The plan for Cici Carrington was to steadily climb UP the corporate ladder, and hopefully do so without her skirt tucked into the back of her underpants. Unfortunately, there was no contingency plan for the aftermath of spending a night trapped in an elevator with a suit-wearing Elevator Sex God named Cole Danvers. A one…or two-time dalliance wouldn’t normally throw off the course of someone’s life…unless you find out you have to work together the next day.
To further complicate matters, Cici’s best friend is also her Human Resources Director. She has to hide her secret from every person she knows. Her only confidant is her one-eyed cat, and his loyalty is tenuous at best. Toss in an accidental mugging, a bungled disguise, secret meetings, and unintentional arson, and Cici’s beautiful, careful plan has fallen by the wayside.
Perhaps there aren’t any hard and fast rules in life. Sometimes you can have your cake and eat it too. Sometimes following the rules doesn’t get you ahead.
And perhaps sometimes you can get off between floors…
*****4.5 FREAKING HYSTERICAL STARS***** {ARC Generously Provided by Author}
I never thought of myself as a swoony girly-girl, but I was swooning lately. Oh, I was swooning like no one had ever swooned before. Tales of my swooniness would be told for generations. I was probably counterbalancing the women's suffrage movement with how hard I was swooning.
Honestly, I had never heard of Katherine Stevens before I picked up this book, but now after having finished it, this woman is definitely going to be on my radar!! What an awesome feeling to find a new author to love!! The cover and the synopsis piqued my interest but the story reeled me in hook, line, and sinker!! I lost count over how many times I laughed out loud. This book is non-stop laughs but with a healthy dose of panty melting steam to boot!
Cici Carrington is a beautiful, quirky and single girl who lives in a tiny one-bedroom apartment with her one-eyed cat, Leroy, on the lower east side of Manhattan. She works at an advertising agency with her bestie, who is equally if not more quirky than Cici is. One night after quitting time she ends up getting on an elevator with a devilishly handsome man who’s wearing a suit that looks like it was tailor-made to fit his beautiful body!! Her luck gets even better when the elevator breaks down and she is stuck with Mr. Suit Wearing Hottie for HOURS!!!! After hours of chit chat and fun banter, one thing leads to another and clothes are being ripped off and they are having the HOTTEST & LOUDEST sex of their lives!!! Plans are made to meet up again soon but things get a whole lot more complicated when Cici gets a promotion and HR has hired a new assistant for her. The assistant turns out to be Cole Danvers, the HOTTIE Sex God from the elevator!! This throws a huge curveball for them as there is a strict no fraternization rule at work. At first, I was a little disappointed. I wanted him to be her boss. Somehow I thought it would be sexier if he was a man with power, but I couldn’t have been more wrong!!
The no fraternization rules don’t exactly stop these two from having sex on the regular in Cici’s office and the woman isn’t the least bit quiet during the act. You know that it’s inevitable that the two will get busted and that only helped to keep me on pins and needles every time they threw caution to the wind and would engage in all kinds of hot & dirty sex in the office!! And, OMG, this story was so hysterical! Cici is the biggest nerd and completely accident prone, and yet Cole couldn’t get enough of her. I fell so completely in love with Mr. Cole Danvers!! He really is ever girl’s dream and worthy of top book boyfriend status!!
This is definitely a book you need to add to your TBRs and try to get to it ASAP!!! I will be keeping Katherine Stevens on my radar from now on and will read anything written by this woman!
And my judgy family as I made my way through Going Down
Cici and Cole were a stellar mix of hilarious and steamy but be warned, the instalove is strong between these two. Any man that can laugh off accidentally being set on fire in an oiled up Chewbacca costume while attempting to get down and dirty with his woman is aces in my book.
Folks looking for subtle humor may have to look elsewhere for their good time book, but this was a right place, right time read for me.
