All He Wants

All He Wants (Book One of the All or Nothing Trilogy)
by C. C. Gibbs
Published by Forever / Hachette Book Group
376 pages
Genre: erotica
Thanks to NetGalley for the preview
4.5 / 5


First of all, don't buy into any comparisons between this book and those Fifty Shades creatures. It's better written, with far more entertaining characters. Okay, yes, I like Christian Grey, bless his tortured soul. But are those books well written? Seriously? Let me bite my lip, roll my eyes, and consult my inner goddess while I ponder that.

This is the first of a three-part series (for those of you in the UK, books one and two have been published under different names - Knight's Mistress and Knight's Game), and I cannot wait for the second one. Like, for reals. Please, CC Gibbs. Help a sister out.

Here is why I liked this book soooo much: the dialogue.

Yes, I know. I'm not one to choose dialogue over hot headboard rockin' (and let me assure you, there is some hot headboard rockin' going on here), but the dialogue hooked me in and kept me turning the pages. Interesting dialogue comes from interesting characters, and both are indicative of interesting writing.

The basic storyline features Dominic Knight, a self-made billionaire whose company is under some sort of cyber sabotage. His right-hand man hires Kate Hart, fresh from college, to suss out the malefactor. Dominic immediately is drawn to her, even if he can't quite figure out why. For her part, Kate is attracted to him, but the stories of his professional and personal acquisitions leaves her quite wary. The fact that his adored wife died suddenly several years earlier only increases Kate's resistance. She refuses to allow Dominic's company to hire her, but she does agree to work for him on a project. Or two or three ...

Work turns to romance when Dominic asks Kate to stay with him in Hong Kong for one week. He's convinced he can change her mind about working for his company, and she is convinced she can say no. And here is where the hot sexy times come in. Strap on your vibrators, girls, because those scenes are deliciously written. Dominic is turned on by dominating (GET IT? DOMinic? DOMinate?), but Kate is reluctant to submit. In fact, those scenes are fairly tame compared to what you read in Sylvia Day's Crossfire series. The vanilla scenes actually are more explicit.

But the dialogue. Oh, kids, the dialogue. Dominic and Kate actually talk to each other. They verbally spar, as each tries to understand what makes the other tick. They bait each other, refute each other, and challenge each other. Their conversations are a lot of fun to read, and because they are so conversationally compatible, it only heightens those scenes in which they rock the headboard.

I liked this book a whole lot. And like I said, let's hurry along the next one, CC Gibbs.