Not just erotica. It's so nice to have a book that creates a storyline and a slow burn. Looking forward from more for the author.

F/f erotica that made my day. Never read this author before but will after this story, as the love scenes were really worth it.

This isn't a bad book.

In fact, I really like its premise: a f/f relationship between two career-driven women who have owned their sexuality.

It was just hard for me to stay engaged because I couldn't really sense much chemistry between the characters, which quickly made some scenes tiresome to read. The writing is fairly good, though, and I'm sure there's an audience out that that would thoroughly enjoy this novel more than I did.

The writing and the editing lack the quality to bring the plot to life. Many inconsistencies, unnecessary repetitions, telling instead of showing, head-hopping, and weak character development take the joy out of reading.

There was very little chemistry between the characters and the plot felt very thin at points. I was hoping for greater development, which did not appear.

Olivia Reynolds is just where she wants to be—in control. The youngest brand manager for Vital, an athletic wear company, she has no family, no pets, and no obligations. When Olivia literally bumps into Cardic Lawson, her world is turned upside down. Cardic insists a no strings fling will meet both their needs. No commitments and sex anytime, anywhere.

Was not able to read book due to issues with delivery.

I ended up not finishing this. I personally do not think it is very well written, and life is too short to read bad books.

First time for me with this writer. While I enjoyed the story, there was a lot of inner monologue about the newly discovered tribe/race in a south American country. Frankly I couldn't understand the passion and connection to it. It makes sense in the overall theme of the book however I couldn't get the attachment to them.

3.5 stars

This is the first book I’ve read by Ms Hardee and I’m hoping it won’t be my last. Olivia Reynolds is where she’s always wanted to be. Brand manager for a sportswear company she doesn’t have the time for a family or friends expect Joan who has known Olivia forever. Cardic Lawson’s a anthropology professor who has just returned after 18 months in the Amazon researching a tribe most people know nothing about. She has her work and her sister Claire. All she needs is a lover for a night or two. The sparks fly when Olivia and Cardic meet. Both are not looking for love but just a quick fling. Great. Ms Hardee has wrote a very enjoyable read.

I didn't like this at all. It wasn't my style. I was bored and uninterested in the characters as well.

I had a hard time connecting to the characters and feeling them. More Olivia than Cardic, but still; I felt like there were more chances to dig deeper, but they were missed. That being said, this is a nice afternoon romance, with steamy scenes and nice romance.

<I>An ARC was Kindly provided by the publisher but all opinions are my own.</I>

Undiscovered Affinity was a sweet f/f novel about two high-functioning, career driven women, who both detest relationships and monogamy.

I thought this book was something different than it was, mainly based on the cover. But it's not an erotica. Honestly, it's quite sweet, even if the women - Cardic and Olivia - did get on my nerves a little bit.

Olivia was a little difficult to like, but I eventually warmed up to her. Not because she was so career-driven - I actually like that about her - but because she was so dead set against relationships and love. She was very rigid in her belief that all romantic relationships are bad, despite never having been in one. And the constant discussion about that got a little dry. However, I did really like Cardic and I really enjoyed the descriptions of her work.

I do recommend this book, though, if you're looking for something quick, light, and fluffy.

I'm a new fan of the authors! This book is they kind of slight erotica that I enjoy, because not only is it hot but the chemistry and relationship was solid and not overlooked. Also, Olivia one of the leads is a plus-size woman and instead of feeling down about it, she actually embraces it! On top of that, Cardic thinks she's just as sexy as she acts. I feel like most plus=size characters within the first two chapters of the book complain about it. It was so lovely not to hear that.

I really enjoyed the pacing of their relationship too. They wanted to keep it on a surface base level, but then every so often they would say something small about the other person and you realize that they are noticing all the little things that make them who they are. You really feel like your on a relationship journey with both of them.

Definetly recommend a buy.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35504477-undiscovered-affinity" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Undiscovered Affinity" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1498246526m/35504477.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35504477-undiscovered-affinity">Undiscovered Affinity</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15081571.Jane_Hardee">Jane Hardee</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2288589371">2 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
An ARC rec'd from NetGalley/Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.<br />This is a romance with sex that fizzled for me because there was no chemistry between the main characters. While I struggled to finish this read, I am willing to give future books by Ms. Hardee <br />another chance.<br />2.5 stars
<br/><br/>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/31134832-gail">View all my reviews</a>

The premise is unique and promising: Cardic, an anthropology professor who specializes in polygamy has recently returned from the Amazonas and accidentally meets Olivia, a designer and project manager for a sports ware company. Cardic tries to convince Olive to have a purely sexual affair, but she wants to concentrate on her work. Olivia can’t ignore the sexual attraction and they both get much more than they expected from the affair.
Sadly, the writing and the editing lack the quality to bring the plot to life. Many inconsistencies, unnecessary repetitions, telling instead of showing, head-hopping, and weak character development take the joy out of reading. If you don’t mind that as a reader, you can find hot sex scenes and entertaining anthropological observations.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I would put this book squarely in the okay category. Wasn’t bad, but there was something there that kept me from really connecting to the story.

