Welcome to Sugartown - Review

Welcome to Sugartown

By: Carmen Jenner

Published: November 1, 2013

255 pages

Source: Won ebook copy

(Goodreads / Amazon)

Summary:

Ana Belle never wanted anything more than to hang up her apron, jump on her Vespa and ride off into the sunset, leaving Sugartown in the dust. 

Elijah Cade never wanted anything more than a hot meal, a side of hot a** and a soft place to lay his head at night where he could forget about his past. 

But you know what they say about wanting: you always want what you can’t have. 

Nineteen year-old virgin Ana is about to discover that’s not quite true because a six foot three, hotter than hell, tattooed, Aussie sex god just rode into town. He’s had a taste of her pie and he wants more–no really, Ana bakes pies for a living, get your mind out of the gutter. 

She’d be willing to hand over everything tied up in a big red bow, there’s just one problem; Elijah has secrets dirtier than last week’s underwear. Secrets that won't just break Ana’s heart, but put her life at risk, too. When those secrets come to light, their relationship is pushed to breaking point. 

Add to that a psychotic nympho best friend, an overbearing father, a cuter than humanly possible kid brother, a wanton womanizing cousin, the ex from hell, and more pies than you could poke a ... err ... stick ... at. 

And you thought small towns were boring. 

Welcome to Sugartown. 

*Content Warning. Intended for a mature 18+ audience. 

MY REVIEW:
First of, I'd like to thank the author for using my name as one of her characters. Not just a first name, no my entire name. Coincidence? How weird is that?!? "Hi, I'm Holly. Holly Harris, what can I get you?" Wait, did I just read that right?! It's unfortunate that my-fellow-character-sharing-my-full-name is a slut and lives up to that reputation proudly. Our similarities stop at the name.

I'm not intentionally trying to pick a part this book but there's some real annoyances folks. Because I'm a sucker though for hot tattoo boys, and romance in it's many forms, including lust, I still enjoyed parts of the book. I'm not really a list maker in my reviews but for this book I'm breaking out a short list of annoyances:

1. If there's one thing that annoys me a great deal while reading, it's reading the same descriptive word(s) over, and over, and over, AND over again. (see my OVERuse of the word "over" there? Ha!) One favorite of the author in this book is "decrepit" and in a very short time span it's thrown out in abundance. That was grating on my nerves. Find another description for his bike. Please.

2. The proclamation of something deeper between Ana and Elijah after only 2 dates. Hot motorcycle man drives into town for work. He's secretive, scary with his gazillions of tattoos, and super hot. Their "relationship" in the beginning is pure and simple lust. There is no buildup conversation to suggest anything deeper occurs between them. For one thing, he won't talk about his past. There's no emotional connection. Not even any witty banter being bounced back and forth and yet a reference is made on page 77: "we'll tear one another apart and put each back together, piece by piece." Referring to the fact that one minute they are arguing and the next they are all over each other. This was like whiplash coming out of nowhere. Where's the details of how they get to this point? Who's willing to go through this kind of commitment with a guy that you've only been on two dates with?

3. I can't stand when children use bad language in stories. Like it literally makes my skin crawl. In this story Ana has a 6 year old brother who she cares for a great deal of the time. She, her best friend Holly, her Dad, and Mr. Sexy Motorcycle Man all use incredibly foul language around the little guy and it drove me UP the wall!  Who does that?!

4. People that have a strong dislike for dialects in a story will not enjoy the dialect of the six year old with a lisp. Example: "Thee lookth mad." Yeah, reading his lines were hard to swallow.

It wasn't all negative for me. Fans of the show Sons of Anarchy will enjoy that similarity in this story. I, for one, am a fan. So I enjoyed the references to biker gangs. And because I'm a sucker for any romance in a story, even when it's mostly lust for 75% of the time, I did enjoy their crazy and destructive connection.

Favorite Quotes:
"You're my home, baby. Don't take that away from me. Please?"

Truth is, without Ana, I have no home. And that hurts more than any of the losses I've encountered so far.

"I'll always return to you, Ana. There's never been anyone else for me."

Final Rating - 3 stars.