Saturday, May 24, 2014

Sweet Filthy Boy by Christina Lauren


"One-night stands are supposed to be with someone convenient, or wickedly persuasive, or regrettable. They aren’t supposed to be with someone like him.

But after a crazy Vegas weekend celebrating her college graduation—and terrified of the future path she knows is a cop-out—Mia Holland makes the wildest decision of her life: follow Ansel Guillaume—her sweet, filthy fling—to France for the summer and just…play.

When feelings begin to develop behind the provocative roles they take on, and their temporary masquerade adventures begin to feel real, Mia will have to decide if she belongs in the life she left because it was all wrong, or in the strange new one that seems worlds away."

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When I heard that Christina Lauren were coming out with a new series, Wild Seasons, I might have fangirl screamed. Before their new series hit the shelves I was excited to read more from the writing team but nervous that the first series was a fluke. I have had many favorite "freshman" writers, than read a second series or book and lose that love. I didn't want to lose love for Christina Lauren. I LOVE the Beautiful Bastard series. Each book with their unique style of writing showcasing different characters facing different problems. Nothing like the formulaic books out there that I've read before. So, maybe that was where my fear cam from. Having to read the same formula over and over again (like some very famous mainstream authors who I love).

So, luck for me and for you a future reader that this wasn't the case. Which brings us back to Sweet Filthy Boy, very much like it's title, sweet and filthy. This book surprised me on many levels. For one, it was nothing like the Beautiful Bastard (BB) series. In the BB series, the men are well established and in the 'high' season of their careers. The women all know where they're going and what they want from life. The men in this series were also extremely rich.

In Sweet Filthy Boy the first characters we meet are Mia and Ansel. Mia has just graduated from college with her two best friends. She plans to go to business school but really doesn't want to go. She's undecided, or I would say resigned to the cards she has to play in life. Ansel has graduated and working as a lawyer in Paris. He's in a job that is non-stop busy but it very junior in the firm. He knows what he wants out of life and is keeping the focus on the long-term goals. I loved that this was different from the BB series. Not only are they in different places in life, they're realistic in the money department. Living in a small apartment in Paris to me was way better than being in some fancy, large apartment in Paris. It gave the story more reality to the situation.

Another reason I loved the book was for the couple themselves. They're learning how to fit into each other's lives while in Paris. As Mia pointed out, one was hiding from the past while the other hiding from the future. So, they were living in the present together. Like any new couple, they had their moments of not communicating or feeling awkward around each other. I loved reading about how the characters evolved with each other and themselves over the series. I also wanted to note that this story is told from just Mia's POV. I think if Ansel had a POV in this story, we would have lost some of the mystery and shock of what he was hiding from.

As a friend would ask, how sexy is it? I would say it's sexy! Fans of BB know these writers can be very sexy in their descriptions. I would say this book had many sexy moments. There was also a fun to the sexy, the characters enjoyed each other and getting out of their own heads (you'll see).  However, BB still outranks it for most sexy I have read, which is up there with 50 Shades and Bared to You. So, if you were a little put off by BB very "descriptive world", I would still give this one a chance. There's no angry stairwell incidents to speak of.

I was lucky enough to get my copy from the New Ulm Public Library. If a new book is out of your budget, make sure to check-in with your local library to see if they have a copy. If they don't, you can always have them order you one from a different library! You can also find this book at all the usual places...Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, etc.

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