Unstuck Pages
  • Home
  • About
  • Gushes and Rants
    • How I write reviews
    • Latest reviews
    • Reviews by Author
    • Reviews by Title
    • Review Requests
  • Features
    • Blog Tour
  • Contact Me
Top Posts
Talk Bookish To Me by Kate Bromley
Hot Copy by Ruby Barrett
The Things We Leave Unfinished by Rebecca Yarros
My Sweet Enemy by Jenny Hartwell
Twice Shy by Sarah Hogle
Flashpoint by Skye Jordan
To Sir, with Love by Lauren Layne
Cold Cruel Kiss by Toni Anderson
Loverboy by Sarina Bowen
Shipped by Angie Hockman

Unstuck Pages

Gushes and rants about fictional worlds

  • Home
  • About
  • Gushes and Rants
    • How I write reviews
    • Latest reviews
    • Reviews by Author
    • Reviews by Title
    • Review Requests
  • Features
    • Blog Tour
  • Contact Me

Archives

    Chick LitContemporary RomanceNew AdultReviewsRomantic Suspense

    Loverboy by Sarina Bowen

    written by Dísir
    Loverboy by Sarina BowenLoverboy by Sarina Bowen
    Series: The Company, #2
    Published by Tuxbury Publishing on 1st December 2020
    Pages: 278
    Buy on Amazon
    Goodreads
    three-stars

    Secrets, desires, and exquisite pie. It’s all in a day’s work at The Company.

    Growing up, I was the rough guy from the wrong neighborhood who couldn’t catch a break. Posy was the pampered girl I tried to impress. But all she gave me was a single kiss before I had to skip town.Now I’m back, and the tables are turned. Posy runs a struggling pie shop. I’m the VP of a secretive billion-dollar security company.

    Not that I can tell her. There’s a murderer on the loose in New York, and he seems to spend a lot of time at Posy’s shop. It’s my job to identify him before he can harm a hair on her pretty head.

    Going undercover as Posy’s new barista wasn’t my idea. I don’t even drink coffee. But now I have to call her “boss,” and do everything the curvy perfectionist asks of me. I’d forgotten how much we infuriate each other, and that she somehow fills me with both irritation and desire in the same breath.

    There’s nobody more skilled at stealth ops than me. I can bring this killer down. Right after I take a cold shower. And just as soon I figure out how to make a skinny peppermint latte with milk poured in the shape of a kitten...

    ‘Loverboy’ is a bit of an oddball, reading like a more ‘loving’ and dampened-down romantic suspense with cutesy moments minus the gore, guts and edge. It requires a mental shift really, as it tries to sit between a rom-com and a romantic suspense and I’d thought that if anyone could pull it off, it would be Sarina Bowen. The result is one that doesn’t quite punch above its weight, but that’s because I couldn’t quite get over its strangeness and the rather tiresome phrases that try to emphasise quirk and homey-comfort more than heart-pounding action.

    Going undercover as a barista – this should be a huge clue that the storyline isn’t what you’d typically expect – isn’t really the highlight of Gunnar’s career, but doing so in Posy’s cafe – the girl whom he sort of teased and had a crush on years ago – is probably the cherry on top of it. It’s amusing enough to begin with, but then Bowen builds on their chemistry and leads the plot in weird directions that get me more and more befuddled.

    Posy’s inexperience is overshadowed by a near-neurotic monologue of her losing her senses over Gunnar – her hormones quite literally, speak a little too much here – as Gunnar’s slickness never quite fades into a vulnerability that I wanted to read about. Still, their banter takes precedence over the mystery – an overarching plot runs through this book – and Bowen never quite strays from keeping it as lighthearted as possible.

    ‘Loverboy’ probably works well as a standalone; it’s sort of a new direction that Bowen’s writing seems to be taking with this series even though I’ve not read the first book yet. I’m probably slow to jump on the bandwagon here, but fingers crossed here that it only gets better.

    three-stars
    Loverboy by Sarina Bowen was last modified: January 17th, 2021 by Dísir
    20th January 2021 0 comment
    0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
  • Advanced Reader CopyChick LitContemporary RomanceNew AdultReviews

    Top Secret by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy

    by Dísir 21st May 2019

    Top Secret by Elle Kennedy, Sarina Bowen Published by Amazon Digital Services, Amazon Publishing on 7th May 2019 Pages: 267 Buy on Amazon Goodreads LobsterShorts, 21Jock. Secretly a science geek.…

    Read more
    0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
  • Advanced Reader CopyContemporary RomanceNew AdultReviews

    Fireworks by Sarina Bowen

    by Dísir 22nd October 2018

    Fireworks by Sarina Bowen Series: True North #6 Published by Tuxbury Publishing LLC on 13th November 2018 Pages: 293 Buy on Amazon Goodreads Skye Copeland is on paid leave from…

    Read more
    0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
  • Advanced Reader CopyChick LitContemporary RomanceNew AdultReviewsSports

    Brooklynaire by Sarina Bowen

    by Dísir 31st January 2018

    Brooklynaire by Sarina Bowen Series: Brooklyn Bruisers #4 Published by Rennie Road Books on February 12th 2018 Pages: 452 Buy on Amazon Goodreads You’d think a billion dollars, a professional…

    Read more
    0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
  • Advanced Reader CopyChick LitContemporary RomanceNew AdultReviews

    Man Card by Sarina Bowen and Tanya Eby

    by Dísir 3rd January 2018

    Man Card by Sarina Bowen, Tanya Eby Series: Man Hands #2 Published by Rennie Road Books on January 15th 2018 Pages: 452 Buy on Amazon Goodreads Nothing ventured, nothing banged……

    Read more
    0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
  • Advanced Reader CopyChick LitContemporary RomanceNew AdultReviews

    Man Hands by Sarina Bowen and Tanya Eby

    by Dísir 29th November 2017

    Man Hands by Sarina Bowen, Tanya Eby Series: Man Hands, #1 Published by Rennie Road Books on December 11th 2017 Pages: 180 Buy on Amazon Goodreads He puts the “screw”…

    Read more
    0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
  • Advanced Reader CopyChick LitContemporary RomanceNew AdultReviews

    Bountiful by Sarina Bowen

    by Dísir 7th October 2017

    Bountiful by Sarina Bowen Series: True North, #4 Published by Rennie Road Books on October 20th 2017 Pages: 305 Buy on Amazon Goodreads No last names. No life stories. Those…

    Read more
    0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3

@2016 - PenciDesign. All Right Reserved. Designed and Developed by PenciDesign


Back To Top