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Lena Hendrix

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Just This Once (The Kings) Kindle Edition

by Lena Hendrix (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 2,379 ratings

Part of: The Kings (2 books)

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Whip King cannot be the man for me.

Cocky, pierced firefighters are perfect for late-night rom-coms, but in real life they’re nothing but trouble. Especially when you find out they work for your dad—after you’ve already slept with them.

Moving to my parents’ small town was supposed to be the fresh start I was looking for. When a disastrous Valentine’s Day leads to an unexpected encounter with a sexy stranger, and ends with the hottest night of my life, I didn’t think I would ever see Whip again.

Imagine my surprise when one of my sixth-grade students has a medical emergency and it’s Whip who shows up, looking hot as hell, to save the day. I should be embarrassed at how we left things, but instead I’m furious he doesn’t seem to remember me.

So I scrape my pride off the floor, lift my chin, and pretend there’s nothing between us. But that can last only so long. Stolen glances melt into forbidden touches, and once we give in to temptation, we can’t keep our hands off each other.

Nothing has ever felt so right, but my guarded heart won’t let me believe in happily ever after with a man like him. Opening up to Whip may be the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and every time we agree to one last time, we both know it’s a lie.

How many times can we keep telling ourselves just this once before we realize that, when it comes to love, once is never enough?

From the Publisher

like I'd burn the entire world to have you

Amazon #1 bestselling author Kandi Steiner says...

“I was feral for the Kings after reading the Sullivans series, and Just This Once proved exactly why. WHIP KING IS EVERYTHING. I was hooked from the first steamy night between these two, and every interaction after had me begging for more. No one does small town romance quite like Lena Hendrix. Her characters are impossible not to fall for. Just This Once is a romantic getaway perfect for lovers of spice and humor. Five stars easily!” — #1 Amazon Bestseller Kandi Steiner

When you're finally ready to be kissed again...I'm going to make you beg for it

Fire fighter
Teacher
Pierced hero
Boss's daughter
One night stand
Forbidden romance


	Just This Once - Audio	Just This Once - Special Edition
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CQTJRGYQ
Publisher ‏ : ‎ (April 15, 2024)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 15, 2024
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3781 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 329 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #144 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #5 in Historical Romances
- #17 in Romantic Comedy (Kindle Store)
- #20 in Contemporary Romance Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.5 2,379 ratings

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Lena Hendrix

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Lena Hendrix is an Amazon Top 10 bestselling contemporary romance author living in the Midwest. Her love for romance started with sneaking racy Harlequin paperbacks as a teenager and now she writes her own hot-as-sin small town romance novels. Lena has a soft spot for strong alphas with marshmallow insides, heroines who clap back, and sizzling tension. Her novels pack in small town heart with a whole lotta heat.

When she's not writing or devouring new novels, you can find her hiking, camping, fishing, and sipping a spicy margarita!

Want to hang out? Find Lena on Tiktok or IG!

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Maryann K

Review

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2024

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Tropes:
-small town
-one night to more
-forbidden romance
-secret relationship
-boss's daughter
-bad boy x good girl
-firefighter x teacher
-pierced hero

“That kiss alone was worth my entire career.”

Lena is always an auto read author for me and I adore her and it's so good to be back in Outtatowner. Just This Once is book one in The King Family series and I'm so glad it started with Whip.

Emily Ward does not do one-night stands but makes an exception for a man she can't seem to resist. After a bad blind date, she runs into Whip. The night is wonderful until the next morning when she realizes she slept with works with her dad. She rushes out and while Whip is used to being left behind, it's different when Emily leaves. They try their best to avoid one another but can't seem to stay away. How will their promise of "just this once" play out?

I absolutely loved the dynamic between Whip and Emily. They have a great connection from their first meeting and can't deny their attraction to one another. Their chemistry, connection, and banter, and stolen moments are profound. As the story continues, Lena does a great job expanding on this and tells their story perfectly.

