Sexy!

Taboo and still very sexy! A one hand read is a definite possibility if you enjoy naughty behaviors and sinful writing. Another great book by Bella Winters. She never disappoints and neither do her characters.

This book was just okay for me. One reason being is that every chapter is filled with Boyce and Viv jumping in the bed. And only until the very end is when they come out of the closet with their relationship. I just didn't feel any real chemistry between the two. It was just sex... I also didn't feel that there was a great bond Belle and her dad either. They seemed distant even before the girls left for college. I voluntarily read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A solid four-star read for me.

I decided to explore taboo age-gap romance. It’s not something I was interested before and I didn’t know if I would like it because these kind of relationships seem very unconventional even in today’s society.

I’m glad that I read this book. I actually read a few of the books with the similar topic, and I think I liked this book the most. It wasn’t a short read which I liked, and the way this relationship was described felt very real to me.

The main characters are Boyce and Vivian. Boyce is a single father. His wife Nora passed away four years ago from breast-cancer. He loved his wife a lot, and even though he slept with a lot of women after he finished mourning, he felt nothing for them, and hardly ever slept with he same woman twice.

Boyce and Nora had a daughter together, Bella. A few years ago she met Vivian in the kindergarten, and the girls became inseparable. The story starts when Bella and Vivian are ten years old, and Vivian’s parents suddenly die. Vivian’s father was Boyce’s best friend, so Boyce didn’t even think twice before taking Vivian in and eventually adopting her so that she could stay with him and Bella forever.

Years go by. Bella and Vivian still stay the best friends but Vivian and Boyce’s relationship starts to change. When Vivian is in middle school, she finally notices Boyce as more than a father figure and realizes that he is hot. She start dating other boys but she still has a crush for him but knows it will never lead to anything. About the same time, Boyce realizes that Vivian is not a little girl anymore, that she is growing up and become beautiful. Both keep their feelings hidden for years, but as they soon learn you can only hide what you feel for so long.

During her senior year, the chemistry between Vivian and Boyce grows to unprecedented levels, and Boyce acknowledges it to Vivian but tells her nothing will ever happen between them. After this, things are a little bit awkward between them for a while but they go back to normal. That is until Bella leaves for Julliard in New York, and Boyce realizes that he can’t fight his feelings for Vivian anymore. And this is how their unconventional relationship begins.

I know that there are some parts in the beginning of the story that “grossed out” other reviewers. I refer to when the time Vivian was in middle school. Before I read this book, I would have thought that I would feel the same but when I was reading it, I didn’t feel that way at all. To me, it was more like a normal development, just the way the life is, up to the point that I would have been surprised if their chemistry didn’t start than if it actually did.

Some other reviewers say that this whole relationship between Vivian and Boyce is horrible, even if they started it when Vivian was of the age of consent (18), and she had previous sexual experience with guys her age, because Boyce brought her up since she was 10. What everybody forgets to mention (or maybe it’s just me who likes to calculate things) is that Boyce is 28 years older than Vivian. You heard me, 28 years older. Again, before I read this book, I thought that something like this would be a cause to raise my eyebrows and stare incredulously but when I was reading this book I realized that I absolute don’t care about this. All I care is that two people who are above age of consent, two adults are in a consensual relationship. Once they have a conversation about being exclusive, they stay exclusive, and they eventually realize that they love each other. Everything else is nobody else’s business.

I was happy that besides all the obstacles they started this relationship and stayed together. Though I cannot imagine how hard it was to keep it secret and not being able to tell anybody, not even their best friends what was happening, until they went public.

Great read if you don’t mind age-gap stories.

Whilst this was a good read, that was only possible if I blocked a certain aspect (Vivian’s age) which was somewhat key to the storyline. If you ignored that (which was possible as her character was very grown up and mature), then you could focus on the chemistry and their ability to heal each other from the losses in their lives... finding their soulmates. Unfortunately I couldn’t totally get over him being attracted to her in middle school, and in high school imagining her whilst in bed. Their relationship didn’t start until she was legal, but his character which was otherwise great, was already tainted.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book.

I received this as an arc for my honest review

This was a bit too taboo for me. I didn’t like the fact that Boyce adopted Vivian at age ten and then they still had a relationship. It’s a no from me.