(Just a note, I am most likely going to be using this pin for most of my adult romance reviews if they have a suggestive cover. My actual review of the story will not be NSFW, but the cover might be risky and I don’t want someone to stumble across my site and feel uncomfortable!)
Swan Jamison has returned to Key West after living with her mother in Jamaica for the last few years of her life. She returns to the place where her father and mother lived before her father passed away, and is determined to run her successful business from there. David is a Navy SEAL sent by Swan’s godfathers to her store, as she is accused of doing illegal things out of her shop, and they want to clear her name. He doesn’t mean to fall in love with his mission, but he can’t help himself once he gets to know her. Will Swan still accept him if she finds out about his true occupation?
I sped through this book almost entirely in one sitting, and I loved every minute of it. Swan was such a unique character, being a biracial military kid, and yet she was strong despite having lost both of her parents at a fairly young age and having to make do for herself. With or without David, I still wanted her to be successful in her business and find happiness in life.
Lately, I have always been finding problems with the main love interests in these romance novels. When I read this one, I actually didn’t see anything wrong with David. Sure, he didn’t tell Swan about his occupation right away, but he was still a good person in general. He didn’t have any dark secrets or any hidden desires for their relationship. He was pretty up-front with everything that he did with her, and I loved him for that.
The setting of this book was lovely, in beautiful Key West with tons of waterfront areas. This drew me in even more because I wanted to be there with the characters. I would have loved the story in any setting, but this one was just especially perfect.
The character development was also lovely, as Swan and David get closer, learning more about each other. Both have a collection of things in their past that they love to reminisce about, and one of my favorite parts of the story was just seeing them talk for hours.
I really had no complaints about this book, it was just perfect to me. I wish more romance novels were like this, rather than having the male love interest be problematic just for plot padding. Also, this was a diverse romance with a biracial girl. Not only has she faced adversity from her father’s side of the family, she has to get over her fear of getting rejected by her new love interest’s friends and family. This is a large amount of the drama in this novel, Swan just learning to accept herself even though others have been so adamant about not accepting her.
I would recommend this book to lovers of romance novels who are looking for a new diverse adult romance with an independent female main character and “clean” drama-free male character.
I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley and this is my voluntary review.
Overall Rating: 6 out of 5 stars
