I was expecting a ring on my thirtieth birthday. What I didn’t see coming was my boyfriend and business partner dumping me because he couldn’t bear the idea of our bland sex life for the rest of our lives.
When an opportunity arises to spend my summer in Las Vegas, I stumble upon my hot new neighbor and his photography studio. We strike a simple deal. He’s the teacher, and I’m his student.
My lesson is learning to love the body I have. In exchange, I’m going to save his business. I have exactly one summer to unearth the most confident version of myself before I go home and return to reality.
But after a passion-fueled summer, I’m not sure of who I am anymore, and it’s clear that the worst heartbreak of my life might still be yet to come.
The first page of the book had me HOOKED. Kay Cove has done a wonderful job capturing the thoughts of every plus-size girl and their hopes and dreams in relation to their dream man. Finn Harvey is every girl’s dream boyfriend husband. He is the perfect man of my dreams who knows how to treat a girl right.
The novel starts by pulling you deep into the story and then slowly adds the context. You get to know Avery and how she hopes for Mason to propose; you realize how much in love she is. This bond between the reader and Avery is very well established in the first few pages, which pulls you in to read the entire novel.
Avery is a sweet but powerful woman who is well capable of being a leader in a crowd. She just needed to tap into her power and realize her confidence. This makes it even more special when Finn realizes that she becomes confident unconsciously when talking about business. Kay Cove called out every plus-size girl as each of Avery’s insecurities pull at our hearts, making the book so relatable. Realizing that we share the same issues and fears brought the characters and the story even closer to my heart.
Finn is the perfect dream man. He takes care of Avery, treats her with respect, and stands up for her. What makes him special might be the basic expectations that each girl has, but he treats everyone with so much respect that it becomes special. What’s even better is that he cares for even the people he hates. He is a genuinely nice person who can’t hurt anyone.
Besides this, Kay Cove managed to add value to even the side characters of the story. Often, writers focus too much on the central characters to the extent that we start getting annoyed by the side characters. However, in this story, each character had their own development and managed to make the reader like or hate them as much as they would a main character.
With a few characters, who each add just the right amount of spotlight, this book is perfect. Lennox is an amazing friend to Avery, one that we all wish we could have. She selflessly helps Avery get over her insecurities and treats her kindly. She made us wish that we had a friend like her.
And now! Oof! We come to the spice levels of the book. This book is a perfect example of erotica. Even though the explicit scenes are worth raising the heat of Antarctica, they never reduce the value of the story. Despite all the steam, romance and confidence remain the heart of the story. This does not mean that the book lacks anything. If you are a lover of spicy books, grab this one now. It has just the right level of spice to keep you hooked while bordering on too much. I love how communication and trust are central to each of their intimate encounters. This added extra value to the erotica of this book for me.
However, I was a little disappointed by the representation Avery got on social media platforms. Still, I believe that can’t reduce the value of the book and hence does not deserve to be mentioned here. Look forward to my next blog for a discussion on the same.
Coming back to the book, it was an amazing read that everyone should definitely pick up. If you haven’t noticed yet, I am a little shy about posting reviews of such bold books. However, when I read this book, I just knew that it deserved to be mentioned on my blog, not just in the book clubs.
When you read the book, do share your opinions in the comments below! And if you have already read it, what are you waiting for? Let me know what you thought of the book now!