I really enjoyed this story! I loved watching Reeve and Emily fall in love, starting with the one night and that wasn’t. I loved that in spite of their differing backgrounds they were clearly made for each other. I do have to say that as they each had to confront their pasts it was pretty heartbreaking. I also enjoyed meeting Reeve’s friends and I am anxiously awaiting their stories too. This was an amazing romance and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for mostly light read with plenty of heat but lots of sweet too. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

LOVED it! Fantastic characters, engaging writing and a super sweet and steamy romance. I couldn't ask for more! I can't wait to read whatever this author writes next! 5 stars!!!

All I Ask by Nicole McLaughlin
Man Enough #1

“They served their country, now these National Guardsmen will find their Happily Ever Afters. Fall in love with All I Ask, the first sizzling standalone romance in Nicole McLaughlin's Man Enough series.” Is what it says about this series and book one has me hooked – I really want to read each and every one of the books!

Reeve Miller had a rough childhood, went into the marines just out of high school, came home ten years later and set up a landscaping business with his best friend from high school. The business is doing well but he sometimes finds himself lonely. In the first chapter he goes to a dive bar with his friend, hits on an attractive woman he knows is high class and moneyed but he takes a chance. Emily Phillips, millionaire and owner of a large cinema chain, is in the mood to step out of her comfort zone, thinks Reeve is fantasy material and worth a one night stand and whatever it might provide. What is supposed to be a one and done event eventually becomes more but with secrets being kept by both of them there are hurdles to be leapt before they can get to a wonderful HFN/HEA ending.

I loved Reeve and found him oh so desirable. Emily was smart and classy but also earthy. Together they were wonderful. They seemed to grow as a couple and as people while thoroughly enjoying their time together, well, most of the time. I also liked meeting the men I believe will be written about in future books of the series and look forward to read their stories, too.

This is a book I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend. I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press – Swerve for the ARC. This is my honest review.

book one in the man enough series, all i ask, introduces us to a team of ex-military men who are now national guard members. reeve miller is building a landscape business now that he's rejoined civilian life. his national guard drills let him maintain the sense of order and brotherhood that is so important to him. especially considering his upbringing. his mother has a severe mental illness, she's a hoarder and there is no rehab or therapy that will fix her. so reeve has found ways to deal with this.

one of them happens to be blowing off steam at the local bar. one evening a bachelorette party is there, and he is fascinated by one of the single ladies. and when he gets close to her he is mindlessly attracted to her too.

emily phillips isn't the kind of woman who picks up guys in bars. but she's been accused one time to many of being a workaholic, and something about this guy makes her want to break character. she expects this to be a simple one night stand. and so she lies about her name and she runs away in the middle of the night never expecting to see him again.

but it turns out that reeve is the landscaper in charge of the design project on the building she owns. she's a multimillion dollar ceo of a theater chain. its a business she inherited from her grandfather, a business her father never had a chance to run because he died when she was nine years old. her stepfather was ex-military and always a jerk so she's been leery of military men ever since. especially since non-military men already have a problem with her success as a business owner.

when she can't deny her attraction from reeve, she lets herself fall into a relationship with him. but she doesn't share all of herself with him. she hides her success from him. and he makes it easy for her. he recognizes that she doesn't want to talk about certain things, and since he doesn't want to talk about his mother he respects her boundaries. because she is respecting his.

but this means that they are keeping each other at arm's length even as they are falling head over heels for each other. this is a push–pull that will eventually backfire. and it does. because at the end of the day, when you don't share those pieces of yourself with someone who loves you, you aren't really trusting them with your heart. and this is the most important thing to do when you love. is trust that no matter what this person will have your back.

reeve and emily have a lot of baggage and abandonment and trust issues to work out. there are a lot of past hurts that require healing. they do get there, and reading about it is well-worth it.

I really wanted to like this a lot. I think the characters would likely be interesting if I continued reading it, and I was interested in how things would go down with their disparate lives. However, there were some strange asides that were driving me a little crazy. Perhaps in trying to characterize Emily as a stereotypical "feminist" and Reeve as a stereotypical "misogynist," this book went a little too far. I can't really root for a dude whose point of view gears so much towards women as objects instead of humans. And I can't really root for a girl who thinks feminist means that reading a romance novel is a shameful activity. It's likely that both characters reform, but they kind of drove me away from the start.

I loved this book. Serves as a strong man, but had insecurities. He never let anyone all the way in, because he was ashamed, even though he has tried everything to change his life. Emily was a strong woman, but she also had insecurities. He was a SEAL/Army man who had a landscaping business. She was the owner of a very successful business,making her a millionaire. She had tried relatioinships, but the men couldn't continue knowing how rich she was.
The two meet in a bar and have a one night stand- the only problem- they can't stop thinking about each other. When they meet up a second time she tried to set some guidelines. When she runs a second time, he starts to realize that karma might just be a b#&$h. Can he move past her or will he continue.
This book had so many layers to the characters. When he finds out who she really is, will it be the end for them? Can she let her guard down long enough to admit how she feels? When who she really is so we out, after a twist I didn't see coming, can he move past it? Are two people who are so similar in some ways, yet different in othwrs, find a way to be together? Or, will their secrets and insecurities be enough to keep them apart? Great book. Multilayered. Well written. I can't wait for the next book in this series.

