Rating: ★★ | 224 pages | Carina Press | Contemporary Romance | Release Date: 03/26/2019
When bestselling mystery writer Stacia Leonard gets an unexpected DM from Adrien Valliere, her book’s cover model, the last thing she expects is an indecent proposal of sorts. Adrien’s wife, Dara, doesn’t experience sexual attraction to him so they’ve agreed to open their marriage and he wants Stacia. Stacia takes him up on the offer but she soon finds herself unexpectedly drawn to Dara–a sheltered artist raised in a strict religious family. Dara makes Stacia feel things she’d never felt before. But with 3,000 miles between them, press watching their every turn and a boatload of emotional issues a relationship between the three of them feels impossible.
Well, it’s unpopular opinion time. I’ve seen so much praise and love for this book but…it didn’t work for me. I just found it really boring. If this wasn’t a galley I requested I might have DNF’d it. This isn’t a bad book but it’s one of those “talky books” all about internal conflict, emotional labor and communication that don’t ever work for me. I was just wanted more external conflict.
I do kind of think this would have worked better for me as a novella because as a full length book it felt like a slog. I also never felt any spark between any of the characters. I felt like Stacia had more chemistry with her publicist (the hero of the next book) than Daria or Adrien. I may give another Trent book a shot, but this one was a no for me.
