Review – The Way You Look Tonight (The Sullivans #9) by Bella Andre

I absolutely adore Bella Andre and the way that she combines eroticism with love; laughter with love; and, kink with love. Yes, it all stems around love – the love of a good man, the love of a wonderful family and the love of your life. ~ Kitty, Guilty Pleasures

Description:
As a very successful private investigator who has caught most of the cheaters in Seattle with their pants down, Rafe Sullivan believes true, lasting love only happens once in a blue moon. Needing to get away from the city to clear his head, he finds the lake house where he spent the best summers of his life is now a wreck…but the sweet girl next door is all grown up and prettier than anything he’s ever seen.

While Brooke Jansen is happy making and selling chocolate truffles in her small Pacific Northwest lake town, she secretly longs to experience something wild. So when her favorite “Wild Sullivan” moves in again next door after more than a decade away, and sparks fly between them, she can’t stop wondering if being bad is really as good as it always seemed…and just how long it will be before she can find out.

But when their summer fling quickly spirals into deeper emotions than either of them were expecting, can they survive the heat between them? Or will Rafe make the biggest mistake of his life and end up losing the best thing that’s ever happened to him?

Review copy provided for an honest review

We finally get to meet the Sullivan’s of Seattle, WA. The long awaited and highly anticipated cousins of Chase, Marcus, Gabe, Zach, Ryan, Smith, Naughty and Nice. And, believe me, even though I am a die-hard Gabe fan, Rafe has taken my breath away and has me thoroughly convinced that Seattle is going to be as hot and sexy as San Francisco. (Whew, fans herself and wishes for one of the cool breezes coming of the lake.)

Rafe, OMG, Rafe. Hot, sexy, cynical, Rafe. His PI business is one of the most sought-after in San Francisco by the SF elite. See, he seems to have a knack of finding husbands with their pants down, and not with their wives. He does not trust anyone, he doesn’t believe in “true love” and his love life leads to the “kinky” side of things. A man who has never loved and lost. A man who is tired of passing the tissue box across his desk to the crying, jilted wives. In steps Mia Sullivan and his life changes, dramatically. Their old summer home in the Cascade Mountains was for sale and Mia put on offer on it under Rafe’s name. It’s time for him to take a break and relax. Memories of all the summers they spent up there as a family with the Jensen’s right next door came flooding back to him. Off on his Ducati to reclaim what his family lost when he was a young boy.

Brooke Jansen was the “girl-next-door”, 6 years younger than Rafe with an insane crush on him. Boy, how she misses having the wild Sullivan clan next door. Thank God she saw the “For Sale” sign go on it. She didn’t think she could take another summer of rental’s over there. Was she surprised that the “Sold” sign went on it within a matter of hours. Oh well, guess she’ll find out soon enough who her new neighbor’s were going to be. After living in her grandparent’s house for 3 years, building her Truffle company and being the nice, innocent girl, it would be nice to have some company at the lake. But, what she wasn’t expecting was a lone man on a motorcycle with broad shoulders and big, capable hands just riding into her life. Talk about wild and dangerous! And, what a surprise, it’s Rafe and she is as thrilled as he is stunned to see “Little Brooke” all grown up with a Marilyn Monroe figure.

So, my question is this – can any Sullivan just have a “summer fling”? Are they capable of just having a good time? Hell, no! But, it’s fun watching them fall, head over heels, with the woman/man of their dreams and screw it up to the best of their abilities. There is no way Rafe is going to corrupt innocent, little Brooke – he has to keep himself in check and love her with the care and tenderness that she deserves. So, why not just bring her to a climax in the linen closet, why not take her on the island in the kitchen covered in chocolate? Should we be so lucky, ladies? He really wants to give in to his baser urges and she is really begging for it but he refuses to use any props. Well, that is until he has to apologize for losing her trust. OK, now it’s time for no holds barred groveling and loving – any way that she wants it – blind folds, ties …. anything!

I absolutely adore Bella Andre and the way that she combines eroticism with love; laughter with love; and, kink with love. Yes, it all stems around love – the love of a good man, the love of a wonderful family and the love of your life. She writes with such depth and detail that you can picture the lake, picture the cabins and feel the love that is pouring off of both Rafe and Brooke. You laugh, you cry and you smile all at the same time. But, most of all, you wait breathlessly for the next Sullivan story. So, now we wait for Mia, Adam and Ian’s stories with a hint that there is an East Coast Sullivan clan that we have yet to hear about. Congratulations, Bella! What a wonderful beginning to the Seattle Sullivan’s.