Penny Reid 

LH Cosway

Book #1 in the USA Today Bestselling Series New York's Finest Blogging as *The Socialmedialite* April 22 LADIES AND GENTS! I have an announcement! You know that guy I featured on my blog a few months ago? The really, really hot Irish rugby player who plays the position of 'hooker' in the RLI (Rugby League International)? The one with the anger management issues, the body of a gladiator and the face of a movie star? The one with the questionable fashion choices leading me to ask whether he was the lovechild of a leprechaun and a hobbit? Ronan Fitzpatrick? Yeah, that guy. Well, I have a confession to make... THE HERMIT Annie Catrel, social media expert extraordinaire at Davidson & Croft Media and clandestine celebrity blogger, can make anyone shine in the court of public opinion. She is the Socialmedialite, anonymous creator of New York's Finest and the internet's darling. Virtual reality is Annie's forte, but actual reality? Not so much. THE HOOKER Ronan Fitzpatrick, aka the best hooker the world of rugby has seen in decades, despises the media--social or otherwise. The press has spun a web of lies depicting him as rugby's wild and reckless bad boy. Suspended from his team, Ronan has come to Manhattan to escape the drama, lay low, fly under the radar. Only, Ronan isn't easy to overlook, and he can't escape the notice of the Socialmedialite... THE PLAN When Ronan is sent to Davidson & Croft Media to reshape his public image, he never expects to cross paths with shy but beautiful Annie, nor does he expect his fierce attraction to her. He couldn't be happier when her boss suggests pairing them together. What lengths will Annie take to keep her virtual identity concealed? And what happens when the hooker discovers who the hermit really is? The Hooker and the Hermit is a collaboration between authors L.H. Cosway and Penny Reid, is a full length 110k word novel, and is a standalone.

Fake Relationship Sports Romance

The Hooker and the Hermit

It’s giving “I’m not like other girls,” but X 100. Quite painful to read. Mediocre spicy writing. Not Ronan saying he’s into kink, but all he pulls out are some restraints. It’s a pass for me.

Sophia 

Samantha Huster

Honest review time...

I wanted to like this book more than I did. Annie was charming and relatable with her social anxiety. And Ronan was a hot, Irish rugby player. All signs pointed to an enjoyable sports romance. Which it was. However...I have some thoughts on Ronan as a love interest. 

SPOILERS BELOW (maybe)
So Ronan is lowkey a dick. The man is OBSESSED with looks. His looks and he goes on a little rant with The Socialmedialite about how physical appearance is important which is why he hates social media. Also, when he meets Annie, he describes her as "curvy, but not fat." Thanks for that...

Also, I get he's supposed to be a dominant but he is WAY intense. He corners Annie in an elevator AFTER he observes that she's not super comfortable in social situation. I often read romance and think "aw. cute in a book, but not IRL." This was not that moment. I was uncomfy with it even in a fictional sense. He even uses his status as a client to get alone time with Annie. It's manipulative. But then he gets all high and mighty when he thinks her boss is pimping her out. Totally fine when it's him, but not fine when it's other men. 

Overall, it was fine. There were some serious red flags at the beginning that I don't think were addressed later. And I have some thoughts about the commentary being made, but it was a quick read with some basic dom/sub and restraint play. 

3 stars

L. H. Cosway

Penny Reid

In this lighthearted contemporary romance novel, Annie, the anonymous creator of a popular celebrity blog, falls for Ronan, a rugby star who has been depicted as a wild and reckless bad boy by the media.

Sarah Kessler

Amanda J 

I loved a lot of things about this book. The interaction between the two leads was great. I also loved the personality of Annie being a "hermit" (if only I had the money to do the same...). Ronan wasn't too bad either. I like how they handled Ronan's intimate proclivities and Annie's reaction (it was well done). I didn't like the insta-love between the two-it required some major, major suspension of belief.

