So, so good :)

I loved both Allie and Winston--they shouldn't have worked together at all, but OMG they so did somehow. I'm going to give the credit to Ruthie Knox's writing here--she really knows how to write characters who shouldn't at all be made for each other but totally are. I also really liked that their age difference was practically a non-issue for everyone involved; that was unexpected but also absolutely worked.

Seriously, she's a romance wizard.

The whole what-is-Allie-and-May's-mother-doing-in-NYC subplot was a little iffy--it worked to bring Allie and Winston together, but then took up a bit too much page time in parts of the book, finally ending up...just okay in the end. It was ultimately pretty feel-good, though a bit out there on the realism front.

Allie and Winston are both siblings to previous Knox characters--Allie's May's sister from Truly and Winston's Nev's brother from About Last Night--and though it could be read on its own, I did find myself wishing I'd had a recent refresher, especially for Truly (mostly because of how much I loved, loved, loved May and Ben's story, but also because it seems like that book came out ages ago).

Now--how about a book for Winston's daughter? :)

Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A-

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

Madly by Ruthie Knox.......This was an entertaining story that keeps you flipping pages. I enjoyed the story for Allie and Winston, it kept me engaged. I can't wait to read more by Ruthie Knox. I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book from publisher via NetGalley.

Great book about learning to accept that you can't change others, or expect to fix things that aren't always what they seem. Love yourself, let others love you for you and don't allow anyone elses negativity about YOUR choices change you. Also, there is a good romance thrown in to help spice up the path.

I wanted to love it, but I mostly just liked it. There were sweet moments, and funny moments, and the sex bucket list was more funny than erotic, but overall it fell a little flat.

3.5 This is the second book in the NY series and can be read as a standalone. I'm not a huge fan of third POV, but it worked.

Take two people who are polar opposites, Allie a free-spirit and Winston a British serious chap can lead to some funny moments. Allie who followed her mother to NY to spy on her, she meets Winston at a bar as a back up plan. Oh the kicker Allie is in her 20s while Winston is in his 40s. He's also trying to figure out how to relate to his 18-year-old daughter.

Lots of funny moments.

*An ARC was provided for an honest review via Net Galley.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I loved the first book in the series and was excited to get a chance to read the next book and this one didn't disappoint. Allie and Winston are such a great duo. I absolutely loved Allie after the first book, since I thought it took a lot of guts for her to call off her wedding. I liked her even more after this one! Can't wait to read the next book and hopefully get a glimpse at how Allie and Winston are faring as well as May and Ben!

I know I'm always in for a feminist treat whenever I pick up a romance by Ruthie Knox. And there are many feminist moments in Madly, the much-awaited second book in Knox's New York series (books in which midwestern women find themselves, and love, in the Big Apple). Some are familiar Knox themes: sisterly solidarity; the sexism that can often hide behind the facade of the "good guy"; the roles that family expects their daughters to play, even after said daughters may have long outgrown them. But the one I want to write about today has to do with sex.

A type of sex, I would argue, that is rarely found in any romance novel, whatever the subgenre. Rather than the seamlessly perfect, always orgasmic, almost effortless sex that is the staple of romance fiction, in Madly Ruthie Knox celebrates sex that is experimental, messy, and, most surprisingly, not entirely successful.

First, a bit about Madly's story. Allie Fredericks, whom readers of the first book in the series met as she was calling off her engagement to her long-time boyfriend on the day of the wedding, is Madly's heroine. Despite the embarrassment (not to mention the thousands of dollars in nonrefundable deposits for caterers, venue, flowers, etc.) of Allie's last-minute dash from the altar, Allie's former fiancé still wants to be friends. But Allie has more to worry about than whether her "Good Guy" ex is turning into her own personal stalker; Allie's mother has run off to New York on the eve of her thirtieth wedding anniversary. Mrs. Fredericks has disappeared like this several times in the past, but she's always come home again, and no one in the family has ever explained why. But Allie, by hacking into her mother's email, knows the reason (or at least thinks she does). Though impetuous Allie has no plan for how to accomplish it, she knows that it is imperative that her mother come home: "Because I dumped Matt, and my sister moved to New York, and I can't bear for even one more thing in my life to change" (Kindle Loc 403).

But Allie's spying goes awry in Pulvermacher's Bar, where Mrs. Fredericks is scheduled to meet an old flame. To help her hide from her mother, Allie dragoons an unwary fellow bar patron, a man with all the looks and style of James Bond, but, unfortunately for Allie, the heart (and lifestyle) of a stolid conservative financial manager. Too distracted hiding behind the pinball machine tippling whiskey and exchanging confessions about failed relationships with British ex-pat Winston Chamberlain, Allie loses track of her mother—and has no other clue about how or where to find her.


