Review of Amour Amour

Synopsis

"Every day,” he says lowly, “I hold a person’s life in my hands. The circus is based one-hundred percent off trust. I give it all to someone, and they give it all to me.”The best aerial technique won’t land 21-year-old Thora James her dream role in Amour—a sexy new acrobatic show on the Vegas strip. Thora knows she’s out of her element the second she meets Amour’s leading performer. Confident, charming and devilishly captivating, 26-year-old Nikolai Kotova lives up to his nickname as the “God of Russia.”

When Thora unknowingly walks into the crosshairs of Nikolai’s after-show, her audition process begins way too soon. Unprofessional. That’s what Nik calls their “non-existent” relationship. It’s not like Thora can avoid him. For one, they may be partners in the future--acrobatic partners, that is. But getting closer to Nik means diving deeper into sin city and into his dizzying world.

Thora wants to perform with him, but when someone like Nikolai attracts the spotlight wherever he goes—Thora fears that she’s destined to be just background to his spellbinding show.

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Review

Amour Amour by Becca and Krista Ritchie is a sexy, absorbing and stunning New Adult romance novel. I loved the circus element to the storyline; I like how refreshing it is to see an acrobat as the male lead and the strength and intensity of Nikolai will have readers wanting more male characters like him.

The opening of Amour Amour makes it seem like the book will be incredibly raunchy but sex scenes don’t actually have the largest of roles. There is still steaminess, a few light sex scenes and incredible sexual tension. I loved the balance in this book as the storyline and character development didn’t get lost in the sex as I am starting to see happen more and more in NA romance nowadays.

For me the circus element was incredible as I love dance, acrobatics and aerial arts and so know a lot of the terminology and about how prestigious circuses like the fictional one here generally work. However you don’t need to know any of that stuff to enjoy the book, the romance is the main element of this book and everything that you need to know about the acrobatics is well described.

The chemistry between Thora and Nikolai is electric and passion practically sizzles off the page. The romance develops fantastically too, it has the perfect amount of tension and the pacing is on point. My favourite thing about Amour Amour was the character development, both Thora and Nikolai grow so much and overcome fears and insecurities’ to be better people by the end of the book. I also love Thora’s dedication and passion to her art, she is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve her dream. This makes her the type of “strong” female character that I love (though she can be a bit whiney at times).

Amour Amour also has a cast of fantastic secondary characters, my favourites being Luka and Daniel but I don’t want to give too much away so you can learn more about them by reading the book :P

I wasn’t the biggest fan of how this book resolved itself as I thought it detracted from Thora’s strength, commitment and dedication to her art. However there are still worse ways it could have ended and it wasn’t terrible. In fact I liked the very end, just not how it got to that point.

Highlight for spoiler explanation I really wanted her to make it on her own, not fail and only get to be a part of Cirque Ethereal because of Nikolai basically pulling strings.

Overall this is a wonderful, unique read that I 100% recommend. There were a few elements, such as the aforementioned ending, that perfected it from being a 5 star read in my mind but I still really loved it.

Just for a bit of fun, I have embedded below an example of one of the circus acts briefly mentioned in Amour Amour - Wheel Of Death. I wanted to share an aerial silks duet but couldn't find one I liked enough. I think knowing what the acts are will make you understand the characters a little more as to what type of person they are so do google as you read!



Try it for yourself! Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK

Laura