"Rule #12: Never be the first one to bring up the wife."
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Thank you for gifting me this ARC for free! My review is my ideas and thoughts and mine alone.
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This book was like taking a nice, deep breath of fresh air. I have never read a story with this concept before and it was delightful. I loved the characters within the story and the depth that they had. I had nothing but fun while reading this book. I ate this story up like a good cheese, if wine, cheese, and drama are your thing you will love this story!
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Quinn is a wine coinsurer, a lover of good food, and has a specific taste for married men. When she is not working at Persimmon, a damn good restaurant with an amazing bar she is scouting out her next man. Though she isn't a monster, she does have some rules when it comes to the married men that she dates. Her best friend Dezi, and her brother Alex try not to get involved in her life, but when a handsome married man named Marcus walks into the restaurant one day her world is flipped upside down. Can Quinn win the heart of a married man, or will the wife get in the way?

This book is not like any book I have read before. Quinn is a sommelier and is successful in everything but love. She has been hurt before so she makes it her mission to not fall in love and date only married men.
She soon finds one who is married and then in walks a man who is charming and everything she wants not married. Her heart is torn between what she has always done or does she take a chance on the gut who rocks her world?
This novel is steamy and the addition of wine, cheese and food makes ones mouth water in a very good way. I will be looking for more of this authors work.

Quinn actively pursued men who are married in order to avoid entering into a relationship where she was the one who loved the most or in terms of marriage, who loved the least. She felt that the only sort of fulfillment she needed was at her job of being the sommelier at Persimmon. That and her friendship with Dezi was enough. Then enters Marcus. The man who wants what he wants and dictates the time of which that want is satisfied. Throughout the book, Quinn consistently compares her height and figure to that of Dezi. Marcus made her feel beautiful and seen. He wanted her for her and despite her sceptical nature, she feel in love. However, it was an electricity she felt when Marcus walked into the room but she was not one of a kind. He was selfish and there was the person at the restaurant who was her person. As stated in the epilogue, he knew she was truly special and he was lucky to have her. That type of love is not circumstantial.

A 3.5/5

After going through a bit of relationship trauma, Quinn now only dates married men (with certain rules) for the detachment to avoid the heartbreak of her previous relationships. Then she meets Marcus and experiences an earth-shattering, never-seen-experienced-before romance with him. Except the fact that he is married, and Quinn now has to decide if being the Other Woman is enough for her.

I thought this book was very different from the other romances I've read in the past, and that's what drew me in. This also required a certain level of open-mindedness from me to focus on Quinn as a person rather as a mistress. That being said, Quinn is a good person who's gone through a lot romantically and is trying to protect her heart from further damage. When confronted with the consequences of her actions, she does try to make things right, even if it ends up hurting her. We see her grow as a person, making the hard decisions and trying to break from this unsustainable mold that she's created for herself. I was really rooting for her to find her own happiness, and I honestly didn't know what was going to happen but was pleasantly surprised with how things turned out. However, I felt like the ending/epilogue was kind of rushed and left me with some questions.

Thank you to Black Rose Writing and NetGalley for the ARC!