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From the publisher:

She’s lonely, rich, and ten years too young for him—but she’s also his “sugar daddy,” and they couldn’t have less in common. Opposites attract in this charming new romance by Katie Shepard.

MBA student Caroline Sedlacek knows her personal balance sheet is a little lopsided. On the asset side, at twenty-two she’s got an NCAA trophy, a great education…and the two million dollars she unexpectedly inherited. Liabilities? She’s never had friends, a boyfriend, or any life experiences away from the tennis court or the classroom. She’d love to invest herself in everything else, but “everything else” never came easily for her.

In the ten years since he left art school as a vaunted prodigy, Adrian Landry has won shows and major prizes—and done his best to shed his reputation as a pretty man who makes pretty paintings. Though currently broke and sleeping off a bad break-up on his college roommate’s couch, he knows this is the chance to get his life back on track at thirty-three—he just needs the money to find a new gallery. 

When Adrian’s roommate lists him on a thinly veiled escort site, Caroline is not the patron he expected. She’s way too young, way too naive, and loudly uninterested in having sex with him. Instead, they’re both going to get exactly what they want: a little culture on her side, and a lot of cash on his. Aside from their sugar baby arrangement, they’ve got nothing in common. But as they reel from the symphony to the Haymarket, they learn that what they want and what they need might be two very different things.

“Readers will have no trouble rooting for this unexpected pair.”—Publishers Weekly

“Fans of Helen Hoang’s The Kiss Quotient will be charmed by neurodivergent Caroline and worldly, handsome Adrian in Shepard’s (Bear with Me Now) latest.”—Library Journal

https://amzn.to/3rFYpGI

This was a totally engrossing romance with interesting, well-developed characters and some laughs along their journey. Caroline is a very quirky character who is well aware of her idiosyncrasies, and one of the minor characters guesses that she is somewhere on the autism spectrum, based on a family member with similar quirks.

Adrian is also a quirky character. He is an artist who had some success right out the gate, but since his divorce from his gallery owner/wife is over, he hasn’t sold anything. She was influential in changing the direction of his work, but it’s not selling. He’s crashing with his old college roommate and needs money. He signs up for an escort service, and his first bite is Caroline. He assumes he is looking at a really old picture as she is ten years younger than him and beautiful, so why would she need an escort?

I am unfamiliar with escort services, but this one is of the sugar daddy-sugar baby variety more than I just need a date for my sister’s wedding. So Adrian goes to meet Caroline, and she is just as young and beautiful as she appeared to be in her photo. She agrees to pay him $1000 a week, and they work out the hours he will be needed. 

Caroline has difficulty making friends, hasn’t really dated much, and doesn’t have much understanding of the arts. She wants Adrian to teach her by taking her to the opera, concerts, art galleries, and the theater. For his part, he can’t understand how she can afford this based on her clothes and car. He doesn’t find out for quite a while that Caroline inherited 2 million dollars from her grandmother, who tells her to have a “big life.” Needless to say, her family is not happy about the inheritance to the point where her father and uncle demand she sign over the money to them. Instead, she climbs out the bathroom window, leaves small-town Texas, and runs away to Boston in hopes of earning her MBA. And hooks up with Adrian.

Caroline also makes it clear she is not looking for sex…for a while. The more time they spend together, the more they enjoy one another’s company. Caroline feels like part of her sugar mama role is to support Adrian’s art. They both are developing strong feelings for one another, but the money is getting in the way. There are lots of hurdles here, and these characters circumvent them wisely. I loved spending time with them, and I was sorry to turn that last page!

10/2023 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

SWEETEN THE DEAL by Katie Shepard. Berkley (October 17, 2023). ISBN: 978-0593549315. 384p.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 17th, 2023 at 9:00 AM and is filed under Fiction, Romance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.