Except that Winston knows the identity of the man with whom Allie's mom was meeting. But since said man is a client, a quite well-off client with some hefty secrets of his own, Winston is not quite willing to help Allie track him down. What he is willing to do is help her find a place to stay for the night. And to share cold camomile tea and "ruthless therapeutic confessions about our failed relationships" with chatty, charming Allie (758). Confessions which lead to flirting, which lead to a jokingly-made bucket list of 10 sex things they've never done and could do together. To help them get out of their respective romantic and sexual ruts.

The first items on their shared list—a thirty-second hug (the length a hug needs to be for oxycontin to release into your system, Allie informs Winston); blowing gently on a neck; spending an hour kissing, keeping one's hands over clothing—are not difficult to accomplish, even with a relative stranger. And as days pass while Allie continues her search for her mother, Winston is coming to feel "like someone she could know without the things that made him Winston infringing on anything that made her Allie" (821). But some of the later items on their mutual bucket list don't turn out to be quite as big a turn-on as the list-writers had originally imagined. Or at least, they don't upon first try.

Especially because, as Winston later realizes "everything he'd written on the list was there for a reason. Not simple, bucket-list, I've-never-done-this-before reasons, but deeper ones that had to do with how he'd been hurt in his marriage, or how he'd hurt his wife" (1635). And the same seems equally true for Allie. For example, during their attempt at item #4 ("everything but"):

He licked the slickness of her inner thighs, then worked inward bit by bit, savoring her strange and peppery flavor and how soft, how incredibly and unforgivably soft, she felt against his tongue. And then a rougher texture near her clit that he rubbed his tongue over, slow drag after slow drag with two fingers inside her that made her fling her arms wide and clutch at handfuls of sheets and finally turn her face into the pillow and shove it up over her head, her eyes covered, her breath coming fast as she said, "I don't think I can."
"Do you want me to stop?"
"No!" The word came out like a sob, urgent and full of feeling.
"Okay. But I'm going to need more direction."
"You're doing perfect. You feel . . . there aren't words, but it's so good. I just don't know how to make myself come like this. There's nothing to focus on, or push against, and I'm on my back like a stupid turtle—"
He kissed her hip bone. Her stomach. Worked his way up to her neck, behind her ear, her cheek, which was when he noticed her eyes were full of unshed tears.
She was trembling.
"I can stop," he said. "There's nothing we need to get to. We could put on clothes and watch a film."
This made her eyes overflow, and she swiped at them with the back of her hand. "I don't want to watch a film, not right now, I just—I don't know what I want. I want to know how to come." She turned onto her side, facing him. He rested his hand at the dip of her waist.
"I suspect you do know how."
She hid her face in the bed. "I don't want to have to figure it out, I want to have been doing this for years already, and I'm angry that I wasn't." She lifted her face to him. "I'm so mad, Winston."
"That seems reasonable. Would you like a cuddle?"
"No. A cuddle is the last thing on earth I want."
But she didn't look as angry as she wanted to sound. She looked terribly sad. So he put his arm out, and she tucked herself against his side, her face in his neck. (1742)


While Allie and her ex had sex on a regular basis, it was never the kind of exploratory, experimental sex in which she and Winston are engaging. And as the two begin to discover, it's not just a lack of experience and familiarity with a particular sexual act that can stand in the way of achieving pleasure via its use, but also the emotional scars one carries with one from other past sexual experiences.


This scene doesn't end with "failure," though. Instead, after talking—not just about Allie's inability to reach orgasm, but also about some of the emotional baggage they're both shlepping around—Winston comes to understand that "it didn't hurt more to admit how much it hurt in the first place. It didn't hurt more to unravel. And once you'd unraveled, you could look around and think, a bit. Discover" (1805).

And try item #4 on the list again. Or skip #4 entirely, and go straight to #5.

But even after the success of #5, not every item on the remaining list goes smoothly for Allie and Winston. They try new things, back away from some, try things that went wrong again, just to see if things might be different at another moment in time, another emotional state of mind.


Experiment. Acknowledge your own feelings, and listen to the feelings of your partner. Be willing to try again, or try something different, if your first attempt goes awry. Or give it all up for a while and connect with your partner on another level than the sexual. These are the expectations Ruthie Knox asks romance readers to have about sex with a loving partner, expectations far different from the "I've never felt like this before with anyone else/this is so amazingly perfect" kind of physical/spiritual intermingling that has become the staple of the majority of sex scene in romance books not just of the past, but of the present, too.

