Review: Bittersweet by Sarina Bowen
Sarina Bowen kicks off her True North series with a delightful second chance romance that’s full of heart.
Sarina Bowen kicks off her True North series with a delightful second chance romance that’s full of heart.
Idol definitely satisfied by rock star romance craving. The typical formula for this trope goes something like this. A rock god lives a life filled with tons of groupie sex. He meets the one woman who won’t jump into bed with him which makes him want her even more. Once they hook up, he’s reformed and becomes a one-woman man. Regardless of its predictability, it’s a setup that works for me. Idol enhances that theme and it’s a nice variation.
It’s official. I’m in love with the Winston brothers. Like so crazy, madly, deeply in love I’d be willing to go full-on Sister Wives for them. I’m not exactly sure how I went from reading a sweet Rom-Com to considering polygamy, but I blame Penny Reid. Damn her and her ridiculously talented mind, the magnetic and quirky characters she creates, and her clever humor. These attributes are on full display in Grin and Beard It, and it’s all kinds of awesome.
This is book porn, plain and simple. I like my smut in small amounts, and I practically overdosed while reading Backstage Pass. There’s a ton of sex—like scene after scene after scene of E-R-O-T-I-C sex—but virtually no plot.
Audiobook review. I’m not a huge fan of audiobooks. Narrators’ voices can grate on my nerves, my mind wanders so I have to constantly rewind, and the pacing frustrates me. I can read a book in half the time it takes to listen to one, and if I increase the speed the voices sound even more annoying. Color me surprised then that I enjoyed the Beneath This Mask audiobook so much. The story held my interest and the voice actors are phenomenal.
I really enjoyed this conclusion to the Dirty Girl Duet. Dirty Love picks up right where the jaw-dropping cliffhanger left off, and it gains steam from there. Speaking of steam, Dirty Love is aptly named. You need to have a fan, cold shower, change of panties, or something on hand because Cav speaks dirty talk fluently, and this little gem is one dirty, dirty, dirty, panty-melting read. I mentioned it’s dirty, right?
When You’re Ready is a sweet second chance romance. Clare is a widowed mother of a preschooler, Maddie. She’s doing a fantastic job raising her daughter alone, but is neglecting her needs as a woman. Logan is a successful ER doctor, but he’s rather self-loathing and is essentially sleepwalking through life instead of opening himself up to any meaningful relationships. Life changes for both of them when Clare brings Maddie into the ER one night.
Renée Carlino is one heck of a writer. The characters she brings to life have great depth, and her stories are well plotted and very engaging, with awesome angst mixed in. Sweet Thing is no exception.
One word: Cliffhanger. I want to put it out there up front because the blurb doesn’t indicate there’s a cliffy, and this book has a heck of a one. The Anatomy of Jane is a departure for J.J. McAvoy, writing under the pen name Amelia LeFay, and she successfully crosses over into the male/male (and male/male/female!) romance sub-genre in a story that is intoxicating and erotic.
I’ve got to admit I was a smidge skeptical about Devil’s Kiss. As much as I adore Ella Frank’s writing, Finley, the precursor to this book, missed the mark for me somewhat, but man oh man does she deliver the goods with this one. I absolutely loved it, but I do not recommend reading Devil’s Kiss without reading Finley first.
Reading One True Loves felt a lot like falling in love. For me, it started out as a hesitant attraction to the story and quickly evolved into a passionate affair. I was fully invested and wanted the wonderful feeling to last. As things evolved, however, and complications arose, I braced myself for heartache. I was no longer certain what a fairy tale ending looked like. I just knew the love story would end, and someone would wind up getting hurt.
Why didn’t someone tell me about R.K. Lilley, and specifically about Breaking Him, before now?! This story is like book crack—positively addictive and emotionally lethal. It gutted me time and time again, and I couldn’t get enough.