3.82 AVERAGE

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giasbookhaven's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 16%

Not that an older woman and younger woman relationship isn't interesting, I just wasn't interested in this particular pair

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging emotional lighthearted reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Ok. First and foremost, WARNING: you need privacy to read this book if you don’t want anyone walks by and accidentally read a spicy scene or if you tend to overreact like me and shriek like a pterodactyl.

This book is explicitly spicy. It wasn’t a con per se, just a surprise. I also hate myself for laughing at those dirty and corny jokes that some people might find a bit too much. Overall this book is a 4. It was a fun, endearing, and spicy read with some serious moments about family, friendships, and self-identity.

The goods:
- The sex >.> The playfulness/goofiness.
- And it wasn't just sex - their interactions were genuine and more than just physical attraction which makes the whole "friend's mom and a college student" none existent.
- There wasn't an imbalance in the power dynamic. Cassie was young but she was not a kid while Erin didn't patronize her nor baby her, sure she takes care of Cassie but like in a partner way and not a maternal figure kind of way.
- The relationships - friendships and family - seem realistic.
- Parker and Acacia and Rachel - I need more stories/interactions of them with Cassie and Erin. I need the birthday pedicure to be a thing now.
- The bisexual and queer representations: Cassie, Erin, and Parker are bi. There is a nonbinary background character.
- The minor representation of non-binary with a causal mention of top-surgery and T therapy. Unimportant to the storyline. I just thought it was cool that they were mentioned so casually as to indicate that non-binary people really exist.

The bad:
- There are too many names that probably aren’t important that I just scan over but they still distract me a bit.
- Acacia’s nickname, it’s kind of distracting when the writer keeps switching between her name and nickname in the same sentence or page. I rather the author strictly uses Kaysh in dialogs from Parker and Cassie (I think those two are the only ones who use it).

Other thoughts:
- I kinda want Erin to be younger, like in a 34-36 range. Idk why but I just find it’s unbelievable that having a kid at 20-yo was something Erin had to struggle with. It makes more sense to me that she was a teen when she got pregnant and that strained her relationship with her family which would make sense why it took her forever to divorce Adam.
- Also can I punch Adam? And the earthworm whose name I don’t care enough to remember …
- The ending was less dramatic than what I was expecting, but as long as it was a good ending, I was fine with it. Although, it did seem a bit rush even though I guess everything has been pointing to one ending from the start.

LOVED the sapphic spice! Story seemed a little drawn out at times, could've done a way with a few chapters, but overall great story!

weird premise and made me a lil uncomfy but overall pretty cute
emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I always made fun of relatives and friends for reading what I refer to as “sleazy romance novels”. I don’t think this book is exactly that but I definitely pondered on whether or not it is for more time than I’d like to admit. This book has an age gap romance that I did not think I would be into, but at some point in the story I found myself continually cheering them on and laughing at conversations that put that gap on display.

Being that this is the first smutty book I’ve read, it definitely set the bar. Some of the scenes made me look around the room to make sure I was alone, because the last thing I wanted was for someone to look at me awkwardly blushing over what I was reading. Maybe it is a sleazy romance or maybe it’s not, either way I’m here for this queer smut.

4/5 Stars. I was hooked from the first chapter. This story was so FUN. I felt like I was on the edge of my seat each chapter, wondering what was going to happen next. I didn't want to put it down! It was light and funny and sweet. Also: it was SPICY. Like, hello sailor spicy. Had to fan myself off a few times from the heat.

Only complaints/comments: I want more. I really want to know more about Erin and Cassie, and who they are. They are so much more than the glimpse this book gives them; and I feel like they are much more than the sex, which is what we mostly saw from them in this book. I want more of the side characters too. I wish we'd had a bigger dive into Parker and Acacia (but not Adam... ugh). Maybe more fodder for another book?!? Because I really don't want this to be the end of these characters!!

Also: I wish the second half of the book was more in-depth. I feel like the chase and the hiding of the relationship took SO much of the story, that we only got to see Cassie and Erin be a real-life couple for a short time. The epilogue gave us some closure, but I wish more time had been spent in the after instead of the chase.

Overall: fun, playful, sexy. good writing but want more of this story to unfold. more! more!

Loved the characters and the banter, but maybe age gap or age gap in this type of setting (MILF & daughter’s friend
adventurous lighthearted fast-paced