Which is the better fodder for a romance reader's fantasy? First-time perfect? Or try and try again?

As for me, I'll take the Knox version, every time

Allie is from Wisconsin, and a bit of an impulsive extravert: with a huge problem. See, since she was little, her mother would disappear every so often without reason, and there was never any explanation. So, wild, determined and sixteen, she snooped and discovered a piece of a family secret – and has been operating under half-understood assumptions for the last number of years. Now with a recent episode as a runaway bride, she’s upped her snoop on her mother game, and has added tracking, tracing and now following her mother on her latest disappearance. To New York.

A sudden need to have an accomplice and someone to hide behind brings her into Winston’s company. A divorced Brit working in his family’s US branch of the financial management company, he’s there desperately trying to be the father he thinks that his daughter, now in university needs. A bit of a control freak – he’s busy living up to an ideal that he thinks he should meet, one that is not realistic or particularly helpful when you think of personal interactions. And, unfortunately for him, that particular stick has been lodged in his butt for years.

Oh this was fun- and completely and totally unexpected! Sometimes you think you have a clue as to what will be the outcome – but Allie was full of surprises, contradictions and just plain insouciant glee, causing a not insignificant merry chase for those around her. With secondary characters, several twist from the supposed heartbreak of her father due to her mother’s disappearance, her ex who never heard the word boundary, her sister and husband, her father, Winston’s PA and brother, his driver and the curious concept of the “mailman” this is a wonderful story that is sure to keep you reading through to the end, only to want another.

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher viia NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

Review first appeared at <a href=” http://wp.me/p3OmRo-8QP”> <a> I am, Indeed </a>

I gave up at around 29% so no rating.

I normally love this author's books but somehow I can't seem to connect with the story and the characters.

Will try again in the future. Maybe it was just my horrible book funk getting the best of me. Who knows?

ARC provided for a review

This is a fast and fun book. I loved it!
Allie Fredericks has gone to Manhattan to find out her mother’s secret. She is supposed to be planning their anniversary party. Now she finds her mother with a man that is not her father. What is she to do. She wants to see what her mother does next so she needs to find a way to stay there in the bar. Then Winston Chamberlain walks in and her entire mission goes out the door.

Winston is a very organized man, he likes to keep everything in order. That includes his relationships. However, when he meets Allie his life goes messy. Now as he and Allie leave the bar together and make a list of wild things to do he is not so sure messy isn’t what he is looking for.
Can they find what they are looking for even if it is not what they thought they wanted?

Madly is the follow up to Ruthie Knox’s Truly and also is connected to her book About Last Night – which are two of my favorites of hers. I’ve been waiting for this one to come out for ages!

I love Ruthie Knox and I’ve missed her writing – she has an incredibly smart voice and one that’s been lacking in the contemporary romance world. The first book – Truly – came out in 2013, and since then I’ve wanted the follow up to the book. Knox hasn’t put out almost anything since then and periodically I’ve wondered where she is and when her next book was going to be coming out. So when I saw this was out I was looking forward to it and I really enjoyed it.

The plot of this story was unexpected and some of the characters were too. I was not expecting one of the characters to be connected to About Last Night which is my favorite of her books. Winston had been introduced there and Allie is from Truly. I found that connection to be pretty unique to have weave in two completely unrelated books and Ruthie Knox worlds, I wasn’t so sure that it would work but I loved how the story and the characters played out. I did keep wondering at how more more difficult it was for the author to connect not one but two books though!

The book deals with complicated family issues that both Allie and Winston has had to deal with in their past and brings those issues to forefront. I’m a sucker for family drama and Madly brings both Winston’s family drama from About Last Night back in as well as Allie’s. That sounds like it could be too much for this book but Knox does a wonderful job of not letting it overwhelm the characters here.

I was so happy to see this author have a new book out and I hope that new readers discover her books at this point. If you like contemporary romance reading you can’t go wrong.

Rating: 4 stars

Reviewer: Melinda

Title: Madly

Author: Ruthie Knox

Release Date: March 14, 2017

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GAAAH THIS BOOK! This was the first book I have read by this author and WOW. I was blown away. Between the plot line and the character build, I found myself devouring it. I really loved every moment of this book. The concept was a blast! Looking forward to more!

