Restoring Jordan by Elizabeth Finn

Jenny: 3.5 stars

Restoring Jordan was like a book of quarters for me.  I was invested and loving it until about three quarters of the way through and then it kind of fell away for me and for some reason I lost the excitement and commitment I initially felt for the story and characters.

I have to say this book did suck me in from the first page!  It’s on like donkey kong for Jordan and Adeline from the very first meeting and you can’t help but be swept up in the intense and passionate connection they feel for one another and the sexual encounter that follows.

Getting to hear the story from both Jordan and Adeline also allowed me to see this intense relationship develop from both side and I did enjoy the dual POV in this story.

Jordan is 34, successful (and oh so gorgeous!!!) and knows what he wants.  He sees Adeline in a bar, and unbeknownst to her, he is discretely watching her and leaves absolutely no doubt in anyone’s mind what he wants from her that night. He’s very direct and there is no way Adeline could misconstrue his intentions.  He’s pretty forthright in vocalizing what he wants and he wants her!

Jordan doesn’t do relationships.  At all.  He’s into one night stands, instant sexual gratification and then he’s on his way.  He’s emotionally stunted and until the night Adeline enters his life, Jordan thought he was happy with his lot.

I loved Jordan.  He’s passionate, forthright and I loved seeing the layers stripped away from him and eventually seeing him come to realisation about his life and how he wanted to change it.  There was a lot I loved about this man.

Adeline is 22, and somewhat naive.   She is a virgin and the night she goes back to Jordan’s house she is embarrassed to tell him that she has never had sex, and is more than prepared to give  herself over to him.  Somehow she knows it’s got to be with him, that it feels right.  I did like Adeline but I didn’t feel as connected to her as I did Jordan, this seemed more his story and his journey for me.

” I do not care what this man does to my body; I just want it to be him. I have no excuse for my want. I have no cause for my sudden uncontrollable urge to give myself to this stranger.

Jordan is unaware that he has just had sex with a virgin until the next day and he’s none too happy about it.

Mobile phone numbers and names were never exchanged, they met and parted as strangers so the chances of seeing each other again are slim. Right?  Wrong.  When Adeline interns at the firm where Jordan works they both encounter each other on her first day and those same intense feelings once again surface for both of them.

I have to say he sex in this book is HOT!  I do love my smut and if smut is your thing then you will love this.  For me, I like my smut with  story and depth and I just felt that the sex overtook the story after a while and became the focus instead of the story and the character development.

I’m also going with the fact that the amount of internal monologue in this book prevented me from connecting with the characters as much as I would have liked.    I am a fan of dialogue. It helps me connect and experience the emotions with the characters.  With dialogue I am able to actually feel the intensity of the characters emotion, as opposed to being “told” the intensity of their feelings, if that makes sense. Whilst  I do like to get inside a characters head , I also need dialogue interaction as a balance.

I absolutely loved seeing Jordan coming to realisation about his life and how much Adeline changed him and meant to him.  This development was a wonderful part of the story.

“Before Adeline entered my life, I was content.  My life was shallow, empty and meaningless, and sadly, I was happy that way”

Sadly for me, somewhere  along the way the connection to the characters got a little lost on me. The sex seemed to overtake the emotion of the story.

I will say there were some really hot scenes in this book.  The rain scene……**fans self** and the kitchen scene were HOT!   Let’s just say I’ll never grind herbs in the same light ever again!

An enjoyable read but in the end it didn’t have the WOW factor I was hoping for.

Purchase Restoring Jordan here:

Restoring Jordan