June 30, 2020 - Staff Reviews

Better Than Sexy

By Carly Phillips
Release Date: February 25th, 2020
*Ebook Available from WV Reads!*

https://wvreads.overdrive.com/media/4849035

3 Stars - A short entry into crossover trilogy that’s fast and fun. Free library
copy makes it pefect for a summer afternoon. Club owner Landon hires sweet,
new-to-the-scene singer Vivienne. But their families and pasts keep them apart. The
connection there makes for quite a bit of tension, romantic and suspense wise.

I think I need to emphasize this is a quick read and pricey for an Ebook if
purchasing. The plot doesn’t feel bare bones nor the dialouge but it’s a
straightforward story without red herrings or added drama. Landon falls in love with
Vivi pretty much on the spot, as his fellow club owners and friends did with their
leading ladies in the prior two entries. He is a nice guy, but also protective and
street smart. And his personal struggles with his brother’s history and his own
troubled memories give us a guy to root for. He’s finding his way back to music.
Vivi’s life is music but in an admirable way. She still loves her mom and best
friend and refuses to compromise her principles.

Minimal spoilers I think for the last two books here. I read one but not two and
flowed just fine. Phillips’ has always had some variety in her heroes and heroines
from their appearances to personalities. There used to be more PI and cop heroes but
now it’s been business types. The heroines now have a little more life direction
than in her early books. She’s fortunately, I think, not one to venture from the
heart of a romance novel being the love story. Many others in the contemporary genre
have shifted it seems to more comedy or more gentle pace/relaxing setting. Her
writing is heartfelt and at times humorous, but it’s about the couple and not the
banter or the location. Only a few complaints. A couple editing errors pop up but
not to a distraction. And in my opinion, more could have been done to flesh out the
story and then less push and pull between the main characters. 

(NS)