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I've read quite of few of Ruthie's books and she is without a doubt one of my favorite romance authors and an auto buy for me. I'm so happy that she's back to writing again. This book features Allie, the sister of May, who was the heroine in Truly and Winston, the brother of Nev, who was the hero of About Last Night (my absolute favorite of Ruthie's books), an unlikely pairing since Allie is young (26 I think) and quite impulsive while Winston is 39, a somewhat staid businessman with an 18 YO daughter.

In About Last Night, Winston did not come across well as he did some pretty nasty things to Nev, and I wondered how Ruthie would explain his actions and redeem him. I needn't have worried about that. He was given a completely plausible back story that does go a long way toward creating sympathy for the man he was in that book and the actions he took. Madly takes place a couple of years after About Last Night, long enough for Winston's marriage to fall apart, and for him to reflect on his past actions, realize that he needs to change, and take action to begin reconciling with his brother. His character arc is really lovely and goes to show that we all have the capacity to recognize the things in our lives that aren't working and to decide to take a left turn and move in a different direction. I wish I could say that I felt the same way about Allie, but if anything, I feel the opposite about her. I liked her in Truly, but in Madly, she was so impulsive, immature, and blind to her own and her family's motivations that I just couldn't warm up to her.

Ruthie's books always contain lots of raw emotion and this book had plenty of it. Some scenes, especially between Allie and her sister May were so realistic and almost painful to read. I'm in awe of Ruthie's ability to explore family dynamics in the context of a romance and how her writing is so honest. She never shies away from the hard parts.

Overall, I didn't love this book, but there was so much skill and talent in the writing that it confirms my high opinion of her writing and I will still buy anything she puts out. I'm especially looking forward to Completely, the final book in this series. I heard that it's going to focus on Rosemary, Winston's ex-wife. There's definitely a great story to tell there, and I know Ruthie will do it justice.

I enjoyed this book very much. I requested to read it from a recommendation from a friend. Going in blind isn't usually something I normally do, but I'm very glad I did. Grab a copy you won't be sorry.

Madly by Ruthie Knox is the second book in her New York series, and one I've been anticipating for a while. The two main characters have been been introduced previously in other stories by the author and are not a pairing I would have ever guessed would happen, but the result is a delightful mix of British charm and American bravado in an emotional and sexy romance.

Winston Chamberlain doesn't quite know how he ended up where he is now - in New York, divorced, barely keeping up with his college attending daughter whom he followed to America. Long workaholic days keep him from thinking overly much about where his decidedly dismal life is headed. Stepping into a pub one day changes all that in one fell swoop.

Allie Fredericks is on a mission. She's followed her midwestern mother from Wisconsin all the way to New York and is determined to discover once and for all where her mother disappears to periodically for weeks at a time, and why. Her worst fears are that she's having a long term affair, a belief reinforced by the knowledge that she's not the biological child of her father but of an artist known as Justice. With a little ingenuity (and inappropriate password use) she's tracked her mom and Justice to a bar and is keeping a covert eye on them out of sight, until the tall, handsome Brit walks into the bar and impedes her view. Just like that, Winston is drawn into Allie's spy game. One thing leads to another and a sexy fling ensues while Allie tries to find out what her mom is up to. But New York isn't home for either of them. When the adventure is over, is their time together destined to become just a bittersweet memory?

I loved this story! Allie's impetuous decision to follow her mother to New York has real life consequences. Having previously left a groom at the altar, a man who continues to insinuate himself into her life back home to her dismay (he's a nice guy, everyone says so!), and now planning a wedding anniversary party for her parents that might not happen, she's in a bit of panic. Winston, drawn into her spy game, becomes a steadying influence for her. She ends up staying at the apartment he'd gotten for his daughter Bea (who insists on living at her college dorm). Two strangers, they have a surprisingly easy camaraderie that results in sharing some intimate secrets, and this leads to a list – yes, that kind of list (wink, wink). With no vested interest in the outcome of each others lives (at least at first), they can confide anything to each other without fear of reprisal or condemnation. I really enjoyed watching them open up to each other, both sexually and emotionally.

While Winston and Allie are growing closer, there are significant happenings going on in their family relationships. Winston's struggles to be a worthy father to Bea, and a better brother to Nev (whose relationship to his partner Cath he almost destroyed) are noteworthy. He really wasn't that nice of a guy before, and only since his divorce and move to New York has he come to grips with the mistakes he's made. Allie is not at all a woman he would have ever considered dating before, but her refreshing candor and zest for life draw him in.

