The Apartment Novels: Amanda Black

After reading and really enjoying The Single Game, I figured I would "back up the bus" and read The Apartment Novels Series.  These books focuses on Lily and Ethan, Eden's aunt and uncle.  Most of the book is set before Eden is born.

Blurb:

Lily has spent a lifetime putting everyone else’s needs before her own.

Ethan is struggling to find a place in the home he left behind.

When the two meet by chance in an empty apartment, everything changes. Drawn together by an inexplicable desire, Lily and Ethan discover a passion neither knew existed. And so, they make a pact: Nothing from their outside lives will enter the apartment—not even their names.

But what will happen when the apartment’s walls inevitably come down?

Review: 3.5 Stars (my review pertains to both The Apartment and its sequel, The Blank Canvas)

Whenever I read a series that features the same characters across more than one book, I pay attention to whether there was enough of a story there to warrant more than one book.  These books are borderline in that regard.  Amanda Black certainly does not shy away from sex scenes.  There probably could have been about half as many of them here without diminishing the connection between the main characters.  Also, the extent to which every sex scene was 'earth shattering, split you into a million pieces, circle the planets and come back down to earth in a lusty post-coital fog' was a bit over the top.  

Despite this, I did enjoy Lily and Ethan together.  Clearly their chemistry is off the charts.  There were some opportunities for more plot that were not explored.  I wouldn't have minded a closer look into Ethan's past; maybe even an appearance by Rachel (or at least more about how things turn out with her new protege).  Lily really got off easy with Scott; there could have been more consequences there.  Lily forgives Ethan quite quickly.  Nothing really came of Lily's interactions with her colleagues; I thought there might be a throw down with  Kim.  After reading a fair bit about Maggie and Eric's miscarriages, Eden's birth feels glossed over.

I was somewhat distracted/confused by the timing of things.  These books are written in the present, with reference to recent popular culture.  But, The Single Game also includes present-day cultural elements when there two stories are meant to be a couple of decades apart.  So, it seems to me that the books should be written to reflect that.

I wonder if this series will continue from here - maybe Emma's kid or one of Lily and Ethan's kids?