Review: Only Pretend by Nora Flite

If you hated your life—wanted to prove to the world that you could change—how would you do it?

I had a plan. I also had no family, no friends, and definitely no jerk of an ex-boyfriend who thought I was boring.
I was tired of being me.
In Vegas, I could be anything.

And then I saw him.
His hungry smile wanted a taste of the new me.
Only a boring person would have said no.

It was reckless to follow a stranger to his bed. Dangerous to take the drink he handed me. I thought the worst regret I'd have would be a hangover, a walk of shame through the hotel.

Except I didn't wake up in the hotel.
Or in Vegas.

I doubt my face will end up in the news. “Woman missing,” the headline would say. “A stupid person who thought she could be someone else.”

I'm not someone else. I was only playing pretend.

Too bad he was playing for keeps.


--Author's Note-- This is a very dark romance novel with themes that could make readers uncomfortable. Be wary, it contains violence and beyond-steamy content aimed at mature audiences.

4 Star Review by Jen Skewes

I have had this book on my Ipad for a while before I finally decided to read it.  I loved Nora Flite’s Body Rock series.  I loved her writing and when I first read the synopsis for Only Pretend I was intrigued, but at the same time a little scared to read it.  This storyline is something that is completely out of my comfort zone.  I have read books that deal with some of dark issues that are in this book  but never when they involved the hero of the story.  So many times I went to read it and then chickened out.  But I finally put on my big girl panties and went for it.  And I am glad that I did.

I do not want to give too much away.  I thnk the blurb says it all.  Celeste was dumped by her boyfriend,  because she is for the most part boring.  She has no where to go, no family, no other friends.  So what does she do?  Puts on a sexy dress and heads to Vegas.  Little did she know that going to Vegas would change her world in ways that she never expected.  She went from talking to some sexy man one night in Vegas to waking up in a foreign place.  She has no idea were she is or why she was brought there.  The only thing she knows is that it has to do with the man she met the night before, Leonide. 

The beginning of this story was a little hard for me to take at first.  Leonide was a monster.  As the story goes on you see bit by bit that while Leonide is a complete monster on the outside that maybe somewhere deep down he actually has feelings and cares.  See for Leonide this life is all he knows.  This is how he grew up and he doesn't see what he is doing as being wrong.  It is his job to help women out that are in desperate need of a new life.  He “trains” these women to prepare them for their future.  He truly believes he is doing a good thing for them and the truth is that for most of "his girls" maybe he is.  Maybe he has helped them in ways that no one else has.  But Celeste is a totally different ball game.  She is unlike the others is so many ways.  At times she was strong and then at times she became week to Leonide.  But I think overall she fought for the one thing she hoped to get again, her freedom. 

Leonide was a monster but Celeste changed him.  She made him feel, she made him see things in a different way.   And while he dug deep down to find those feelings I think their may be a part of him that will always be a bit of a monster.  This story is dark at times but to be honest it wasn’t anything that I couldn’t handle or had to step away from.  I really enjoyed this book.  I can’t say that I loved Leonide simply because of some of his ways.  But I did like him and those moments that you can see that he cares even if he would never admit to it, is what made me like him.  I am glad that I gave this one a chance.