I received a free copy from NetGalley; this is my honest review.
This is a dark steamy contemporary romance.
I loved the two first books better but this is still a good book to read.
I took a few stars out for the following reasons:
- The editing needs another pass. For example, at one point she's wearing platforms but she stumbles on her stilettos - you cannot miss the great difference between the two.
- A few things were kind of unbelievable: For example, he kissed her, yet he is bringing them to the doctor the day after. Everyone know you can catch STI while kissing... Also what heterosexual man wears scent that smells like cranberry, lemon and sage? It could come from his soap or shampoo, I don't care, but all the men around me don't wear those smells unless they're gay.
- We should have been told right off the bat that there would be FF sexual scenes. I do not like them at all and would not have offered to review this book if I would have been told in advance.
What I liked about the book:
- Funny thing is that many people didn't like the ranch episode. I loved it! And there is no BDSM in that chapter. I loved both punishments. Peter wanted to bring Tessa face-to-face with how she saw herself and it worked; she did change her attitude after that, unlike Anuli - who I did not care for at all, even after what she went through in her life before Peter.
- I loved how progressively Tessa became aware of her worth and Peter help with that too. At some point, he realized Anuli was the bad apple in all this and I agree that they had to be separated.
- I loved how Peter was clinging to his late fiancee but realized he wasn't really living his life only being barely alive.

Ugh ! I really wanted to like this book. Not just because it's set in Nigeria and feature African protagonists, or because the writing is solid, but because a couple paragraph into the story it actually surprised me and picked my interest more than I had expected. At first I wasn't too sure about Tessa but then she stoop up to Peter and wouldn't let him shame her and control her and I actually started to cheer and root for her. I liked how respectfully her relationship to Anuli was portrayed, how they had each other back. I liked how although she was attracted to Peter (yeah, another boring and eye-rolling lust-at-first-sight hook-up...) she kept, at list for a little while, her sight on what her job was and what she had to do. I really respected her for that. And then, the interesting woman we were getting to know just ....disappeared, vanished. At her place, we got a clingy mess who let herself get manipulated by a controlling man who pushed her friend away. I just...don't understand what happened. Peter, who also started like an interesting good guy with broken heart, turned into this possessive, controlling, manipulating moralizing ass hole, who decided to mold Tessa into what he though she should aspire to be. The whole Ranch/mme Vivian situation was just plain horrible and infuriating ! Adding to that the sordid backstory that only served to explain why Tessa became such a doormat and why the way Peter "handled" all that was just plain wrong. UGH! Such a waste of a potentially good read. UGH !