Allie has her own challenges, her relationship with her sister May fraught with tension and resulting in several emotional scenes. Her confusion and worry over her mother's actions, and the knowledge that her father is not related to her biologically lead her to make several decisions that aren't necessarily the right ones, though it's only in her trying to fix everything and make everyone else happy that she realizes how miserable she is. The author has a wonderful way of drawing you into her characters and making you feel invested in the outcome of everyone's lives, not just the main couple.

There are some surprising twists and turns in the second half of this delightful story, and some tears, laughter and joy when all's said and done. Everyone gets a happy ending, including Winston and Allie. Madly is a delightful romp exploring family and friendship and love in Ruthie Knox's unmatched style.

This review has been posted at Straight Shootin' Book Reviews and feedback updated with the link. It has been posted on sale sites and Goodreads.

As with Truly, Madly was yet another crack-worthy story from Ruthie Knox. Again, she has crafted a couple that not only has intense chemistry together, but also work incredibly well emotionally.

The heroine here, Allie, is May’s sister who we also happen to meet in Truly. I liked her as much as I liked her older sister. Worried that her mother is about to abandon her family, Allie runs after her to New York City to try to talk some sense into her. On her first night, she happens to encounter a handsome stranger, who helps her out of a difficult situation. I thought it took real guts from Allie to actually go after her mom to a foreign city. She was smart, motivated, and just a big ball of emotions, basically completely endearing. We get to see major growth on Allie’s part in this book, and I thought her character development was absolutely fantastic. Winston too, I almost immediately fell in love with – funny isn’t how much I despise insta-love, but have no qualms falling in insta-love with book characters? He was kind, a little quiet and a truly loving father. He’s one of those heroes that makes you a little bitter because you know that in the real world, it’s going to be difficult to find someone like him.

His relationship with Allie was gorgeously written. They obviously had lots of steamy chemistry between them, that’s heightened thanks to a sexy to-do list that they come with together, but for me, the best part about their romance was how much they talked with each other about anything and everything. It’s so rare to find couples in books that communicate before taking off their clothes, so reading the dynamic that Allie and Winston had was exhilarating. I don’t know why, but part of me has vehemently been opposed to reading romances with age-gaps, but this year, I’ve become a complete sucker for them, so that was another aspect I really loved about Madly. I will say that if I had to compare the two, I most definitely preferred Truly, only because there were times when I felt like the romance got side-lined by Allie’s mom’s story. Again, we have the NYC setting that Ruthie Knox absolutely brought to life. I also have to briefly mention Winston’s daughter, who I adored. She’s a quirky, passionate and loving college student who added another layer of complexity to the story, but was never an obstacle to Allie and Winston’s relationship. In fact, she grows a kinship with Allie and it was great!

Madly is another hit by Ruthie Knox that is compelling and wholly worth the read. I’ll be sure to pick up her backlog while I wait for the next book in this series, Completely, to be out.

I must've picked up this book a dozen times. I really liked Truly, the first in the series (read my review for it here), but I just couldn't get past the first few scenes in this one. First of all, we have a (grown) Midwestern woman in a New York City bar, trying to be incognito as she spies on her mother. She picks up a guy and uses him to hide a bit more. After drinking too much, she agrees to go to this guy's apartment, which he claims he bought for his daughter.

Okay. There are so many red flags here. First off, a grown woman is trying to fix her parents' marriage? What the heck? This is for her parents to fix. A grown woman inserting herself into another grown couple's relationship screams all sorts of wrong. I don't care that they're related - for her to track down her mother like that tells me there's a whole lot of unhealthy going on in that family. I wasn't impressed. Why not call her out on it? Why try to fix it on the sly?

Next, even though she's on the most important mission of her life, like, ever, she drinks an entire bottle of alcohol with a strange man and agrees to go home with him. But it's cool - he has a British accent and seems nice. So obviously, it's fine for her to just head over to the empty New York apartment he has just lying around, because his college-aged daughter refuses to move in there.

Oh, and there's red flag number 3 - this guy moved across the ocean to follow his daughter to college. Really? There's so much parent-child-parent dependency here that I don't know what genre I'm in anymore.

Red flag number 4 hits us once the main characters (Allie and Winston, FWIW) are in said apartment. They start making a list of things they're going to do...to each other. Exclusively, of course. The list goes from hugging to anal in .00003 seconds. I'm pretty sure I looked as horrified as I felt because my husband kept asking me if I was all right.

Moving swiftly along to red flag numero cinco. After making this scandalous list, the odd couple watches a movie until they fall asleep. (That's not the flag.) The next day, Winston tells his daughter he's met someone.

At this point, I realize I'm at 20% (chapter 6). I've had about all the red flags I can take, and I give up the fight.

DNF