Wedding Hookups to Wedding Bells
Sometime, you read a book for the simple fact that it contains a lot of sex. Sometime, the book that has a lot of sex ends up with a wonderful little love story on the side. But mainly it's sex.
The Sweet Addiction series is that book that gives you the kind of sex you want to read, and just the right hint of love story mixed in. There are three books in the series, Sweet Addiction and Sweet Possession tell the story of Dylan Spikes and Reece Carrol. How they meet, attempt a "causually monogamous" relationship, fall madly in love, and end up getting married. I'm not ruining anything by telling you the ending. They fall in love. That is the whole purpose of reading Romance novels: to see how two people fall in love and end up Happily Ever After.
The story is simple, and follows the basics of most romance novels. Girl meets boy, girl thinks boy is too good for her, but wants to be with him, so she devises plan to keep things casual and hopes her heart doesn't break in the process. We all know that is not going to happen. Dylan falls in love with Reece and refuses to admit it to herself, and Reece does the sweetest things for her. Love notes, dirty texts, romps in public restrooms. You know, typical romance novel stuff. But it is the writing that makes this decievingly simple story unique.
The writing breaks down to one essential thing: Sex scenes. This series sold me on how well the sex scenes were written. And there is a lot of sex. Like....A Lot of sex. And it starts off right away. There are some books that make you wait a ridiculously long time for the sex, and then they only describe it a little. And that one description is the only time the characters have sex on the page. The rest of the book, you get left at the door while they go and romp in the sheets without you. I mean, rude. But J. Daniels knows how to write a steamy sex scene without it feeling like bad porn (read 50 Shades of Grey). Reece is dominant and hot. The sex talk is totally worth it, and the things they do with ties, and icing will give you ideas.
Reece and Dylan meet at a wedding. Dylan, for some reason I could never figure out, made the cake and was invited to her ex-boyfriends wedding. Now let me stop you right there. If you are ever invited to your ex's wedding, don't go. Unless your ex realized and finally admited he or she was gay, there is absolutly reason for you to go to the wedding. I never understand why people do that. But, Dylan goes. Her best friend Julianna (Juls) is a wedding planner, and planned said ex's wedding. It is there Dylan meets Reece, friend to Juls' boyfriend. It is quickly apparent Dylan and Reece are attracted, within an hour of meeting they, are boning in the bathroom. Reece freaks out, and Dylan gets pissed. Dylan then assumes he's married. She gets utterly confused, because she still totally wants in his pants! He sends his first really sweet note to her, a bag of flour, instead of flowers, because she is a baker. It's oddly cute, and in her anger, she goes to his office and slaps him across the face. Thus begins an odd relationship. They agree to keep things casual. Lots of casual. And to everyone reading, it is beyond obvious these two are falling in love.
But what is a romance without some DRAAAAMAAAA! Reece hires some redheaded chick as his receptionist (of course he's got a cushy job that makes a lot of money, becasue Romance novels), and as per usual, Redheaded chick is insanely jealous because she used to be tapping Reece. Brick is thrown through Dylan's bakery window, Redhead is 100% most likely to be the cause of it. Dirty pictures are sent, which leads to epic freak out. But when epic freak out calms down, Dylan realizes she's in love, wants to tell Reece, overhears him denying his love for her, and of course she doesn't overhear the rest of the conversation. Epic Break up commences.
Don't freak out, they end up back together, with more bathroom sex.
My complaint about this book: What happened to creepy redheaded chic?!?! She just disappears. There is a brief mention about her at the end of the book, but she just disappears from the story. Also, ugh! Blonde, blue-eyed, stick thin girl (who works in a bakery??) falls for rugedly handsome, green-eyed sex god. Can I get some realistic interracial love in this piece?!? Or a plus sized girl getting the rugedly handsome, green-eyed sex god. I want a girl who looks like me to get the guy. [I really do need to finish my novel, NaNoWriMo did not pan out for me this year]
Second book is much of the same, except this time they are engaged, and there is a
creepy douche-canoe who is obsessed with Dylan. Reece doesn't like him, but has some info on him that is sure to keep him away from the both of them for the rest of their lives, convient, right? But of course, he can't tell Dylan any of this information. She just has to trust him implicitly. And of course he does. In between all this espionage, and creepy douche-canoes, is even more sex. Sex against walls, sex in showers, witholding of orgasms, sex on desks, flashback sex in bathrooms, dirty text messages, and stealing of panties. And once again, douche-canoe guy is only briefly dealt with. The build up for that confrontation was so great, and then the actual confrontation was finished in a matter of a paragraph. A PARAGRAPH! I wanted more. I wanted knees to the crotch. I wanted screaming, I wanted the cops to burst in and bust a cap in his white creepy ass. But no. I got two sentences of Reece punching the dude in his face before the cops are called and he's hauled away from embezelment and harrassment.
Reece and Dylan get married, and epilogue is the birth of their first child told from Reece's perspective. I got my Happily ever after, but upon further review, I am still left wanting. I love a book that has a lot of sex, especially good sex. And this book has a ton of really great sex scenes. But there is no relationship build up. Some of my favorite stories are all about how the characters get to know eachother, and their quirks, and have great sex, but mainly about how they fall in love. I want it to be believable, and this felt like it was only about sex. All either Dylan or Reece talked about was how they were constantly horny anytime the other was in the room. That's great, but are you going to go on an actual date? Are you going to be awkward around eachother? No? Just gonna jump eachother's bones at every available chance? Dry hump on the couch? Check. Stip-tease in the office? Double Check. Food related foreplay? And homerun!
I don't know how I feel about this series. I obviously felt enough about it to review it, but I'm not sure I loved it. Was it a great sex book, oh, yes it was. If you are looking for something to get you in the mood, this is the one for you. Looking for a happily every after romance that shows a relationship built on something other than just sex, this one is probably not what you wanted. It will make you hungry, Dylan is a baker, and designs wedding cakes. She is constantly talking about food....I am hungry just thinking about it!
There is a third book, Sweet Obsession, that is a crossover to J. Daniel's other series, Sweet Alabama. I'm going to read it, because, I'm betting the sex is super hot. But I'm not getting my hopes up for relationship building romance.