Samantha Emery

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★Book Basics★ 


  Genre
: - Cont. Romance 

  Series
: - 1st in the series

  Love triangle?
 - (view spoiler)[No (hide spoiler)]

  Cheating?
 - (view spoiler)[No  (hide spoiler)]

  HEA? -
 (view spoiler)[Yes (hide spoiler)]

  Would I read more by this author/or in this series? 
- Yes

  Rating 
- 4

★Review★

Must say, to start with, I found the heroine rather unlike able. Her just splashing random ppl all over her blog (just because) they looked like a celebrity, so she felt she could tear them to shreds was not nice. It was sort of brushed over, that when she did it to celebrities she got messages from their publicists thanking her, or she then would highlight a charity that a celebrity supported etc, hence making it ok, but nope, she admits she does it to non celebrity look alikes! Just normal ppl, going about their bloody business. But, I shall avoid getting ranty about that AGAIN! And I know I can get ranty about things.


But, in saying that, I did end up enjoying it, and I ended up warming up to the heroine.

And Ronan came across like a bit of a creepy creeper to start but again I ended up warming to him.

It was funny, and I liked Annie and Ronan together, and loved the banter between them.

And I love how Ronan was the one pushing for a relationship, he knew how he felt and he loved her so much. My heart just broke for him at one point.

And Annie, even though she pushed him away, you understood why.

And the end of the book I adored them both. For me, struggling to like them to start actually fit the story. Once you read on, you realise Annie is just hiding so much of herself, and felt safe hidden behind her blog and they are both better people together. Annie is always going to be socially awkward, but in Ronan, she has found her home, her safe haven, her family. And for Ronan, he has found someone who loves him exactly how he is. Who is not interested in the status he can give her, or the wealth, or the fame. But loves him for him.

All in 4 stars. I would probably actually re read it!

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I'd give the second half of this book 3 stars and the first half 1 star, so here we are at 2 stars overall. I was *this close* to rage-quitting this book within the opening chapters because the "hero" (quotes intentional) was nothing more than a sexual assaulter taking advantage of a woman in the workplace.

Annie, our heroine, has some pretty extreme anxiety and she mostly works from home. She also mostly wears baggy neutral-colored clothes to avoid drawing attention. She blogs anonymously as the Socialmedialite, where she skewers the fashion, hair, makeup, and general looks/behaviors of celebrities she photographs around NYC. But it's OK that she makes a living being terrible and mean as a keyboard warrior because she generally highlights that celeb's favorite charity and her posts lead to donations b/c her blog has a gazillion followers. So you see, she's really doing a massive public service. She puts her social media talents to use at her day job working as a social media/PR strategist for a major PR firm.

Ronan is a hooker (like a quarterback in football) for a rugby team but he's been suspended since he beat his teammate to a pulp. Said teammate was sleeping with Ronan's now ex-girlfriend but the media doesn't know that. So he now has a "bad boy" image problem. He hires Annie's PR firm to rehab his image.

Annie first meets Ronan while at the office. He walks by the breakroom and sees her eating an eclair and it's insta-lust for him. Some filling spills on her shirt and the next thing me and Annie know, Ronan literally has his hand up her shirt to "help" her clean it. Um, that's a big giant no. 

She tells him "no" in different ways over and over. No to dinner. No, she doesn't want him to contact her unless it's work-related. No to anything unprofessional. No to sleeping with him. No no no no. His response: I wonder if she's just so attracted to me that she feels she has to hide it. And also I have no intention of sticking to her rules.

That was bad but the scene that almost did me in was the elevator as Annie was leaving work. After invading her personal space like it was his job and making lewd remarks to this woman who now has to work on his account all day, they find themselves alone in an elevator. He sees her, in her baggy oversized clothes (which he frequently speculates on what's underneath and how to get her out of them), move away from him to the other corner of the elevator. Now a real man would think "I've been a total dick to this woman and now she's afraid of me. I should fix it or at minimum, apologize and leave her alone." But Ronan? Nope, he thinks "Oh great! She's in the perfect place for me to hit the stop button, then cage her in and trap her so I can get in her face, tower over her, put my hand on her chest to feel her heartbeat, and offer her more lewd remarks and touch her without her consent." And so that's what he did.

