Sparrow Beckett can write a book that is a pleasure to read and is full of enough kink to make you squirm. ~ Leigh, Guilty Pleasures
Description:
Abandoned by his submissive years before, Ambrose has avoided long term relationships. He amuses himself by hooking up with his buddy’s exes. That is, until he meets Everly—a curvy girl with a big personality, who refuses to be ignored. Just when he thinks he’s found a girl he can trust, he finds out she has big opinions about rich men. Telling her he’s wealthy will ruin everything, but he can’t collar her with this huge lie hanging over them.
Known as a brat in their small kink community, Everly can intimidate even the most experienced Doms, but Ambrose is different. Not only does he charm the pants off her, he makes her crave his mastery, too. However, Ambrose’s trust issues run deep, and Everly isn’t willing to be ‘temporary’ forever. Ambrose is hiding something from her, and that secret is keeping them apart. Can she get her scaredy-Dom to commit, or is he a lost cause?
Review copy provided for an honest review
Having already met Ambrose in Finding Master Right, I already knew I’d like him. I just had to hope I’d enjoy his woman as much. And while I enjoyed Everly and her sass, and fell even more deeply for this charming and not-so-suave, regular guy, my feelings for this second book in the series were exactly the same as those I had for the first: the book was extremely readable and entertaining, but I found the conflict to be manufactured and at times I wanted to smack the characters to wise up.
Ambrose is a successful, wealthy (if somewhat tacky) business owner, who meets Everly, a quirky and bratty sub who is a perfect fit for him in all respects but one. She is a community activist, helping save homeless shelters and food kitchens, with an aversion to wealthy people. And he’s rich.
To me, this sounds like it would be a match made in fiscal heaven because now she would have the means to fund these projects, rather than having to stage protests and rallies for the money. But Everly has such an ingrained hatred for the wealthy that Ambrose is afraid she won’t give him a chance if she knew of his financial status. So he does what any sane person does in a story: he lies about it and pretends to be more working class than he actually is.
I enjoyed reading about Ambrose and Everly’s relationship, and I could sympathize more when the conflict moved away from the issue of wealth and to the matter of honesty. But it took a while to get there.
And similarly to the way Banner was portrayed in Finding Master Right, Ambrose was charming and likeable, and infinitely kinky, but he lacked the mastery outside of the bedroom that I think would be required for a Dom.
We have been given enough of a heads up into Konstantine’s situation with his arranged marriage that I am looking forward to his book, which is next in the series. But it is more due to the fact that the writing style is light and enjoyable and Kon is downright sexy, than it is of my hopes of a killer plot.
My issues aside, Sparrow Beckett can still write a book that is a pleasure to read and is full of enough kink to make you squirm.
3.5 stars
Thanks Leigh for the review