Funny and silly romantic comedy with some really great and witty banter. Cici's dialogue was extremely funny (especially her inner dialogue) along with her best friend Maggie and not to mention Leroy the cat. I love that she gets into messes so often that she simply states "there was an incident "and you generally get the idea from what has already happened in the story so far. The "incident" with the fire in her apartment (second time) had me laughing really hard. If you don't take this book too seriously and suspend just a little disbelief it is a fabulous read. I really like this author's way with words and this is a wonderful first book. It didn't bother me that it was sort of insta-love (or insta-lust) between Cole and Cici as it is the premise of the story. She finds out after their first meeting in a stalled elevator that she is going to be his boss. Hence he programmed his number in her phone under Elevator Sex God. Cole comes across as warm, fun and not intimidated in any way by working "under a woman". I just wish that we would have got more of his POV as a central character and I probably would have given this a 5 star rating.
Do you need a funny read? One giving similar vibes as “The Heat” with Sandra Bullock or “Hangover”? Well you’ll love Going Down. This book was a gathering of blunders with the clumsy main character collecting all the faux pas you can imagine.
Let me introduce you to the cast:
The main character: Cici. Wild dark hair, single living with her beloved cat (see below) she has many funny quirks and among others she yells the name of one of the American presidents while coming. A real klutz, she runs into impossible situations she explains with the coded words “There was an incident”. Said incidents ranging from colliding with a mime covered in gold body paint spilling coffee and trapping her shoe in his belt in the process to waxing her “Garden of Eden” without strips and ending with her legging stuck “there”. She’s also an unintentional pyromaniac in her free time.
Her best friend: Maggie. HR director at Cici’s firm she comes from old family and old money. Blonde with a good upbringing, she’s kind of the “ultimate fangirl.” Once she’s found a new interest, she throws herself completely into it. She had a trucker fetish at the time of the story, barely recovering from her superheroes love. Her code words “Over and Out” and Cici must give her line “10-4, good buddy” (too much CB in her trucker’s fan phase). She takes Cici in all her wild and hazardous fan quests.
The Elevator Sex God (aka new assistant): Cole Tall with light brown hair and vivid blue eyes. Wearing a suit like it was crafted specifically for his body. Dazzling smile. Graduated with honors from Yale. Huge sex drive when Cici’s in the vicinity and absolute tolerance to her craziness. He has an odd family and is used to pranks.
Cici’s cat: Leroy Half blind cat possessing in attitude what he lacks in patience. Doesn’t take crap from anyone. Bad habit: licks its bum a lot.
Now, all these characters mingle and interact happily to deliver a “laugh out loud” story evolving around forbidden love affair at the office. The plot is quite simple but what it lacks in complexity it makes up in impossibly comical scenes and funny/crazy banter between the main protagonists.
Just to give you some taste, this is Cici and Cole’s first encounter, in the famous elevator. Cici’s speaking: ”Are you going down on me – with me? Are you going down? To the first floor I mean.” Smooth Cici, real smooth! Cole’s reply later ”Do I come to this elevator often?” “No, I’m a first timer” And to dig her grave further, Cici answers :”A Virgin? Lucky for you, I can show you the ropes.” Really that girl put her foot in her mouth so many times! I don’t know how the author wrote all these mortifying moments. Maybe Katherine Stevens is a klutz in real life? Or knows one? Or watches numerous funny movies? Because this book is an unending trail of “She just not did this!” moments.
After “The Elevator” affair, Cici realizes she has to work with said suit sex god and tries to go incognito to her office, hiding behind sun glasses and a huge brim hat. Admire her stealthy walk:”I stuck my head out of the stairwell door like a prairie dog checking to see if the coast was clear.”
So it all was light, funny, uncomplicated, low on angst and I had a great time. My only complaint to give a true 4 to 5 stars: I would have liked more subtle and touching moments to evolve from the big jokes to funny but soul-moving story.
This made me laugh so hard at times, I peed myself a little. At first I thought there were too many funny parts (how is that a bad thing?), but then the writing style started to grow on me. Maybe I was just in a better mood reading it. The reason for minusing one star is because the sex scenes were more fleshed out than more important ones, making it feel as though the couple was more in lust than in love. Overall, a great, funny read though. I'll be looking out for more by this author.