3 people found this helpful

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Diane's Kindle

King family

Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2024

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I enjoyed this small town story. We first got the Sullivan family with the King rival being in those books, and now we're learning more about the KING family. The King Family seems to be much darker than the Sullivans. This book's about whip. Of course darker also means they have more troubles and more insecurities but so does the heroin in this story so it fits and it even though they have some dark past which we have yet to uncover it makes for of course a great story I enjoyed whip story and I'm glad it all worked out in the end I'm interested to hear the other king family members and what happens in their stories. If you like small town Romance, I would recommend this it's a great read, easy read. it's very entertaining.

One person found this helpful

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I Need A Book Break

loved this small town forbidden firefighter romance!

Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2024

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This series has been one of my most anticipated of the year! The Sullivan family series by this author was so much fun to read, and I was so excited to start reading about their rival family, the Kings. This book was the perfect introduction to the Kings! I just loved it so much!

Emily needed to start over, so she moved in with her mom and step dad. She meets Whip and has a great night with him, but the next morning she realizes that he works for her dad and is off limits. The two once again run into each other when an emergency happens in Emily’s classroom and Whip is part of the emergency response crew.

Emily is really struggling to find her place in the world. She has such a kind heart and is always looking to help. She has always been such a good girl and doesn’t really know what to do with someone with Whip’s reputation. However, things aren’t always what they seem, and Whip was perfection. He is a hot firefighter with a spicy piercing and filthy mouth. He was also a secret softie, but most people don’t get to see that side of him.

The town of Outtatowner is the perfect fictional small town with the quirky “book club” of Bluebirds running things. The comradery of these meddlesome but quietly powerful women is so endearing and fun to read. Emily seems to fit right in.

In addition to the romance, this book continues the ongoing plot of the origins of the Sullivan/King feud as well as setting up some interesting mysteries involving the King family and its missing matriarch. I’m sure those will be explored during the rest of the series.

Of all the Kings, I am most excited for Royal’s story. I can’t wait to see which King sibling will be next!

2 people found this helpful

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Debbie L. Thune

Just This Once - I'd read over and over

Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2024

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Whip King has nothing to feel insecure about (except his absent mother). His dad is a POS, and all of the King kids know it except that one brother. Whip is a firefighter, and Emily has sworn not to date a firefighter again after her last loser boyfriend cheated on her and made her feel like she was inadequate. Not to mention Emily's dad (step but not) is Whip's boss.

They meet after a really bad blind Valentine's Day date for Emily (whose mom sets the up on a blind date on Valentine's Day with a weirdo?) and she's drowning her sorrows in the candy aisle at the local store. Whip takes her out for a drink and they have a great connection and he turns her entire night from bad to wow. When she realizes he's a firefighter the next morning, she runs. And he's really unhappy about that because a) he has no idea who she is and b) he really felt a connection with her and that's pretty unusual for him.

This is a really easy book to finish in a day (or two) at 329 pages. Nothing super heavy, the love seems to be building naturally. There's a good mystery building and I'm sure we'll get more clues in Able King's book.

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Erika

Spice to Sweet, slight fizzle at the end

Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2024

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Overall another good addition to this Outtatowner world. Each book dives deeper into the Kings, Sullivans, and those quirky townies. This book started spicy with tensions rising, turned sweet, then kind of fizzled out. The third act break up and the lack of follow up on some of the King family issues kind of dampened the story for me. I know that things linked up and moved on for the Sullivan family history with each book so maybe we'll see that with the Kings too? I'm definitely going to find out.

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Giulia

fire drills and all that jazz

Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2024

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I think all is well when it ends well, but my goodness was the constant miscommunication annoying, I get it that not everyone is comfortable blurting out their every thought and feelings but can we just agree to talk, I just can’t with the multiple chapters worth of “but what if they…” because they refuse to honestly communicate with each other.

Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2024

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Loved it! The first book in the kings series was great, with spicy romantic moments, really good character development, a little bit of mystery and some details on the lives of other characters of outtatowner, which I really liked in the Sullivan series! Can't wait for the next kings book 📚😁😁😁

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Top reviews from other countries

Andrea

loved them!

