
Member Reviews

This was... wildly good. I was not expecting to enjoy this as much as I did, but Shane and Claire were so much fun to read about! I really enjoyed that outside of their... arrangement, their characters were fleshed out and they felt like real people.
Claire was a great female main character, super smart and funny, and I loved it when she outsmarted Shane (more than once). Shane being completely in awe of her at all times was pretty great too.
Thank you to NetGalley for this arc!

I wanted to love this book so much more than I did unfortunately. The first 50% was genuinely so entertaining — fun and fresh and different to everything else we see saturating the market right now and Ali Hazelwood is my favourite romance author, so her blurb for this book really sold me. It seemed right up my alley; exploring kinks in a healthy way (especially in today's puritanism culture), is something I will always welcome and in fact I do think this book tackled it in a decent way. It's just that this book felt too long for the substance it had and it started feeling very repetitive (same sex scenes again and again, same conflict — Shane can't express himself correctly or something with her ex husband etc) and hardly any real character development that felt meaningful (to me, personally). Also, again this is a personal preference, but I did not like the switch of Claire hunting and chasing Shane and then "taking control" in the bedroom and making him beg and whine..... yeah, It was just not for me I'm afraid.
I will say those slight problems I had are more towards the end of the book and in general the book only started falling off for me around 50%, so I think maybe it being a novella first made sense. I will still be seeing what Oleander does next, because I can definitely see potential. Thank you to NetGalley and Berkely for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

So pleasantly surprised by this book! It was such a perfect little read. 4.5
The structure of this story is really what marked it as a winner for me. Its paced so well and starts at a point that leaves readers wanting more but not waiting for action and spice. Oleander seamlessly balanced unique spice and character development so well. She walks the line of dark romance and contemporary romance expertly and creates a story that's as interesting as it is spicy.
I can't wait to have this in store I think it's going to do so well and be a true stand out in a world of repetitive romance.