Heat Factor: It’ll get your heart racing…then swelling with sweet, sweet romance…then racing again. Just pretty much that, over and over again.
Character Chemistry: They’re really, truly adorable.
Plot: CEO travels to island paradise to meet his idol AND swing the deal of a lifetime and ends up pissing off said idol, biffing the whole deal, and falling head over heels in love instead. Challenged trust! Heart wrenching devotion! Feelings! Feelings!!
Overall: There’s absolutely nothing wrong with knowing how something is going to end when the ride is so enjoyable, and this one just is.
Two things are very clear by the end of the first chapter – you know how this is going to play out, and it doesn’t really matter that you do.
Alex and Callie fall in love hard and fast, and you kind of fall in love with them that way too. The thing is that ALL the characters are just genuinely likeable (except one, but that’s ok and I won’t spoil it for you) and the setting is relaxed and steamy and luxuriously aimless. Despite their obvious wealth and status, the author doesn’t spend a ton of time fixating on how wealthy they are – their lifestyles are relevant to the plot and she certainly peppers it with details, but she doesn’t lay it on too thick. So I felt like I could identify with these characters despite having almost nothing in common with them at all. There are layers of what love is in this book too – parents loving their kids, friends doing whatever they can to help, long-married people keeping the fires lit – so your heart just kind of swells with emotion on a near constant basis.
I started to feel like Callie was babied a little bit in a way that tickled my indignance–her dad is very old-fashioned and borders on treating her like a child which just didn’t mesh with the fact that she was obviously assertive and talented enough to get into Wharton and to succeed in a male-dominated field–but I was glad I suspended that judgment because it does make sense as things unfold.
This is a classic enemies-to-lovers and the trope holds true – so if you don’t like knowing the basic arc you may feel a little impatient. But if you’re a Happily-Ever-After chasing, gotta-have-those-tingles, big-gestures-make-you-weak-in-the-knees-type Smut Reader, you’ll really enjoy the ride of this one.
I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.
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