Seriously people! There's alpha male and then there's just being a flat-out asshole and *then* there's being an asshole who is also a sexual harasser/assaulter. This is *not* romantic. 

And I really dislike it when the female lead says no to things but is characterized as "not really meaning it" and such. No is no. If she later wants to change it to a yes, then that's fine. But characterizing a "no" as a "really a yes, she is just confused" is at the root of so many sad stories of sexual harassment and assault. And I really, really dislike it when books have characters like Ronan positioned to be the romantic lead and good guy. These sorts of characters do women (and men) a disservice. It turns non-consent into consent and normalizes and romanticizes terrible (and borderline criminal) behavior. 

Annie's boss then requires her to change her wardrobe since she'll be in the office more and working with Ronan and she has agreed to pair them up since she notices the sparks between the two of them. Um, those weren't sparks from Annie - that was massive anxiety and fear. Then the team decides part of the strategy would be to have Ronan fake-date an attractive, nice, smart woman and he decides that will be Annie. So now as a condition of her employment, she has to pretend to date this guy who has serious issues with boundaries. And to boot, dating a famous athlete even for pretend, is not exactly a recipe for avoiding attention. (side note, why would someone with a massive anxiety problem that makes it extremely uncomfortable talking to people go into a career that focuses on dealing with people??) So then this woman, her boss, puts her in form-fitting, bright colored clothes and that's like waving a red flag in front of the bull, I mean Ronan. 

All of this gets a 1 star from me.

Once Ronan tones down his asshole behavior, he does almost a 180 and becomes a mostly decent guy. He actually talks to her and treats her like an actual person instead of a conquest or just another hole he wants to be in. He gets to know her and of course he falls in love. This version of him is a little more alpha than I would personally like in my man but he's at least decent.

The second half of the story was mostly the New and Improved: Now Less Asshole-ish Ronan falling in love and then a series of misunderstandings and secrets between the two of them that threaten to tear them apart. This half of the story is maybe a 3 star. As for our two leads, there was nothing to explain the changes in them. I guess falling in love changed Ronan, which is a massive oversimplification, but nothing else was on offer to explain him morphing from a total asshole to mostly-decent alpha dude. As for Annie, how someone with that level of social anxiety somehow was able to attend massive publicity events, deal with ambush paparazzi, and being splashed across newspapers is a giant mystery.

When Annie does finally succumb to his relentless pursuit, that whole scene also gets a wtf from me. 
- WTF point 1: No condom, no problem. He's lusted after her and propositioned her almost daily and yet, he doesn't have a condom in his wallet? And she says that's fine, she trusts him? Wut? So a guy you barely know who's been acting like a manwhore and who had recently been sleeping with a woman who was cheating on him with a total player and therefore could have given him who knows what diseases - and she just says OK? Nope not OK. Not to mention that there was also no handy "It's cool, I'm on the pill" comment. STDs and unplanned pregnancies are not romantic.

- WTF point 2: He is extremely rich and instead of taking her someplace nice, like his place or a hotel room, or heck just going to her place, they end up in the backseat of a car for their first time. Lame. Even if he had no money, he could have done better. Hell even spreading a blanket out on the ground in the woods next to the car would have been better than the tiny backseat of a sports car.

- WTF point 3: He's into bondage (which is ok, not judging that) but again it's their first time and there's no discussion about his interests or whether or not she's cool with that. But the kicker is that he restrains her by tying her up with the seatbelt. It was so silly that I almost laughed when I read it.

I'll stop here - if I keep going, I'll just have to lower this from 2 stars to 1.

The Hooker and the Hermit Fake Relationship Sports Romance

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