REVIEW: Code Red by Amy Noelle

Code Red by Amy Noelle
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Book Description: 

After getting hurt in college by a gorgeous man, Nicole Magette vowed never to risk losing her heart again. Now she lives a structured and satisfying life. Her work is easy, her friends are her family, and the only consistent men in her life are her two cats, Winchester and Huntington Peabody the Third. She doesn't date, and she hooks up only with losers—men she has absolutely no risk of falling for. But if she finds herself in danger, she has her old fail-safe in place—the Code Red.

In college, she and her four best friends came up with the system as a way to keep away the good-looking bastards that might worm their way past their carefully constructed walls. Seven years later, three of her friends have succumbed to their last Code Reds and are happily married. Now it’s just Nicole and her closest friend, Jen, who are still on their own, and Nic is just fine with that.

That is, until Joshua Daniels is transferred to Nicole’s office from New York and assigned to work with her on a special project. He's everything she's avoided and everything she claims she doesn't want, so why can’t she get him out of her mind? He's persistent, dangerously handsome, and sexy as sin. In other words, he’s her worst nightmare. She turns to her friends to help her resist Josh’s considerable charms and the inescapable draw she feels every time she gets near him. Can the Code Red save her this time, or will Josh send her perfectly balanced life into chaos?

     

I received this book from Netgalley forever ago. So it’s been on my kindle for a long time. And with so many books coming out and books for the blog, this kept getting pushed back and eventually forgotten about. And that really sucks because it ended up being a really good book.

When I started this book I was in the beginning stages of a book funk. I can’t say this book pulled me out of it completely (that remains to be seen when I go to pick the next book to read), but I really enjoyed this book.

One of the things I was looking for was adult characters. I was tired of college aged characters and the drama that comes with NA books that this was refreshing. Yes, it starts out in the prologue with Nic and her friends still in college. That sets up the book for what’s to come and it worked for me.

I really liked Nic and her friends. Each of her friends reminded me of my friends and I could easily see those conversations happening in real life. They felt natural.

Josh is one of those guys that you’ll probably never find in real life. He’s a genuinely good guy. I wouldn’t classify this is a insta-love book, but from the first time he sees Nic, he knows that he wants her and that there could be something good between them if she’ll just give them a chance. So he sets out of flirt and eventually woo her. But Nic isn’t down with that. She was burned badly in college by a hot guy and has sworn off good looking guys, settling for geeky guys that she can easily dismiss when she’s done with them.

From the moment she saw Josh, she knew she was in trouble. So she called a Code Red, asking her friends for help resisting him. And here’s where things get interesting. While her friends were supportive of her, they were also extremely honest and called her on her fear of falling for Josh and pushed her to just give in and give him a chance. Of course, she didn’t; and she almost blew it.

I liked Nic and Josh together. I thought they had great chemistry and loved the banter between them. And of course, I love any character that shares my love of baseball. And Nic is a woman that totally gets what it’s like to love a baseball team that’s NOT the home team.

I would definitely be interested in reading more from Amy Noelle.