review || RUBY INK

Ruby Ink by L.J. Wilson

Publisher: AB Edge (3/31/2015)
Series: Clairmont Series, book 1
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Source: TLC Book Tours
Purchase links || amazon || add to goodreads

Rating: ★★★★1/2




The Claremont siblings, known as the "Tribe of Five"—Alec, Aaron, Honor, Jake and Troy—are complex characters in the new adult world, whose individual stories and intricate love lives drive these erotic novels.

In Ruby Ink, Aaron Clairmont has been granted an early parole. He returns home to Nickel Springs and finds employment at Abstract Enchantment, a contemporary new inn. But Aaron’s mind can’t let go of its predecessor, the vintage Rose Arch Inn, the setting for his passionate love affair with Ruby Vasquez. She’s the girl Aaron lost after his secret underworld life unraveled, shocking everyone who thought they knew him.

Freedom comes fast at Aaron—a family desperate to reconnect, an employer cast as his savior, and the hot memories he can’t escape. Just as Aaron surrenders to starting anew, he realizes the diabolical trap he’s been lured into—a fresh hell that makes prison look like a country club. Lives are at stake, his family and Ruby’s. Ruby Vasquez—the woman Aaron never thought he’d see again. The one destined to collide with his future.


Watch for book two in the Clairmont Series Novels where readers learn the suspense-filled and intimate story behind the family legacy.

about L.J. || L. J. Wilson is the pen name of award-winning author Laura Spinella. The Clairmont series novels are her foray into new adult and romantic suspense, a facet of her women's fiction that had readers clamoring for more. Beautiful Disaster and Perfect Timing, her mainstream work, have earned multiple awards, including being named a RITA finalist.

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{ review } .

Seven years ago, Aaron and Ruby became lovers. Ruby, at twenty, was a virgin who the town put bets on as to who she would lose it to. When Aaron started paying attention to her, she just knew that he was it for her.

Aaron is six years Ruby's senior, but that means little for his feelings toward her. Aaron loves Ruby -- even if the town doesn't think it's possible. Aaron is one of five orphaned siblings, whose parents never married. The same town that is placing bets on who will take Ruby's virginity swears that the Clairmonts will never marry; they simply don't have it in them.

Ruby wants a series of tattoos -- love, happiness, and peace in Chinese symbols to adorn her thigh near her hip. Aaron vows to get them with her. They both got love, and happiness came shortly after -- but not too long after that, happiness evaporates.

Aaron has been doing work the DEA for years, and has gotten mixed up with some not so great company. His last job was to take down Ruby's father...

A job gone bad sends Aaron to jail for a twenty-five year sentence; luckily for him, he gets out after seven years and doesn't imagine life will ever be the same. The one woman he loved likely believes that he used her.

What I liked most about this book has got to be that, not including the prologue, the first 50% of the book (give or take a percentage or two) is told in Aaron's voice (albeit in third person). So many times these types of stories are either heavily told in the lady's voice, or go back and forth. I felt that with the subject matter it was very important to be told in Aaron's voice. Yes, sure, it is the Clairmont series, so it makes sense that the book is heavily influenced by Aaron Clairmont, but I guess I just felt the book held more merit by having a heavily male thought base.

I really enjoyed this story, and can only imagine that I'll love the rest of the books. I have to say (of course) that I'm looking forward to more of Aaron and Ruby in the rest of the series, too. All the siblings have history to deal with -- their parents, their growing up life... Heck, I want to know more about Honor and her past, because I think hers may have the most heart breaking potential. And of course, there's young Troy who has to grow up just a little bit, but he's so quiet and seemingly angry at times, that you can't help but want him to find someone to love him -- someone who won't give his brother head, anywho...