackstone, is back in the third book of the Blackstone Affair Series. While the first book, Naked was from Brynne’s point of view, and the second, All In, was completely from Ethan’s, the third, (out of four) Eyes Wide Open, was told from alternating points of view, and I thought it was brilliant. Yes, did you catch that? FOUR books total. But don’t you worry, this book has a great happy ending, and book 4 will just delve further into Ethan and Brynne’s relationship. I, for one, am thrilled. I can never get enough of Ethan’s sexy dirty talk, alpha possessiveness, and all-consuming love for Brynne.

“Are you real?” He whispered, brushing up my face with the back of his fingers in a cherishing caress. “Because I’ll want you forever.”

Eyes Wide Open begins where All In ends, so you may want to quickly look over the end of All In before reading. Ethan is getting really close to the Olympics and working around the clock. They are settling into their relationship, and Brynne is falling more in love, and becoming more dependent on Ethan, much to her dismay. But she is working on it in therapy, and her growth in this book was a beautiful thing to see.

“Yeah,” I sobbed, taking a moment to get the next part out, “I need him so badly…and it makes me utterly vulnerable…and what will I do if some day he decides he doesn’t want me anymore?”
“It’s called trust, Brynne, and it is by far the hardest gift to give away.”
She was right about that.

Though they are settling in, the sex between Ethan and Brynne is still so fucking hot. The connection between them is so strong, their passion for eachother is so deep, it leaps off the page. And it’s still dirty, kinky and HOT. Here are some of the highlights from one shower scene:

“How badly do you want to be touched?”
“No touching me, baby. This is all for you. Put your hands out and press back against the tile, and stay like that for me.”
“Oh, fuck, you’re so slippery, baby. Let me hear you!”
“But you were a bad girl and took your hands off the wall”
“Put your arms around my neck and hold on”
“Ethan…”
“Yes, my beauty?” She panted at me. “You look so beautiful waiting for me to fuck you up against this shower wall. You love to be fucked on walls, don’t you?
“I love fucking you on walls”

Brynne, though, is still in danger, and Ethan can’t stand the idea of leaving her alone and unprotected for a second.

I had fear inside of me. Batshit, crazy-as-fuck, have-me-committed, I’m-petrified-out-of-my-bloody-skull fear. 

Ethan is also still dealing with nightmares and finding solace in Brynne, who never turns him down. He forces Brynne to open up to him so much, yet he really doesn’t share what is going on. He does eventually, but never fully, something I’d like to see more of in book four.

“Brynne was my heaven. I’d seek out my heaven endlessly.”

Brynne and Ethan go to the country to meet Ethan’s sister and her adorable daughter, Zara. This is where the intense, broody possessive alpha turns into the adorable playful hottie, and totally turned me into mush. Between this scene and a few others, this book had a few more light, fun moments that I really adored.

“Holy shit… I might just die from so much sex.”
She shrugged… “Yeah, but it’d be a fun way to go, wouldn’t it?”

Though Ethan was eager to cement their relationship, Brynne was still hesitant, until a twist happens causing her to finally come to terms with her feelings for Ethan. Once she gives into him, the connection between them became an unbreakable force.

“He brought me out from the dark and into the light. Ethan had given me back my life.”

And as always, Ethan’s love for Brynne was unbreakable:

“It always amazed me at how easy it was to carry her. I knew why. It was because she carried my heart with her wherever she went. My heart was in her hands, and carrying her was some form of self-preservation, maybe. Holding her, holding me up. I couldn’t explain it, but I understood it. Made perfect sense to me.”

Sidenote here, one of my favorite things Ethan says is something my husband says, and I fucking loved it.

“Eyes on me, baby”
“You know I have to have your eyes when I take you!”

To me, this story was always about Ethan and Brynne, two badly broken souls who find the perfect person to make them whole again. It was never really about the danger that Brynne was in, but after three books and a lot of build-up, the culmination of that story was just kind of ‘meh’ to me.

Likes:

• Ethan fucking Blackstone.
• Brynne’s Character growth.
• Brynne was never really stupid enough to run away put herself in danger.
• Ethan’s light funny side.
• Holy hot wall sex, shower sex, any sex!
• Ethan, for me, got his dominant, alpha side back much more in this book, something I kind of missed in All In.
• The little easter eggs from The Undoing of a Libertine and His Perfect Passion, Raine’s Historicals.
• Brynne finally realizing she loves and needs Ethan as much as he does her.

Dislikes:

• Ethan still keeps too much of himself away from Brynne, and he expects her to be so open with him.
• The whole bad-guy situation was wrapped up too quickly and left me wanting more details.
• ***This may be because I have an ARC version, but I had a lot of confusion when switching POV, there was no division and I would read a paragraph or two then realize and have to go back and re-read.

Rating: 4.5 stars 4.5 heat

Raine Miller writes the male point of view better than any other writer. I definitely felt like I connected with Ethan’s character more than Brynne’s in this series. I have also never read a series where the hero, the dirty-talking, possessive, alpha hero loved the heroine quite as much as Ethan loves Brynne. But I must say, I loved the way Brynne finally came around and gave her trust and love wholeheartedly to Ethan.

“….my eyes have really only been opened since you came into my world. You gave me everything. You made me really want to see what was around me, for the first time in my adult life. You made me want you. You made me want….. a life. You were my greatest gift of all, Ethan James Blackstone.”

The Blackstone Affair Series Order
(with links to my reviews)

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