This story has its moments, at least, the protagonist could run for “best of bloopers” on YouTube, but while I love clever badinage (emphasis on clever) and hilarious, over-the-top romances, I'm not a fan of cringy insta-lust-insta-love-off-the-charts-libido stories.
When I pick a romance novel I want a quick read and a palate-cleanser, I’m not looking for the next literary masterpiece so as long as it's fun, grammatical, the sex scenes are decent and the heroine has a modicum of self-respect, I'm good to go.
I wasn't so lucky.
"When the elevator dinged its arrival, I lunged toward the doors, only to stop short when I took in the specimen before me. Oh my. If I had pearls, I’d clutch them. To describe this being as only but a mere man would be an egregious slight."
This should have been my first cue. The second wasn't long in coming:
“So,” I began against my better judgment. “You come here often?” I tentatively lifted my hand to my forehead to see if I could actually feel the lobotomy scar. No one with a full brain said things like that. “Do I come to this elevator often?” My wet dream incarnate asked. He laughed and it sounded like a combination of all the happy sounds ever. “No, I’m a first timer.” “A virgin? Lucky for you, I can show you the ropes.”
This is not funny, not by a long shot. There’s more:
"“Sorry! I’m so sorry!” I was doing my best impression of Van Gogh’s The Scream."
....uh, verbatim. Then the two protagonists, stuck in the aforementioned elevator trade sibling stories and share food without a care in the world (and without raising tension or creating chemistry). If nothing else they wait for morning breath to get down to business:
“Well, if I had to get trapped in a decrepit elevator with anyone, I’m glad it was with you.” I smiled sweetly and brushed the hair out of my face, only to get my fingers stuck in a veritable rat’s nest. [...] Cole helped extract my hand from my hair with no small effort. “The feeling is mutual, and I think you look quite stunning.”"
Orly?
“I was wondering, since we’ve technically spent the night together, if it would be too forward of me to kiss you?”
I'm all aflutter.
"Cole leaned forward and moved his hand to the back of my neck. Time slowed to a snail’s pace. It was not without great restraint that I stifled a moan when our lips connected. I wanted to change my forwarding address to those lips."
Clearly the author was going for comical and, curious, I plodded along.
"He stopped kissing me abruptly and my lips started going through the five stages of grief.”
(hint: I should have stopped, too).
“I think I’m doing this backward.” “Backward is good. I’m okay with backward.”
Oh, good, at least we’re going somewhere. It’s getting better! Not:
"I gently kissed the tip of his beef whistle, and it jerked at my touch."
A few lines later:
"Swallowing a mouthful of baby juice wasn’t the ideal ending for a location without access to running water"
I agree but is this supposed to be fun? I made it as far as "He shifted himself so that his flesh flute was aligned with my lady garden." then skimmed a few pages and all too soon my eyes landed on some “Fuck, baby, you feel amazing,” and “Oh, fuck, baby!”
... Well. I can't connect with this brand of humour. Bottom line, this is probably an entertaining book but not for me. DNF at 20%.
Comedy is hard. It’s not easy. Doing it differently than everyone else is even harder. So hard.
Stevens is hilarious. I’m not even kidding. This story astounded me. Because she created new funny. She’s smart funny, too. But she dragged jokes out of her head and hands that no one has done before.
The plot is tight. The characters are on point. Cici is the main character that you will connect with on a sharing to much information on a late night drink kind of level. The laughing out loud is real. The sex has slippery holes and everything else a romance needs.
Do you love discovering a new author? God, I love that. It’s like making a new, true friend. Today you get a new one. I promise you will adore it. You deserve to laugh today. I want you to put your beautiful giggles into this universe today. This book will do that.
Nice going, Cici. You just porked your new assistant right in the damn company elevator.