The story is about two women who are not looking for a relationship. They decide to have no strings sex instead. But what will happen to this plan if feelings get involved? This is not a new concept, but if done will can be really great. Take for instance Turbulence by E. J. Noyes. It is really steamy and sexy, but still turned into a great romance. I was hoping this would be similar, but it really wasn’t.

As other reviewers have mentioned, because of the cover I thought this was going to be an erotic-romance but it’s not. In fact I think the book has a little bit of an identity crisis. While there are lots of sex scenes, I would not even put this in the steamy romance category. (I consider steamy romance to be one step below erotica like many of Meghan O’Brien books.) The steam and the heat are just missing in this book, but this wasn’t like a traditional romance, hence the sort of crisis.

I had a hard time liking and connecting to the characters. Cardic eventually won me over, but I felt like I never really broke through Olivia’s shell. I was glad to have a main character represented as plus size, but Hardee almost makes no mention of it. Besides Cardic mentioning one time that she liked Olivia’s large breasts and curves, that was it. I felt like it was a bit of a missed opportunity.

I want to make clear I didn’t think this was bad or would tell anyone to stay away. There was just nothing to get me really excited about or really entertained. While this book wasn’t any better than okay to me, I would give Hardee another chance.

Oh dear me... there was something called zero chemistry stopping me from liking this book, also Oliver got on my last nerve because all she droned on about was work which I found immensely boring, and the control thing she had going on just annoyed me more, I didn’t particularly like Cardic either.
It had some nice steamy scenes but just not enough for me to like the whole book, so nothing special at all in my opinion, very predictable and repetitive!

Seeing the cover of this book you can think that it is an erotica novel or that it can at least have a large part of this in the story. Even after the first scene on the plane, when Cardic is returning from her trip to the Amazonia, it may offer a not-quite-correct idea of where the story will go. But although there are sexual scenes in the book, you can not learn anything new from them since they are quite traditional, which it is a shame with the potential presented by the two protagonists.

Then, the story is basically an inner struggle of one of the protagonists, Olivia, who refuses to have romantic relationships in her life, always putting first and foremost her professional career. But how can she resist the charms of Cardic? Although not at first, the thing is slowly cooking. On the other hand, Cardic does not have a love relationship as a priority either, but how can she resist the charms of Olivia?

So the book is a path that goes from the acceptance of attraction by the two protagonists after a first accidental encounter, which gives way to a sporadic relationship basically consisting of sex, until they pass to deeper feelings. As I say, slowly and throughout the whole story.

Although at first, I have not really taken a lot of interest for this story, in the end it has been an interesting reading and I have enjoyed it pretty much.

During the first half of the booki was fighting with not just giving up and not finishing the book… the second half got a little better. I liked Olivia and her parts in the book but Cardic was a very unlivable character for me, which made it hard to enjoy the book.

2.5-3 stars

Olivia is obsessed with her work and climbing the corporate ladder. She works her staff into the ground, and doesn’t treat herself any better. She rationalises the idea that she doesn’t have the time or energy for a relationship as a way of avoiding any sort of commitment.

Cardic is an anthropologist just back from a trip in Africa. Specialising in how cultures deal with marriage, monogamy, polygamy and relationships in general, she is convinced that monogamy isn’t for the human species, and definitely not for her.

When they literally run into each other one day, it is clear that their attraction will impact more than their physical selves.

This is an interesting idea from Hardee. There was quite a lot for her to play with when dealing with Cardic, as a forthright and interested butch who likes control but is carefree enough to let it go. However, Olivia is a fairly standard control freak who comes across as a pain in the neck, and god help her staff; you wouldn’t want to be one of the poor souls who works for her. I did really like that she was written as a large woman, and was considered to be attractive. I thought more could have been made of this in the sex scenes, as although Hardee dealt with it well in the work scenes, she overlooked this completely in Olivia's relationship with Cardic.

Firstly, the cover is fairly lurid and doesn’t suit the book. Apologies to the illustrator, but I would recommend changing it completely. However, the real problem was one of tone. It felt like Hardee was trying to hedge her bets; one foot in the romantic monogamy once we fall truly in love camp, and the other foot in the erotic fiction (sex is completely separate to emotion) camp. It isn’t that the two can’t be combined, so much as it never quite felt like a romance (too many control issues and way too much graphic sex without much emotion attached), and it wasn’t really an erotic fiction book either (too many of the scenes were cut short or seemed to finish a bit oddly).

There were some things to like in this, but it was hard to like Olivia, and the control issues seemed to come up all the time for both of the characters. I hope that the next book by Hardee helps her to find a path that works better for her characters and her tone. I think she’s definitely worth keeping an eye on though; I look forward to seeing how she develops from here.

Advanced reading copy provided by NetGalley for an honest review.