May 18, 20233 min read

An Armored Heart by R.C. Boldt

An Armored Heart

by R.C. Boldt

Self-Published

RULE #1: Do NOT catch feelings for the man who doesn't believe in love.

Four months. That's how long I’ll need to pretend to be Steele Cunningham's doting girlfriend.

I agreed to this insanity only to save my restaurant. He's doing it because he needs someone outside his “social circle” to stick it to his meddling parents and clingy ex.

Ruthless and emotionless in both his personal life and his career, Steele’s ego rivals his net worth.

Operating on joy and positivity—and a healthy bit of feistiness—I challenge him at every step.

He’s a tin man—heartless and cold. Falling for him would be a colossal mistake, because there’s no chance he’ll ever love me.

He can’t.

After all, he’s the man with an armored heart.

Genre:

#ContemporaryRomance

Before I begin, I would like to thank Valentine PR and R.C. Boldt for sending me an arc of An Armored Heart in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is a long book.

I enjoyed it.

It's good. It makes you smile, and it triggers all the emotions it's supposed to.

It's just long. Too long for a contemporary romance. Definitely the longest I've ever read.

Typically, romance novels run from 300-400 pages. More than 400 and I start feeling bored with the characters. Unless it's a 'romantasy', or a very intense dramatic romance, it shouldn't be longer than that.

An Armored Heart is 634 pages.

Now, don't get me wrong. I liked it. It was a nice romance. Predictable, but most romances are. But it was too long. I could cut out a lot from it and it wouldn't have affected the story at all.

The characters were interesting, if a bit stereotypical. Rich CEO, multi-millionaire man who keeps his emotions to himself, and appears robotic, until the fun, loving, nurturing, middle class woman brings it out of him. Some of the banter felt very forced, and some jokes fell flat, but overall, I liked Steele and Ella. I liked them together. I liked their story. Their chemistry was felt, not told, which I always appreciate. R.C. Boldt was able to write some little moments that sat with me well past reading them, that I haven't experienced with many other romance authors. There was a moment where Ella curls her hand to preserve the memory of his touch - and the way it was worded was powerful. As for the side characters - wasn't crazy about them. They were all very one dimensional, and only were there to further the main characters stories.

There is another thing that R.C. Boldt can write, and write very well. Sex. I've read a lot of books with sex in it, and I can easily say, that R.C. Boldt is probably one of the best authors for this alone. There is no wham bam thank you mam in this book.

You know what I'm talking about.

The sex that is written where it takes less than a minute to read, barely any foreplay, yet the woman has come three times in two minutes from just penetration alone?

Yeah, you know what I mean. haha.

The steamy scenes are pages long, but don't just focus on the physical aspects of sex. R.C. Boldt weaves the emotional parts of intimacy in these scenes flawlessly. Despite the steamy scenes being much longer than most romance books, it doesn't feel repetitive, and doesn't feel like its just written there just to be there. It adds something to these characters relationship and the story.

While in the end, I felt An Armored Heart was too long, and there were things that felt flat to me, I enjoyed the book. It was a fun read, it was steamy - the dirty talk was on fire! - and was written well. If you like an enemies to lovers, fake relationship, slow burn romance, and don't mind jumping into a 600+ page romance, An Armored Heart is for you!