Well, this was fun! ... for about 20 pages or so, but then the jokes became repetitive and the vivacious Cici turned into a whimpering damsel without an ounce of self-esteem or self-reliance. I picked this novel up to read on a long trip and to enjoy some harmless fun with scandalous office romance. That's exactly what the novel delivers, with a lot of funny, if often cringeworthy one-liners:
I swear, there must be something in the water here. I've seen pornos with actors who were less amped up about sex than the employees here.
or, I was probably counterbalancing the women's suffrage movement with how hard I was swooning.
or, My mobile downloads were solely comedies. Dramas and chick flics were reserved for nights alone with my cat, a pint of ice cream, and ratty yoga pants.
I believe my main issue with the progress of the story is the shift of focus from screwball comedy to typical Hollywood rom-com, where a misunderstanding leads to the separation of the lovers, to be of course reunited in the end after the storm clouds clear. I believe Katherine Stevens has the talent to write a funny, tongue-in-cheek story, but she should be less conventional in plotting and avoid downbeat scenes, which where mostly unconvincing.
I was planning to read the sequels, but after six months on the back-burner, I don't think I will bother. As an alternative fun read in the rom-com genre , one my top favorites is 'Bellwether' by Connie Willis.
I expected to laugh but I didn't expect it to be from start to finish. Going Down was a riot. I don't think, to my recollection, that I've actually laughed so hard that it resulted in tears but it happened while I read this. At one point I almost choked on my coffee!
Cici, the female lead character, was a funny woman with verbal diarrhea. I enjoyed her so much. She had her quirks such as yelling former presidential names when she climaxed, yes I'm not kidding and it was hilarious! Her roommate was her one eyed cat Leroy who also had his quirks just like his owner. It was an exciting ride to watch Cici meet the attractive Cole and connect with him in a stalled elevator. I felt their attraction instantly and he was such a great opponent to Cici. Their relationship was romantic and funny. Cici's best friend Maggie was hilarious too and also had her weird ways. They had their own way of communicating and it only added to the laughs.
Katherine Stevens definitely delivered a romance comedy that I fell in love with. Her writing was fresh, flawless and just flowed. I couldn't stop reading. She's definitely an author I'm going look out for in the future.
I defintley liked Cole a lot!! This one is a cute funny office romance read. [image error]
Cole tapped on my open door as he walked in. "Mind if I come in?" "Not at all, Mr. Danvers. Please come in for a completely professional meeting between two employees." I spoke entirely louder than necessary. The door clicked behind him. "I'm certain that threw everyone off our scent."
I had high hopes for this one, because it sounds really cute. And to be honest it's quite well written, there is some quirky fun banter. I liked Cole a lot. I just don't get to super dizzy and over the top clumsy heroine parts, they for some reason never work for me. The chemistry is great, but the insta-lust was just too much for me. In fact the office tumbles- every other page- kinda started working on my nerves. Some of the banter was just a tad to quirky for me. It felt a bit like it was trying too hard. Oh and I am aware that I'll be a minority here. I think loads of my GR friends would love this, in fact I would recommend it to many of them. It's just not for me.
I pick these up when I need to break up my erotica, dom/alpha, romance reading preference.
It's exactly what I expected it to be. I laughed, I cried laughed and then I laughed some more. I like smart comedy and this book crosses over into silly and slapstick a little too often for my taste but as a whole I liked it a lot. Cole was perfect (sigh, swoon) but Cici the heroine was a bit too much of an airhead a lot of the times for me to rate this 5 stars.
It was fun and I recommend it if, like me, you like a change of pace once in a while.
3.5* OTT funny stars This is essentially an office romance however you could not put this baby in a box. It is the over the top crazy life of a girl her wacky best friend and sexy male assistant. Not much I can say about this one without telling the whole story as there is not much substance but what there was, was very funny and entertaining. Your vocabulary of the human genital area will grow if you read this as I think the author tried to cram in as many different names for the areas as she could, almost like she was in a contest or something. In saying that I have got some really heavy things happening on the work front at the moment and was stealing snippets of reading time when I could. I must have looked like a freak laughing at myself. Thanks for the laugh Katherine, I needed it.
