REVIEW: Dark Wild Night by Christina Lauren

In Dark Wild Night (Wild Seasons #3) by Christina Lauren, Australia native Oliver Lore has a secret: he’s been crushing on Lola Castle since he moved to San Diego, just after their now annulled quickie wedding in Vegas about eight months ago. He realizes that what he thought was a drunken mistake actually led him to the woman he’d love to stay with forever. But with Lola’s career skyrocketing, Oliver isn’t sure now is the time to tell her how he feels, changing the dynamic of their close friendship.

‘I have to believe she’ll fight for us, that I’m not wrong about her. I have to believe that I want to be there for her, always, but that she doesn’t need me to be.’

Lola’s life is about the change in a huge way with her graphic novel Razor Fish being turned into a major motion picture. Through it all she knows her best friend, comic bookstore owner Oliver, will be there to have her back. But Lola wants more than friendship. She also knows that she has a tendency to botch things romantically and doesn’t want to lose what they already have. So when Lola’s career becomes more and more intense, as does her feelings for Oliver, how will she choose which one to let go of?

“I don’t want to mess this up,” I say. “Our friendship is too important to me. What if we…do this, and it changes that?”
Oliver nods, bending and pressing his cheek to mine again. “I don’t have a choice but to want to do this, Lola. I’m in love with you.”

Dark Wild Night had too many wonderful qualities to list every single one, but I think charming pretty much sums it up. The storyline, the characters, and the awesome humor that only the duo of Christina Lauren can create were all simply charming.

‘As soon as we open our hearts up to love, we show the universe the easiest way to break them in half.’

I try to approach each book I review with no expectations and like I’m reading the author for the first time, whether I’m a fan of theirs or not. That was really, really difficult here because: 1) I AM a fan of Christina Lauren and 2) I seriously adore nerdy heroes and heroines. So Dark Wild Night already had two points in its favor. However, I am pretty sure that I would have loved this story anyway, simply for the heartfelt relationship between Oliver and Lola.

Okay, so this was a friends-to-lovers trope and boy was it fun! Lola and Oliver had a cute, almost symbiotic relationship where they needed each other around so they could stay focused and feel grounded. I loved that they both were crushing on the other had no idea, although their mutual friends definitely saw it. And once they broke the barrier between friends and something more? H-O-T. Christina Lauren did a fantastic job describing Oliver and Lola’s pent up desire and longing during the love scenes. I especially loved how in awe he was that he could finally admit his feelings and cherish her physically. *fans face*

I think readers would be able to pick this up easily without having read any of the other books in this series and still get a true sense of the characters. (Of course I recommend them all…) Oliver was kind and loving smexy guy, a bespectacled small business owner who just so happened to have a dirty mouth. And Lola was his equal in terms of nerdiness and passion which made their dialogue very interesting–awkward but still comical and flirty.

Oh…and watch for a crazy-hot scene between Oliver and Lola that showed both their chemistry and Oliver’s employee Not-Joe’s quirky sense of humor in the comic book store. So much fun!

If you like your romances a little on the nerdy side without skimping on the sexy, Dark Wild Night is absolutely for you. Highly recommended.

Book Info:

Published September 15th 2015 | by Gallery Books | Wild Seasons #3

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
But what didn’t happen in Vegas seems to follow them everywhere.

Lola and Oliver like to congratulate themselves on having the good sense to not consummate their drunken Las Vegas wedding. If they’d doubled-down on that mistake, their Just Friends situation might not be half as great as it is now.

… Or so goes the official line.

In reality, Lola’s wanted Oliver since day one—and over time has only fallen harder for his sexy Aussie accent and easygoing ability to take her as she comes. More at home in her studio than in baring herself to people, Lola’s instinctive comfort around Oliver nearly seems too good to be true. So why ruin a good thing?

Even as geek girls fawn over him, Oliver can’t get his mind off what he didn’t do with Lola when he had the chance. He knows what he wants with her now … and it’s far outside the friend zone. When Lola’s graphic novel starts getting national acclaim—and is then fast-tracked for a major motion picture—Oliver steps up to be there for her whenever she needs him. After all, she’s not the kind of girl who likes all that attention, but maybe she’s the kind who’ll eventually like him.

Sometimes seeing what’s right in front of us takes a great leap of faith. And sometimes a dark wild night in Vegas isn’t just the end of a day, but the beginning of a bright new life..