Gia does not enjoy working in the office but she has bills to pay and working for Gunner makes it even worst. He is prickly boss who tortures her until she is back home. Gia loves colors but working PA to Gunner doesn't allow her to express her love of colors except her shoes.
Gia and Gunner knew each other from their days at NYU. Gunner always visited her while she was working as librarian and always asked her out but she never accepted. Gia never opens up to anyone unless she is comfortable. Gunner was finally getting to know her but she quit her job and went away and she is back and working as his PA.
Gia and Gunner have their own issues from their past and Gunner is still struggling. When Gia had to find a new apartment, Gunner offers his home and they becomes roomies. Gia always had a feelings for him but she knew he was womanizer and changes dates like his shirts.
Gunner lays out his expectation of their relationship to Gia and things gets heated but their past catches up to them. Now Gunner needs to to find away to find himself before he loses Gia.
It was different type of office romance. They both have their own issues but they work it through. I did enjoy reading this book.
Thanks to Netgalley and xpresso book tours for ARC in exchange for honest review.

I could not get into this contemporary romance book. The storyline did not grab me as other books usually do. It was fine, but not memorable.

Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This romance was difficult to read since I found it too crude and disturbing. Gia is Gunner's PA and he treats her like crap even though privately he wants her. While she seems normal enough, Gunner is vulgar, domaniring and a manwhore. He even has the balls of blaming his promiscuous ways on not being able to "fuck" Gia because she's too good for him. Meanwhile Gia comes from a broken childhood and an abusive ex. Being with a guy like Gunner is the last thing she needs but that's what happens. The rest you can imagine. Just not for me.

"Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review."

Loved this book very much. It had just enough sweet, sexy romance and the storyline was great! I highly recommend!

This one was a miss for me. I really wanted to like it but it just fell flat. No chemistry between the main characters and the writing style was distracting. I appreciate trying to deal with heavier subjects but this book didn’t connect for me.

I received an ARC of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest opinion. The opinions expressed are my own and given of my free will.

I try to always choose an author new to me when searching through the titles that are offered and I truly did like this author. There was something about this book that just didn’t hit it out of the park for me. That being said, I did feel that it was a personal preference for me and had nothing to do with the editing, creative writing style or anything to do with the story.

I would recommend this book and will try another book by this same author, but not in this series to see if I can maybe put my finger on what it was that made it just a middle of the road rating for me. But three stars is still a recommendation for me, it just didn’t personally blow me out of the water.

Chasing Gunner by J.M. Stoneback is book Two in the Chasing Series. This is the story of Gia Gallagher and Gunner Underwood.
Gia and Gunner met in college but she didn't finish where he did an went on to be rich. Both had abusive past but Gunner turned to drinking and being a man whore. Gunner doesn't know how to treat women I thought although he did have a soft spot for an older employee, so he was a complex person. We do get dual points of view so we do get some in-site into why Gunner treated Gia so harshly.

While Chasing Gunner was good, it wasn’t the best. It started great; banter was good, but it fell flat before I even got to the halfway point in the book. The story itself is old and played out but I can usually deal with that if the writing is good enough, so I did with this the best I could:

**I generously received an ARC of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review**

This was the first book I’ve read by J.M. Stoneback. I really tend to enjoy romance novels featuring two characters who seem to despise each other, yet can’t stay away from each other, so when I read the description of the novel, I was very excited to get my hands on it.

Gia and Gunner went to college together. She worked in the library, saddled with an abusive asshole of a boyfriend, while Gunner was a few years older and would frequent the library and give her a hard time. So she didn’t have a whole lot of fond memories of Gunner when she found herself desperate enough to take a job as his personal assistant. Gia didn’t finish college, whereas Gunner became wildly wealthy and successful.

Not only does Gia have negative memories of him from college, but Gunner is a real jerk to work for. He’s extremely exacting - in the first few pages, she recollects how he recently threw away the lunch she’d ordered him, then made her re-order it, because his macaroni was touching something else in the container. He complains about nearly everything she does or doesn’t do (which I’m sure you can imagine, is pretty much everything). Plus, he’s a manwhore. Gia can’t wait to get out of there as soon as she can find another job.

Fortunately, we’re treated to a dual POV, so we get to see Gunner’s side. Gunner reveals he’s been drinking excessively since the age of 16, had an abusive childhood, and struggles with anger problems. He sees a psychiatrist regularly, and her advice to him is that “he should date”. Any psychiatrist should be focusing on helping him resolve his substance abuse and anger issues before so much as suggesting he date. When Gunner reflects on his past dating experiences, he refers to one as “long legged Abigail”, the other as “big titty Paige”. Charming. He believes women only want one thing - his money - and he views them as little more than sex objects. In fact, he refers to Gia as the “fuck that got away”. This was a big part of where the book went wrong for me.

