Sometimes here at Life Out of Focus I take a break from blogging about my life to support things that I love. Lately I’ve been reading. A lot. I ventured into the world of Indie young adult books not too long ago as I mentioned recently BUT my first true book love is smut. You know, books that have drama, suspense, and sex. Lots of sex. Some women are afraid to tell their friends that they’re reading these kinds of books. Not me. It’s 2012, y’all. It’s okay to read smut and last I checked, none of the menfolk complain about it either.

So you have to be living under a rock to have not heard about books like 50 Shades of Grey. That was the gateway book that sucked me into constant reading. If you follow me on Twitter my latest updates have mostly been either about books or blaming said books for not tweeting. I loved 50 Shades but when I finished reading the trilogy I found myself wishing I liked the lead female character more. I found myself wishing she wasn’t so annoying…that she was funnier…that she was more entertaining.

Enter Alice Clayton and her Redhead series. From the moment I started The Unidentified Redhead I was sucked in. I’m pretty sure I immediately tweeted my friend who told me to read the book with “Thank you because OMG I REALLY love Grace, the main character. Finally! A female lead I can get behind!” The addiction spiraled from there. I could not put the book down. And look, if you’re into reading smut, or really any romance type novel, you HAVE to love the lead guy. He has to be hot. He has to be sexy. He has to be smooth and almost flawless. I found myself wishing Jack was real. I was so totally sucked into Jack and Grace’s romance. She’s just moving out to LA to pursue acting. He’s an actor who just made it big with his first movie. She’s in her early 30s. He’s in his mid 20s. Every other book I’ve read the characters are the same age or the guy is older but I’m telling you, as a woman in her 30s, it was freaking hot as hell to read about Grace rocking Jack’s world.

Alice took me on a roller coaster ride and I’m a glutton for punishment because if I don’t cry, laugh, or grab my chest because of suspense, I’m not happy. The Unidentified Redhead has all of these things. And more. For one, Grace is freaking hilarious. She’s snarky. She’s quick witted. But she’s so likeable because she’s so super nice and her vulnerable side is so relatable. Jack is young but smart and while he’s confident, I could tell that he was vulnerable when it came to Grace. He can’t live without her. She can’t live without him. And Holly, Grace’s best friend, is right there with Grace, matching her sarcasm and humor tit for tat. She’s the kind of best friend every girl needs. She’s loyal. She’s supportive. She’ll tell you you’re being a total idiot if you are but hugging you while she’s saying it. The story twists and turns and after reading for 2 days straight I finished the book.

But I wanted more.

Alice, the smart, bad ass author she is, knew I’d want more. She knew you’d want more. So, she wrote The Redhead Revealed. I was like sweet! More Grace. More Jack. I didn’t think I could love this book more than the first one. I did. There was a point in this book where I tweeted Alice something along the lines of “I am breaking up with you. Why do you hate me?” The story just continued to suck me in and by the time I finished it I realized that I just read pure awesomeness.

I don’t wanna give away too much but I will say that I am a sucker for a happy ending and both books left me smiling. I’m sure Alice will be happy to know that we are back together now. She made me hate her for a bit but then reeled me back in for the happy ending wrapped in a nice bow…just the way I like them. If you want to read a different kind of smutty book, you are going to be so happy to read these. And we can all agree that sometimes different is good…and better. I can’t think of any other smutty book that had steamy sex scenes in one chapter and had me laughing out loud in the next. Jack and Grace are the sweetest couple and they compliment each other so perfectly. Read them. Then thank me. Then tweet or email Alice and thank her because I love her and her books like whoa.

Promise.

If you want to know more about Alice Clayton, make sure you check out her website here. She also has a podcast site located here. You can follow her on Twitter here.

Now go buy those books and happy reading!