Review: IOU Sex

IOU Sex by Calista Fox

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don’t know about you, but I love a story where a bitch gets what’s coming to her. Combine that with some hot sex and a happy ending and you’ve got the makings of a great story. And that’s just what IOU Sex is.....a great story. (Though, I wish to God it had a different title. I *almost* didn’t read this book based on the title alone. I don’t know why....it just has that “cheezy” vibe to it. Granted, I can’t think of a title that I would prefer over this one, so there ya go.)

Anyway.

Like all of the books I read that are well done,,,,,I wanted more. I loved the concept of this book so much, but it SO deserved to be a full length novel. It felt more like the final act of a really good book versus a stand alone novella. That being said....I loved it to pieces.

Fiona comes from an affluent family. The kind where you do what you're told without question. Unfortunately (or fortunately), Fiona isn't the type to just obey orders. She marches to the beat of her own drummer, much to her overbearing mother's chagrin.

Fiona has just received an invitation to her baby sister’s engagement party. No big deal, really, except that the sister, Lizzie, is marrying Fiona’s FORMER fiance! How did he become her former fiance, you ask? Well.....Fiona caught them 69-ing it in HER bed right before the wedding. Classy, right? And even classier.....Fiona gets an invitation to the engagement party - on the SAME stationary that Fiona herself had picked out when she was the intended bride. (Gah. Uppity folks can be so tacky.) To show that she’s the bigger person and that’s she’s over it.....Fiona decides to go to said engagement party. In a racy red dress - with some super hot mancandy on her arm. That man is her best friend and occasional fuck-buddy, Michael Houston. Michael is a famous photographer, a hot piece of ass, and a super nice man. And.....well.....he’s also somewhat of a player. Because of this, Fiona has kept her heart away from him. Because, really, the last thing she needs is another broken heart and another failed relationship.

So, the day before the nightmare engagement party, Fiona calls up Michael and says she needs to ask him a favor. In his oh-so-sexy voice, he asks her to come over and ask her in person. She’s not stupid.....she knows what he wants. And even though it’s been almost a year since she’s been with him - and she’s horny as hell - she promises herself that she’s not going to sleep with him. (Yea, right!!)

Of course, they end up having some amazing sex....and in the midst of all that, we realize that Michael just might not be as much of a player as he used to be. It’s obvious from their interaction that Fiona is special to Michael. In fact, he wants a real relationship with her, but Fiona doesn’t want to go there. (OK, yea, she really does....but she’s scared. A broken heart is a hard thing to forget.) Of course, Michael agrees to go to the party on her arm....IF....she agrees to spend the rest of the weekend with him. (And like a fortune cookie....you should tack on “in bed” to that previous sentence.) Reluctantly, she agrees.

The party is everything you would have hoped it to be. Fiona gets exactly the reaction she was hoping for. She looked smokin’ hot, and she was with an equally smokin’ hot man that only had eyes for her. She got to tell off her fake-ass-fiance-stealing sister and she finally realized that she really was completely over the cheating-bastard-ex-fiance. Oh yea, the uppity mother who turned a blind eye to her younger daughter stealing the other daughter’s fiance.....yea....she got told off too.

AND, Fiona finally realized that Michael is a man worth going out on a limb for and risking it all for.

*Sigh* I love stories like this. I love seeing worthy people get what they deserve and asshole people getting told where they can shove it. But like I said in the beginning....this felt so much like the third act of a really good novel. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the story. But when I think of the potential backstory that could have been.....I feel a little let down. The conflict resolution was so sweet....but I couldn’t help but feel just how much sweeter it could have been if the book started....say.....right after Fiona caught the fiance and the sister going at it. And then how she met Michael, etc. I always hate to base my rating on what ISN’T there versus what IS.....but in this case, I can’t help it. I would totally give this 5 stars, but there was so much more I wanted.

*ARC provided by NetGalley