Gone, but not forgotten. I loved this book JACKHAMMER HARD! One of the funniest, most entertaining books I've read. Never got around to doing the review, and my memory is sketchy about the details 5 years later, so I can't do it justice. It's one of those stuck in the elevator dalliances that turns into a comedy of errors in 244 delightful pages. Noticed today that it's no longer available on Amazon ... or anywhere? It's a damn shame. Just sayin', this was a sleeper hit of hysterical laughs and sexy chemistry that you should read if you ever get the chance. Keep your eyes peeled ... maybe it'll be back. I should have bought it when I had the chance instead of reading on KU.
“Life is complicated. If you can find someone who wants to walk with you through all of this mess, then that’s the most uncomplicated thing there is. All the rest of it is just noise.”
You know when a book answers how you’re feeling by taking you where you desperately need to go? Well Going Down did just that. It picked us up and took us up, up and away. We needed to laugh, swoon, laugh and yeah laugh. This book delivered a story that was light, low on angst, high on humour and so easy to read we glided through it.
‘I could listen to him read an airplane vomit bag and be riveted. There was something about the way his mouth moved and the tenor of his voice. It was almost pornographic how his lips caressed words. I wanted him to keep talking forever.’
Cici is one of the funniest, laid back heroines we’ve come across and we loved her from the get go and whilst we’re not big fans of cats, Leroy is the best we’ve met. Their relationship is matched by Cici and her best mate Maggie, an ode to all that’s funny, a comedy sketch in motion, a comedic duo we rarely see but love top meet. You’ll read it and want to be Maggie’s friend because this girl is a complete riot. You just couldn’t anticipate what was going to be said or transpire next, it was hysterical.
“Good morning. How was your weekend?”
“I spent it with my irrational best friend who was looking for her soul mate at a truck stop. It went as expected.”
Cici meets a sexy stranger in confined circumstances when their lift breaks down. Stuck in there for hours on end they use the time to the best of their advantage and whilst Steven Tyler serenaded us in our heads this elevator didn’t go down but many other sexy things certainly did. A connection was made and it’s not until the next day the complications of that said connection gets laid…..out too….A funny, disastrous and eventful journey begins which really had us giggling and swooning. It was smooth and sticky, hot and hairy….chewie and wonder…full!
‘Then he said the words you never ever want to hear when a man has his face in your pink panther.’
This author is lovely but unfortunately the story wasn't great. I didn't warm to the characters. They felt forced and one-liner-ish. The constant rehash joke of naming his cock was awful. It felt like a first time fanfic. The plot seemed rushed, especially at the end. Had no emotional depth due to its formulaic structure and plastic characters.
What could be done better. I'll definitely give this author another go. Just this story was not what I had hoped for. The characters need to be developed. The corny stuff was over the top for all three main characters. What I would have liked to see is them actually working. Not just 'I can't help myself when you're available' sex in the office. Almost caught nearly every time. HR best friend seeming to cover for her just before the big bosses enter without knowing they were having sex. Even though she's the best friend? Even though they were screaming?
I felt the big bosses (especially the nephew) really had no reason to be in the story except to have them fired. Cole was hired just before the big move to the new offices and yet that move didn't take place for ages.
There's no UST except in the elevator. There's no trying to stay away. I didn't feel the threat of them losing their jobs cause they never seemed to be doing any work. You didn't see the love of their jobs. It seemed like no big deal.
There was potential here but these ideas and tropes need to be fleshed out.
Again, great potential but just didn't work. I didn't buy into the characters, the love story or the impending disaster. The places the plot should have slowed down and should have been built upon, were rushed. Hope for that to be sorted out in future books from this author.
I love a romantic comedy and it is clear from the beginning that Katherine Stevens is a very funny lady. Going Down is deliciously sexy and wickedly fun. For a debut novel this story was well written and very entertaining, Cici and Cole have an instant attraction when stuck in a broken elevator together and that instant attraction turned into a instant hook up. all is well and good until Cici finds out that Cole is her new assistant making her his boss. UH OH!
