Rhayne’s Review – Bittersweet by Alyssa Turner

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Description:
An intimate tale of love, sex and loss.

What happens when the line between love and despair is blurred? Sabrina must find out if she has room in her heart for both. Her devoted, disabled husband has planned a Valentine’s Day to remember. Her biggest surprise – that unrestrained passion can heal her deepest wound. If Sabrina can let ecstasy wash away her pain, she will have been given the most valuable Valentine’s gift of all: a love that endures through eternity.

Rhyane’s Thoughts:
This is a great sensual, yet emotionally filled story. For being such a short quick read, there was no lack of detail or passion. This story takes you on a journey of love and loss and finding happiness again.
Keith is a professor in the anthropology department where Sabrina is going to school. They have an immediate connection to one another. She learned more from Keith than any text book could teach her. Their one coffee date turned into much more and they were married a year after she graduated. Even though there is a 15 year age difference between them, they are consumed with each other and seem to have it all.

That is until a car accident leaves Keith paralyzed from the waist down. Ten long months have passed since the near-fatal accident and their relationship has become almost non-existent. The basic daily conversations are shared, but they are both trying to find a way to cope with the changes.

Keith arranges for his assistant, Evan to take Sabrina out for Valentine’s Day. He tells her she needs to have a day of fun and adventure and take a break from looking after him. She is very reluctant to go anywhere. She has had a secret attraction to Evan since he has been working with Keith. Sabrina is a very structured and self disciplined individual but after ten months without any kind of physical relationship she fears that her attraction to Evan will get the best of her if they are forced together.

This is where the story makes the ultimate unselfish sacrifice….Keith is dying of a brain tumor. He doesn’t want Sabrina to lose herself with grief after she loses him. He knows that there is a mutual attraction between her and Evan and plays the cupid card to get them to admit that they would be perfect together.

In his mind this is the one final gift that he can give her. She struggles to make sense of it all. This is not a book about three people in a romantic relationship. It is a sweet, painful, lovely story about a husband looking out for his wife by making sure there will be someone there to care for her when he is gone. Keith brings Evan into his relationship with Sabrina knowing in the end it will be a relationship strictly between Evan and Sabrina. I really came to understand and respect Keith’s motivations.

This is one of my favorite quotes: “Sabrina, there’s no way I’m going to let your heart break into pieces without being there to help you find a way to mend the cracks.”

The sex scenes are pretty explicit and very creative. They are so well written that you’ll find yourself in the middle of one before you remember to blush.

Ms. Turner is a very skilled writer. She has real talent to be able to draw a reader into the story and make you care about the characters and the problems they are facing. Well done!

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