Saturday, May 1, 2021

May 1, 2021 - Staff Reviews


 

Sweet Cheeks
By K. Bromberg
Release Date: July 17, 2020
Ebook Available from WV Reads!


3 Stars - A likable romance that's less comedy more drama. Saylor and Hayes are a cute half-celebrity couple but I'm not sure if I was expecting more or less from the plotline. If you don't mind some extra angst and questionable main character decisions, this steamy second chance romance is a worthwhile read.

Bromberg's books seem to fall just short of memorable for me. I forget that I've read a couple until I pick up another and then look back. I expect Sweet Cheeks will be more of the same looking back. She's got an excellent command of dialouge, romantic tension, and sweet characters. But their decisions and motives are never clear to me. Perhaps it's a personality thing. Saylor is upset that her ex-fiancee has converted their plans to his new wedding and invited her to boot. But it unfortunately isn't that simple. Along comes her childhood sweetheart Hayes who happens to be a famous actor and he wants to play white-knight and her wedding date all in one role. He admirably wants to make up for leaving her as a teenager.

When a scene didn't grab me I was rolling my eyes. I found the script-reading and the storm scene over-the-top, for example. Also I got whiplash sometimes. Saylor is a new, struggling baker but she already worked from home to fill orders. She loved Mitch but left because he ignored her. He was a bad guy but only because she still loved Hayes. Hayes left for Hollywood knowing he hurt Saylor. Haynes never meant to leave for 10 years though. They want to go to the wedding to shut down gossip and save her bakery from scandal but create scandal by going. The wedding was Saylor's but planned by Mitch's mom. I couldn't see Mitch as a villian. In fact, with the exception of one near sexual-assault flashback (which is never again mentioned), there's no clear moment in this book of Hayes rescuing Saylor at all. But he's got a good heart and is crazy good in bed (the steamy scenes are R rated in this one). Saylor's confused but some people never got over teenage relationship trauma and she's got a spitfire attitude. So just hang on for the ride with this one.

(NS)

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