Imagine having a hot one night stand and then going to a Sunday dinner with your estranged father's family only to realize that your no strings attached night was with the step-brother you haven't seen since you were a teenagers. Awkward! Jude and Cypress are forbidden to act on their feelings again but when they are both surrounded by so much angsty family drama they quickly find that it feels as if they only have each other to turn to.

I wasn't sure about this book at first but after a few chapters I was so invested that there was no moving me from my reading spot until the last page had been turned. I do wish that there had been a bit less going on with their families (it reached over the top quickly) and that there had been more satisfying closure with Cypress and her family in particular. Still this was a great book for a few hours of pure escapism.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is Judes story. I loved the beginning. Cypress and Jude have hot raunchy sex then a week later find out "oops" they are step siblings.
The family drama continues from the last book into this one. So it might be smart to read, Sin and Ink, first.

Sexy and hot, I loved this romance. Cypress is estranged from her father....and his replacement family. However, after a series of tough blows, she finds herself without her fancy corporate job, instead waiting tables in a dive bar. When she sees Jude, he is just too beautiful to be real, and he wants her too. After a night of the hottest sex ever, they go their separate ways. A week later she goes to her father's house to ask for help, and learns that her one night stand is her step-brother...

Normally, I'm not a fan of step-brother romances, however, this one is so well done that I fell in love with the characters and loved their story. This series has sexy and hard men falling for forbidden women and no one can create a tale of naughty love like this author.

If you enjoy your romance sexy, spicy, and just a bit forbidden, you will love this book. While part of a series, this is a stand alone novel. The author is on my must read authors' list.

"Passion and Ink" continues the Sweetest Taboo series with Knox's brother, Jude. Each book in the series can be read as a stand-alone. The book begins with Cypress, also known as Ro (short for her middle name, Rowena) who is working at a bar after leaving her high-paying job in California due to sexual harassment. She is also trying to gather the money to help her mother while keeping her own head afloat. When a customer comes in and the attraction is mutual, Ro is willing to have a one-night stand.

Ro and Jay (a.k.a. Jude) have an unforgettable night together, presuming they would be unlikely to run into each other. However, when Sunday dinner at his mother's comes around, he finds out his stepfather Dan's daughter is coming over. They haven't seen each other since they were teenagers; their parents married when they were teens, and Cypress barely ever came around as she was mad at her father who had multiple affairs and eventually left her mother for Katherine (Jude's mother). Shocked when Ro arrives and sees Jay, they both find it hard to believe that they were actually step-siblings.

Both Cypress and Jude are dealing with their own demons, primarily focused around their parents. As they struggle to deal with their own problems, they also cannot deny the attraction that pulls them together. While the book starts with a bang and seems fast, the pace does slow down so that we can get to know the characters and see them grow as individuals before they grow as a couple. I would add some warnings for suicide (past- not Cypress/Jude), mental illness (multiple side characters), stalking, and sexual harassment. While I wasn't sure if I would enjoy this book at the start (due to the immediate one night stand), I found the follow-up and development of Cypress and Jude's individual stories and their healing/growth to be a really engaging and worthwhile read.

Overall, I think this was a great installment, possibly better than the first, that deals with some important issues. I liked both the main characters and enjoyed seeing them deal with their pasts and move on to a healthier present. Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher through netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Namia Simone is an author I've been hearing more and more about, and I enjoyed the first book in this series, Sin and Ink. So, when I found Passion and Ink on NetGalley, you can bet I jumped at the chance to find out what happens next in the Gordon family saga. I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review, and – as the three-star rating indicates – I liked it.

The writing is top notch, including a lot of inner monologuing, so the reader really thinks and feels right along with the characters. So much so, that it impacted my own mood. I kinda feel like I need to alert anyone around me when I’m reading Namia Simone’s books since they tend to have such a strong impact on my psyche.

Just like Knox and Eden, Cypress and Jude faced some serious external conflicts and are flawed and broken people who somehow find their way to happiness. And, just like in the first book, something held me back from really falling into their story. This time, I’m pretty sure it’s the internal conflict.

Cypress is a ball of contradictions. She has serious book smarts, but doesn’t realize how unsafe she is living in a seedy motel or see the easy solution to her money problems (hint: get another job in your chosen profession). She has some baggage and says she’s dealing with her life, but she’s literally avoiding her career, her friends, and family because she can’t deal with her history. The whole thing about becoming an accounting professor was so secondary, it felt out of character and forced. Most of her troubles are rooted in money, but she could’ve gotten a new job the day after she quit her old one, pretty much anywhere in the country. Was the only reason she was waitressing so her path would cross with Jude's? Because, otherwise, it made no sense. She has the classic child of divorce walls around her heart, that somehow Jude can sneak past by (SHOCKER) multiple orgasms and being nice to her. Yet, somehow, she’s only able to get over her past and figure out what she wants as a future when she’s faced with losing Jude. How is this not magical peen? I ask you? Because it seems like magical peen.

Jude is a great, though flawed, hero. A sensitive artist, he’s the heart that holds both factions of the broken Gordon together. He’s Knox’s right-hand man, but he still shows up for family dinner with the rest of his clan. He sees people and understands them, not just Cypress. Not just his mother, Katherine. Everyone around him. His one blind spot is his ex, Ana. His inability to see he was being manipulated, which is understandable considering his own history, kinda took away from his almost omniscient understanding of everyone else. He knows he has a savior complex, which he is trying not to act on with Ana, so, of course, he’s all too happy to rush in and save the day with Cypress. *head to desk*

Cypress often calls Jude a warrior angel, but that just didn’t work for me. For two reasons. (1) the way he fought for her was to let her go. Which, I understand as a platitude, but not an actual piece of relationship advice. My heart just doesn’t work that way. Sorry. You let someone go, fine, but you call the next day and try to work it out. And, (2) he’s less of a warrior since it has taken him 13 years to stand up to his mother. Which, don’t get me wrong, is great, but it’s sooooooo long overdue. And, he never gets around to telling his step-father to mind his own business. Though, I loved Knox’s bit in this book about needing to break things for them to heal into something better. That really sums up this entire series arch.

As I sit here thinking about it, I wonder if the real issue I have with Jude and Cypress is the same one I had with Knox and Eden. They put too much of an emphasis on what their family thinks. Since the first family dinner scene in Sin and Ink, I’ve wanted to throat-punch Katherine, and in Passion and Ink, I really wanted to kick Dan in the nads, too. Jude accepted his mother’s burdens when he really shouldn’t have, and we never see the resolution from their confrontation about that. We see her make a phone call, but we don’t know if she called Knox or if she was calling Dan or even the cable company.

As for Cypress and Dan, well, it’s the same thing. We see the confrontation, we see the apology, but no real results afterward. Instead of the epilogue we were given, it would have been lovely to have all three couples sitting around the table during family dinner with friendly conversations, no secrets, and no words or acts of aggression.

I can only hope that scene will be in book 3. I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens with Simon, because the youngest Gordon brother has some angsty shoes to fill and I really can’t wait to read every word.

It’s hard not to compare the sequel in a series to the first and for me it comes up short to the first, Sin and Ink. I remember Sin and Ink being sexy and oh so angsty. This one wasn’t quite as intense, which I could definitely see some people preferring. It was good-I just liked Sin and Ink better.

Thank you Entangled and NetGalley for the ARC!

OMG! Naima Simone has done it again! Passion and Ink is a sexy, hot, amazing book! I absolutely loved it!!