Reviewed in Canada on April 15, 2024

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THE KINGS ARE HERE!!! I couldn’t wait to dive into this series because I knew those men were going to win me over. Whip easily slide himself into one of the fav Lena men (glitter peen and all 😏).

Whip and Emily have quite the meeting when he finds her eating her feelings in the middle of the grocery store. After convincing Emily to join him for drinks this leads to quite a memorial night.

“ I had disrespected her enough for the both of us.”

After that night Emily begins to avoid Whip after learning that he is a firefighter and works for her dad. Only Whip won’t let himself be forgotten and eventually they find each other again and a secret relationship is born.

“You’re my safe place, Prim.”

Emily is a teacher and she has her eye on the teacher position that needs to be filled. I love that she gets the ladies in the BlueBirds to help and brainstorm what she can do to impress the principal.

I honestly devoured this book in one sitting. I was laughing, fanning myself at the spicy scenes and felt my heart ache at the emotional moments.

“How did I make you feel?”

“Like I’d burn down my entire world just to have you.”

There is a certain mystery that comes up that in literally chomping at the bit to solve but that will definitely be down the line in this series.

There is so much more to these King Men and I honestly can’t wait to meet every single one and their FMC counterpart.

Erin | erinsreadingroom

Sorry Team Sullivan... the King family is here to stay ✨

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 17, 2024

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— 4.5 stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

“You have to let someone in if you want them to know the real you. To love the woman you try to hide.”

📖 𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 329 pages
👤 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: Lena Hendrix
🏢 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐫: published independently
📅 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞: 15 April 2024

What you can expect:
— Adult Cotemporary Small Town Romance
— First Person POV
— Dual POV
— Firefighter X Middle School Teacher
— One Night Stand
— She's His Boss's Daughter
— Opposites Attract
— Strangers-To-Lovers
— Small Town Rivalry
— Secret Relationship
— He's *ahem* Pierced

𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: death of a parent (referenced, off-page), child abandonment, child neglect/abuse (suspected), and sexually explicit content.

Just This Once is the first instalment in the King Family series by author Lena Hendrix. Emily is in need of a fresh start. When a part-time teaching position opens up in the small town of Outtatowner where her parents call home, it seemed like the perfect place to start over. When a Valentine's Day date ends in disaster and ends with an unexpected counter with a sexy stranger, Emily is feeling good and never expects to see Whip King again. She has only one rule when it comes to men. No firefighters. Especially not firefights that work for her father. When Emily discovers that Whip does exactly that... she hightails it out of there and never looks back. Months later when a medical emergency occurs in her classroom, the last person Emily expects to walk through the door acting hero is none other than Whip himself. Why are the hot-as-hell men always the ones that are forbidden? Emily can't go there again, and yet who could deny themselves the temptation and forbidden touches? Will Whip and Emily succumb to their undeniable chemistry and realise that 'just this once' will never be enough, or will their relationship burn to flames before they ever begin?

I'm coming to very quickly realise that every single thing that author Lena Hendrix writes... I will not only read and love. I absolutely adored the Sullivan Family series and very quickly found myself hoping for a spin-off series featuring the Kings, and my god has my wish came through. Just This Once was an effortless read filled with a strong cast of characters and engaging interactions that made me unable to put the book down. I was well and truly a Sullivan girly until Whip King came into my life... and now I'm questioning my allegiance. I had an absolute blast seeing a snippet of the King/Sullivan feud from the other side of the dynamic, and I cannot wait to learn from in future instalments of the series.

