Liz Loves Books
I love to read and to talk about books. I review many of the books I read. I do not accept any author/publisher submissions for reviews. I do not read or review ARCs. I do not enter any giveaways or contests. I obtain the books I review by purchasing them at the same price they are offered to the general public at the time of purchase. My reviews are intended for the use of my fellow readers. They are not advertising or promotion. They are not beta reads or constructive criticism or editing or advice to the author. My only obligation to the author is to pay the price charged for the book at the time of purchase. My reviews are sometimes critical and I will not stop posting critical reviews just to spare delicate authors' feelings. I am happy to make new friends, but friend requests from authors or promoters who have few or no books (and/or friends) in common with me and write or promote categories I do not read (especially new adult) will be ignored. I used to read more self-published books. After recent meltdowns by self-published authors, I now only read self-published authors I've previously read or who have been recommended to me by fellow readers I trust. I also used to read young adult/new adult books but rarely do so now.
This is a very good book. I recommend it.
Please don't be put off by the title or cover art! Or all the high star reviews on goodreads. In this rare case, I think they are accurate.
I grabbed this from the back of the erotica collection on one of my older kindles. I was looking for some silly weekend smut. What I got was a heroine who made me question, think, cheer, laugh and occasionally cringe and a story that kept me completely engrossed all weekend. It was longer, more complex, much less smutty and much more thought provoking than I could possibly have expected it to be. And funny! This book is so very funny. (I was sometimes as embarrassed for the heroine as I was amused but by the end I felt that just added to both the complexity and thought-provokingness) And a sweet romance though honestly I can't quite put it in the romance category. I can't call it chicklit either. I think it defies categorization.
In between the funny and sweet and sexy and romantic parts, the heroine deals with body image, racism, misogyny, misjudging people and being misjudged, family in all its goodness and badness, and how we go about figuring out who we are and who we want to be.
I loved watching this heroine grow into herself. I love the way the author turned me upside down over and over. I hope I can find more books by her. I've deducted just a tiny bit because I felt the hero was not as well-developed as several of the secondary characters and was a bit too good to be true, and because there were a few (and by few I mean 3 in a long book) strange editing errors. And it wrapped up a tiny bit too neatly. But those are minor concerns and this is one of the best books I've read this year.
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