REVIEW: TOUCH ME NOT by Apryl Baker

A past tragedy has left Lily Holmes burdened with a devastating secret…

Since the death of her twin sister, Lily can’t bear to be touched. Not accidentally, not casually…and certainly not intimately. This makes it impossible for her to confess to her best friend Adam Roberts that she’s in love with him. She can’t give him the sort of relationship he needs, so she watches in silence while he plans his wedding with someone else.

Enter Nikoli Kinkaid, the campus manwhore…

Nikoli is a self-proclaimed connoisseur of women, and he wants to add Lily to his list of conquests, but she wants nothing to do with him—until he makes her an offer she can’t refuse. He’ll teach her to enjoy human contact again, giving her a chance to win over Adam, while Nikoli uses all his considerable charm to seduce her.

But Lily raises the stakes…

Lily loves cars. Her late father was a racer, and she grew up under the hood of a car and on the racetrack. Nikoli has a limited edition 1970 Plymouth Barracuda she covets, so she informs him the terms of their deal also require he not sleep with anyone for six months. If he does, she’ll win the car. If she surrenders and ends up in his bed, his beloved ’Cuda is his to keep.

In an intricate dance of control and surrender, a reluctant friendship becomes something more. Lily begins to crave things she never believed she could, and Nikoli realizes there is more at stake than his reputation. 

If Lily overcomes her phobia, will she crave Adam’s touch as she’s starting to crave Nikoli’s? Or will she only find pleasure from the touch of a semi-reformed manwhore?

THIS. WAS. A. GEM. You see, it's a Wattpad story, and the blurb sounds cliché... I. BUT STOP RIGHT NOW. I promise you, it's amazing. IT'S INCREDIBLY GOOD.
Lily is a mess. Her best friend who she secretly loves is getting married, and she can't win him over if she flinches every time someone touches her.
Enter BU's russian playboy, Nikoli. He wants to, well, fuck her. And help her with her issues, of course. 

"Sure, he wanted her in a bad way, but he also had this insane urge to help her, to give her back everything she’d lost. He couldn’t explain it, but Lily mattered to him. In just two weeks, she’d gone from a fuck bet to someone he cared about." 

As these two start to interact, sparks fly (I know, right? She can't be touched, but the book is STEAMY AF. TRUST ME. THE CHEMISTRY WAS LIKE WOOOOOW.) 
Somewhere along the way, they start to care.

"He lowered his head to hers, his nose brushing hers. She didn’t flinch. She went completely still, but she didn’t flinch. He heard her gasp, the soft intake of breath. His eyes looked into hers. He saw the desire. Saw the fear, but mostly he saw trust. She trusted him not to force her to do anything she couldn’t do. She trusted him not to become angry if she couldn’t do it.That, more than anything else, made Lily Holmes the most dangerous creature he’d ever encountered. She could break him, and he didn’t care. 

They were funny, and honest with each other. I loved how they opened up to one another and learned to trust. Nikoli was so sweet and understanding, and he was set on making her heal and be happy.
They're one of my OTPs. I mean, Lily is just so freaking adorable, true to herself, strong and brave, and Nikoli is so hot he can melt your panties with a wink. They're one of my favorite main characters :) I honestly enjoyed being in their heads. 

"Easy, dushka," he mumured. "You're safe."

The pacing was phenomenal, and the book dealt with Lily's heavy past in a graceful way.
The secondary characters were entertaining, and I hope we get more of them :D
Believe me, this book's special <3

So who am I? Well, I'm the crazy girl with an imagination that never shuts up. I LOVE scary movies. My friends laugh at me when I scare myself watching them and tell me to stop watching them, but who doesn't love to get scared? I grew up in a small town nestled in the southern mountains of West Virginia where I spent days roaming around in the woods, climbing trees, and causing general mayhem. Nights I would stay up reading Nancy Drew by flashlight under the covers until my parents yelled at me to go to sleep.

Growing up in a small town, I learned a lot of values and morals, I also learned parents have spies everywhere and there's always someone to tell your mama on you. So when you get grounded, what is there left to do? Read! My Aunt Jo gave me my first real romance novel. It was a romance titled "Lord Margrave's Deception." I remember it fondly. But I also learned I had a deep and abiding love of mysteries and anything paranormal. As I grew up, I started to write just that and would entertain my friends with stories featuring them as main characters.

Now, I live Huntersville, NC where I entertain my family and watch the cats get teased by the birds and laugh myself silly when they swoop down and then dive back up just out of reach. The cats start yelling something fierce...lol.

I love books, I love writing books, and I love entertaining people with my silly stories.

You can reach me at any of these places:

Blog: http://apryl-baker.blogspot.com/

Twitter:@AprylBaker

The Promise Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO2zTi...

PS: DO NOT GET IN MY WAY IF THERE IS A SALE ON AT TARGET - my home away from home!