“I don’t think very clearly when you do that thing you do.” “What thing is that?” he asked as I raced toward the door. “That thing where you stand there and breathe and just generally exist on the planet.”
Going Down left me in a state of constant smiles and all around good feelings. The perfect antidote to a tough day, week, month or year. I loved Cole and he had me swooning all over the place. Cici was fun and strong and when she was with her BFF Maggie hilarity soon ensued. For a first book Katherine Stevens did a good job and I am excited to see what she gives us in the future.
A friend talked to me about this one and what sold me out was that she described it as full of sarcasm and very funny stuff.
And it was very funny indeed !! I laughed a lot and i fell easily into the story because the writing was engaging. Cole was the perfect man : funny, smart and of course sexy ^^ I really liked Cici too she was a bit crazy but still endearing.
My big pet peeve though is the name calling of genital parts during sexy scenes, that just was weird lol. After a while it became a little too much for my taste...
I really love romantic comedy and especially when it's fun (in a smart way lol) and easy but it was hard to feel anything (just a connexion even !) a bit serious.
Anyway, i'm glad i picked it up and i wouldn't mind knowing more about her best friend ! We'll see ...
OH GOD!!! One must be dead after laughing this much but I'm still alive. Thank goodness :v If you want one book with witty bffs, easy breezy romance, hilarious characters, one eyes monster of a cat and no villains. This book is for you. Tada!
Going Down is so awesome!! It’s hilarious, romantic and sexy as hell!! Katherine Stevens has won a special spot in my collection of Rom-Com authors, her writing style is clever and funny, she created awesome characters, Cece and Cole were perfect for each other, and Leroy the cat is the best—I wonder if Leroy would be friends with Steve The Cat from the Ginazule Series by Debra Anastasia *chuckles*—and the storyline in this book was so fascinating and one ending I didn’t see coming at all. Well done, Katherine! Can’t wait for more books for the series and any other book you write!!
This book was exactly what I needed after a few heavy hitters with cliff hangers. It's light and funny and the humor was on point the entire time.
Cici is a great leading lady. She fun, smart, laid back and her internal dialog makes me feel like I'm not crazy. Her best friend Maggie is someone we all want for a friend. She was so love-able and full of sass. These two are definitely ones you want to hang out with.
Cole, man I wish we could have more of him. I would of loved to have gotten his POV in this book. He was a great leading man to pair with Cici. You can tell he was sex in a suit and we want more.
The only reason I didn't rate this a 5 was because....insta love. I never enjoy it. This book does rate higher then most insta love books I read because I felt Katherine did so well on everything else. It's only 200 some pages but this book packs a punch in humor and swoon. I do recommend you picking this up and reading it.
5 Stars: Kindle Unlimited Read My absolute favorite and will read again and again. I strongly recommend! It has outstanding qualities. The characters are wonderful and surprising and multi-dimensional. The writing is luring, engaging, and well-crafted enough to keep me interested from cover to cover and beyond. The plot is astonishing with twists and turns weaved into a well thought and planned story. There’s no pretense and romance was well balanced and done entirely correctly with properly distributed amounts of hints, behaviors and incredible, undeniable chemistry. Predictability is at an all-time low. With the exception of series based books that follow the same path but are just as good. Overall, Favorite, must read again, recommend!!!
At times the book was rather funny...and I loved that about it. But there was just too many 'incidents' with the lead character Cici...And it was just too cheesy for me. Cute if you like this sort of thing
This was laugh out loud funny! Cici was a hoot and Cole was precious. My only complaint is that Cici had tons of names for their private parts and it got a little old. Other than that, this was perfect :)
I had read this months ago, and while browsing thru books I found that their was more to this series, soooo I had to read again to refresh my memory and unfortunately for me I had forgotten how I truly enjoyed this book, it is hilarious. Cici and Cole were awesome together, I loved them..It would have been a tragedy had they stayed separated. They belonged together and their chemistry was great. Cici's friend Maggie was crazy in the best sense..Please read you will be happy you did. Enjoy!!