Thank you NetGalley and the All I Ask team for helping m e get out of my reading slump. I thought to myself Emily's profession and Reeve's family hang up were kind of refreshingly different than the usual jobs and drama in most romances. But, what really worked for me was I liked these characters and I liked their interactions. I was engaged. I also saw how Nicole McLaughlin is setting up a Manhattan, Kansas universe tipping us off to the couplings taking place in future books.

I really enjoyed this book. Emily and Reeve are great characters who you really feel like you get to know. You'll root for both of them, want to give both of them hugs at some point, and possibly even want to smack them both in the head to knock some sense into them once or twice.

McLaughlin creates a great story with a setting that will instantly seem familiar, characters that you'll become invested in, and a story you can't get enough of.

Really cute story, I felt so sorry for Reeve being the child of a hoarder has to be a really tough deal, I had never thought about how it would affect family members. Emily was so cute and understanding I loved how she dealt with it all.

4.5 - Live a little... Stars!

All I Ask is the first book in Nicole McLaughlin’s new Man Enough Series.

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I loved the authors previous series; Hearts & Crafts published under the name Nicole Michaels, so I knew I was in for a treat when I started Reeve and Emily’s book. Nicole is a writer who manages to take the standard romance tropes and turn them into a fresh and vibrant story.

"There’s more to me than just a good time."

All I Ask is in essence a rich girl, bad boy romance, although if I am honest there wasn’t much bad to be found when it came to yummy Reeve. The guy had his secrets but he shot from the hip from his first meeting with Emily, while she kept the major information as to who she really was from him, pretty much until she was caught out.

"How many opportunities did you have to tell me about yourself."

I will admit that omitting the truth on Emily’s part for such a large part of a story-line is something that generally grates on me after a while, and I did start to find Emily’s constant internal 'now's not the right time to tell him' mantra towards the end a little cowardly (hence the .5 star deduction, but in general I really liked this couple together.

"Want you with me, on top of me, inside me…"

That-said, I pretty much devoured this book in one sitting, you have to be enjoying what you are reading for that to happen, so my niggles aside this was an absolutely stellar start to what I expect to be another extremely enjoyable series from this author. Even better news is that book two; Along Came Us, is due for release in June, so not long to wait at all.

ARC generously provided via Netgalley, and it was my pleasure to provide the above honest review.

A very enjoyable read! Can't wait for the next one!
This is a voluntary review, my thoughts are my own.

I adored this book! These characters were complex and engaging, the storyline is interesting, the writing is excellent and there is enough steam to keep things interesting but not take over the story. It's a nice easy read with a great flow to the story.

On the surface Reeve and Emily seem to be from two different world but truly they are very much alike. Both proud, driven, and keeping secrets. What starts out as a one night stand quickly turns into more until those secrets start coming out. Will they tear them apart or will they be able to get past the deception?

Don't miss this one. I highly recommend it.

I really enjoyed this book. Reeve is a strong but intuitive character and Emily is extremely relatable. Both have the past but as their feeling start take over they will need to break their walls if they are to find a future. A promising start to the Man Enough series and I look forward to reading more.

a good story for the most part. interesting plot. thanks!

I don't like leaving did not finish feedback and I'm sorry for doing so. I liked the cover of the book, and the synopsis. I do like romance too, though my type of romance is more like the chicken lit style. I had been trying some new adult books to branch out a little but this wasn't for me. I did really like the fact that Emily was at a bar reading dirty books instead of dancing with her friends at first. That made me laugh out loud and I got through about 30% or a little more before deciding this still wasn't it for me. More people who like pure romance stuff and not chick literature will probably like this book. Thank you for giving me the chance to read this.

Edit: I decided to leave a review on my blog after all, hope it might still counts.

Both Emily and Reeve have very good reasons to keep their past a secret but for different reasons. Reeve is embarrassed about his childhood and the way his mother chooses to live. Emily has been hurt in the past once some people find out that she is a multi millionaire. So they choose to not tell each other, I mean it is only suppose to be a one night stand right? How much info do you need to share anyways? As feeling start to get involved it becomes clear that Emily needs to come clean, but when and how?

This is book is obviously well written in that it does not suffer from grammatical issues, and it is structured well. However, I just never could personally connect with the characters. I liked Reeve just fine, but I was not won over by Emily. I didn't feel the connection between the two of them either. For me, a book is all about the characters and whether I feel that sense of connection, much more so than the plot or any other element. So this one fell flat for me. However, because it was well written, I wouldn't have a problem recommending it to someone else. Just because I don't connect with certain characters doesn't mean someone else won't.

This story was terrific. It is a start of a new series and was absolutely wonderful. It follows the romance between Sarah/Emily and Reeve and it is a great romance with lots of hot scenes but it also deals with some serious issues and I loved that.

One is hoarding and the effects it can have on children as they become adults. Something I never have thought about before. I thought the author did an amazing job showing how it changed Reeves life. The other is their is a big tornado in this story and well it really shows how it can really change things in just a matter of minutes.

The story is about Emily who meets Reeve at a bar. They have a one night, then a last night but the two are pretty hooked. Both have some big secrets and have to learn trust and I loved how they dealt with their secrets when they were discovered.

loved this book