Yet we’re also shown how Gunner cares enough about others to keep on his elderly receptionist, who has serious mental side effects after being struck by lightning. She slurs her words, wears her clothes inside out, and can’t keep track of days, yet he states he won’t fire her. This seems like a complete contradiction based on the Gunner who views women as purely materialistic, and an extension of their sexual worth. That was basically how the whole book felt - Gunner was an asshole, then on the next page he was a Nice Guy.

There also was a serious over abundance of metaphors in the author’s writing style. Let me give you an example, all over the course of just a few pages: “rain taps angrily on the window”, “love is a poison I don’t want to drink (one of Gunner’s thoughts, naturally)”, “Gia’s face is as beautiful as a sunset over the ocean when the sky bleeds orange”, “my heart beats wildly and freely like a horse running loose in the woods”. It was complete overkill. The best books know how to SHOW, not TELL. This made the book feel like a freshman effort to me rather than the work of an author who’s already published several books.

Another big issue I had was Gunner’s treatment of Gia. Her portrayal as someone who has been in an abusive relationship means she’s well aware of how the other person cuts you down day by day, belittling your self confidence, making you question yourself, and turning things that aren’t even your fault around on you until they BECOME your fault. With that said, I’d have thought Gia would’ve had a very difficult time overlooking or overcoming that issue with Gunner, since he often did exactly that to her.

My biggest problem was, no matter how troubled Gunner’s past, no matter what type of negative experiences he’d had with women, his behavior towards women was so objectifying and disgusting I didn’t even want him to get together with Gia. In one scene, he texts a previous booty call and orders her to come to his office and suck his cock. I didn’t think he deserved her. Frankly, I was sorry Gunner’s sister Alana had married the very hot Darien, one of Gunner’s partners. He seemed like a much better prospect.

I’m sorry to say that this book was a miss for me. I really liked Gia. She was strong despite everything she’d been through, and she had a level of determination I admired. I would be interested in reading Darien’s story, too. But Gunner was just a landmine of way too many issues. Plus, the contradictions made my head spin - one minute he’s ordering a blow job like it’s room service, the next he’s hugging Gia when she starts crying at work. I felt like I didn’t really know who he was. If I were to rate Gunner by a book boyfriend system, he’d be the one I dated and broke up with, then tried desperately to forget I’d ever been with.

This was a two star read for me.

**I received a copy of Chasing Gunner from Xpresso Book Tours and Net Galley in exchange for a voluntary and honest review. My opinions expressed below are not solicited in any way.**

Chasing Gunner by J.M. Stoneback is the second book in her Chasing series but as of right now Darien isn't available but I have hopes of someday reading it. Chasing Gunner has everything angst, alcohol and drug addition, domestic violence, and finding love with Gia who has her own past horrors. But for me the author did a wonderful job writing how the H/h managed to get beyond all of their problems and learn to love again.

Gia Gallagher isn't a great personal assistant to Gunner Underwood (Nickname: Wolf) whom he calls Rainbow because of her interesting colored outfits. Because of student loan debt her wish of owning her own Bakery so for now she'll do coffee runs and tolerate Gunners rotating women and drinking because he pays very well. But when she's faced with be homeless, her boss will offer his penthouse extra room to her even though he wants her in his bed. Somehow they will figure out how to love each other all while dealing with their past demons and PTSD.

Gunner Underwood buys failing banks and brings them back from the brink but he has demons and flashbacks from his childhood, alcohol addiction and his one goal is to get Gia into his bed but first he needs to confront his ghosts from his past before he drinks himself to death. Can Gia save him even though his friend Darien and Matteo have tried and failed? Will they find the love they both want desperately? Gia asks one thing of Gunner get help and deal with his PTSD before he can come back to her for their happily ever after.

Everything about this series was a total turn off for me. The vulgarness of the leading character Gunner just didn't do it for me and the entire relationship between them just didn't seem right. It was really hard to find anything I did like and the fact that I made it to chapter ten was a miracle within itself.

An interesting read and beautifully written. It has enough laughs and angst that held my attention completely until the end. This is my first read of Ms.Stoneback and it wouldn't be the last.

This is the first J.M. Stoneback book I've read but it certainly won't be the last. Chasing Gunner had me hooked from page one. Well developed characters, original story line and just the right amount of angst. The only slight turn off was some of the foul language. It could have been eliminated and not affected the story at all.