If Whip King is a walking red flag then red is suddenly my favourite colour. THIS MAN. Swoon. Whip's arrogant swagger and sinful smile had me swooning from beginning to end. This man knows how to seduce and I loved every single second of it. Most importantly, I loved to see the softer and more emotionally vulnerable side to his character that we hadn't otherwise been introduced to. This intimate insight enabled me as a reader to better connect with Whip emotionally outsight of the superficial characteristics, and I loved being able to watch him grow and learn as we further divulge into the plot. Whip is the entire package with the... piercing to match. My Google search results looked dodgy-as whilst I was trying to figure out what, exactly, his piercing was. I consider myself educated and my eyes have well and truly been opened. The development between Whip and Emily was so sweet and I love how Whip became the champion for their relationship whilst Emily addressed her own fears and insecurities. I appreciated the efforts put into his grovelling near the end of the story, and honestly I don't think there's a single fault that I can find in that man. Whip and Emily are utterly perfect for one another and getting to follow their journey was a true joy, and I cannot wait to see what these two get up to with their cameos in future books.

Emily has carried her reputation as a "good girl" very close to her chest until she finally let go and allowed herself herself one forbidden night with a stranger. Too bad she quickly discovered the hot and mysterious stranger was a firefighter who worked for her father and should have been entirely off limits. Honestly, I can understand Emily's hesitation and split-decision panic. After a disastrous end to her previous relationship left her feeling raw and emotionally vulnerable, I can understand her reluctance in letting somebody new in. I loved Whip's overall tenderness and care towards Emily which helped soften her tough exterior and allow the 'true' Emily to shine through. Their chemistry was magnetizing and alluring, and I was constantly left in stitches as a result of their banter-filled interactions. Emily and Whip have to be two of the most bull-headed and stubborn characters that I've ever read... and yet it worked. Their communications skills were slippery at some moments and I at times found myself wishing that I had the ability to reach into the page and shake some sense into them. Thankfully Emily and Whip ultimately realised what really mattered was being together and put in the work to improve their communication skills. Emily's flaws and complexities as a character only made me adore her more. Her need to emotionally protect herself is innately human and cannot be faulted, and I was really proud of the work she put into her own development.

I'm sorry Team Sullivan... it looks like I'm jumping ship to Team King. Just This Once is easily my favourite Lena Hendrix book yet, and I'm beyond excited for the future of this series!

Lakshmi Praveen

Kings are coming in hot

Reviewed in India on April 15, 2024

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Whip King, I mean let me introduce myself I'm Emily Ward. The end!! Yes that's me claiming a King but sshh don't tell the Sullivan family, I love them too. But I did not expect Whip to be so much more and amazing. Talk about golden retriever and cinnamon roll vibes , you get Whip King. A ONS with Emily has Whip questioning what he wants in life and as fate has it, everything clicks in place. Emily I just adore her, the fierceness she has over her middle school students is so wonderful. This story give us so much insight that has been nigging for me since the previous series and boy am glad for this series. The kooky town I just love. And so good to see those familiar faces. Kings are so much more than inane pranks. And my heart bleeds for them. Perfect small town romance for me. Can't wait for the rest of the series.

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Amazon Customer

just this once ( The Kings)

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 23, 2024

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This is a great story and the character's almost jump off the pages,it gets a bit confusing trying to keep all the nicknames straight but it was good fun to read,and there's plenty of spice too.

Esther

one-night-stand to obsessed

Reviewed in Canada on April 22, 2024

Verified Purchase

Every time I think that Lena has written my new favourite book, she goes ahead and writes an even better book with the next release. And as much as I loved the Sullivans, I knew that I was a King girlie from the second that they appeared on page. I knew these broken babies were going to worm their way into my heart and stay there. I’m so excited that Whip King and Emily are in the world now! I’m such a sucker for a man who is one-night-stand to obsessed, and Whip is king in so many more than one regard. He was Whip(ped) from the moment he met Emily. I just really loved the way that the two of them made each other better and helped heal. Lena set up the new suspense element for the Kings so marvelously and I cannot wait to see how they uncover the mystery of their missing mother! I am so excited to watch the rest of the Kings find their own HEAs.

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Just This Once (The Kings) Kindle Edition

From the Publisher

Amazon #1 bestselling author Kandi Steiner says...

When you're finally ready to be kissed again...I'm going to make you beg for it

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About the author

Lena Hendrix

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