Review: Sweetened with a Kiss by Lexxi Callahan

Title: Sweetened with a Kiss (Southern Style #1)

Author: Lexxi Callahan
Genre: Contemporary romance
Release Date: 25 June 2013

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My rating: 3 Stars
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Synopsis

Jen Taylor has loved Stefan Sellers all her life. When he surprised her with an engagement ring, she thought all her dreams were coming true. But when she discovers Stefan has an agenda that she never even suspected, she breaks off the engagement and goes to pastry school in Paris. Now she's back in New Orleans, and she has no intention of marrying him for all the wrong reasons. She just has to convince him that marriage is a bad idea. If only she wasn't having so much trouble convincing herself.

Stefan Sellers has waited years to make Jen his wife so when she wanted to go to pastry school, he decided a few more months wouldn't matter. But six months later, the girl he picks up from the airport shows very little resemblance to the quiet, sweet girl he let fly away from him. The girl that came back from Paris is wearing five inch stilettos and waving an attitude that is laying waste to everything Stefan ever thought he knew about Jen. His calm, methodical approach to life is suddenly under siege and he can't seem to keep his hands off her.

Review

This is my first book by this author and quite enjoyed it. It has its weaknesses and things that I didn't particualry like but overall it's a sweet and quite sexy Southern romance, involving some super riches heroes and heroines and their high-level games of seduction, keeping secrets and blackmail.

The beginnign of the book is what I'd describe bubbly. All of a sudden we meet one too many characters which made it difficult to keep track who is who and what the relationships were. It felt like the story is a sequel and I should already know this people but I didn't and it made thigns confusing for a while. 

Stefan is your typical  alpha hero, taking possessiveness and protectiveness to the extreme which I didn't particularly enjoy. He had total control over the heroine since he managed her trust fund and it reallu put her in a position of dependance. It didn;t bother me much, sicne I think it was handled well and the author managed to convince me of the truth of the characters' feelings for each other. 

I had some issues with the heroine as well. She appeared too naive for a 22-year old woman, though it was somewhat understadable becase she has been overprotected her whole life, sheltered from reality in a way. his mental issues made her feel real and and her story explained (at leat in part) why the hero felt so strongly about her to the point of denying her any indepedant thought or action.

Their chemistry as off the charts and the sexual tension was esquisitely presented though it became repetitve at some point. The wait for their coming together felt unnecessarily prolonged. 

I found the pace of the story a bit uneven, jumping from lighthearted and fun to serious and gloomy in a heartbeat.

It's more of fantasy romance with the perfect HEA than a realistic contemporary romance. It made it an enjoyable and fun read for me, albeit not a very deep one. I've already got book 2 in the series and will be starting it soon.

Purchase links: Amazon / B&N