Wendy reviews ‘Sweet Thing’ by Isobel Starling. Self published September 8, 2017, 237 pages.
French male model Simeon Duchamp has a lot of explaining to do.Two years after a breakdown Simeon is off drugs and booze and wants to stay that way.
On his road to reclaiming his life and modeling career, Sim first needs to apologize to the man he hurt the most -his ex-best friend and object of his unrequited affection Pieter Bayer. Pieter now has a long-term partner, artist Emily Raven, with whom he shares a baby son. Sim is amazed when Pieter accepts his apology, and invites him into his family.Closeness to Pieter sees Simeon’s longing for his friend is rekindled. But then, when Simeon meets an attractive older man, Bastian Roth at an Art Exhibition, he realizes that there is a soul more broken than his, and Simeon feels compelled to help. Simeon’s connection with the troubled Bastian Roth turns his world upside down. He has to decide whether to allow himself to fall for the man who wants him or pine for the man he can never have.***THIS BOOK CAN BE READ AS A STANDALONE***
Please note: This story contains graphic descriptions of gay sex. (Yay!)
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A copy of this book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
Why I read this book: I had never read this author before. The cover and blurb sucked me right in!
I freaking LOVED this book! I think it’s one of the best that I’ve read all year. It has a little bit of everything in it. Some authors don’t like to touch on hard subjects. I can see where it must be incredibly difficult to weave a romantic tale, when you are also talking about addiction, betrayal and life… this story has a good chunk that’s just about life. But Isobel Starling did a fantastic job of writing a seamless tale that’s intriguing, sexy, sweet and engaging. I stayed up till all hours of the night so I could finish it.
Simeon and Bastien are both broken men. Seriously broken men, like the kind of broken that you wonder if they can recover from. They both come from privileged backgrounds so they didn’t suffer from lack of material things, but sometimes when everything is accessible it just makes it easy to hide what’s really going on under a cover of excess and debauchery. I loved watching these two characters do their dance of coming together and pushing away as they learn how to love not only each other, but themselves too. They do it with a good bit of angst, and aggression, but they also do it in a way that felt very real and believable. Some of the times they succeed in their goals and other times they make huge mistakes that I can imagine any one of us making in real life. There are some super sweet moments with babies and forgiveness that had me melting just as much as when I read the super sexy scenes.
I highly recommend this book! You won’t be sorry for giving it a try, I know that Isobel Starling has a new fan in me.
Rainbow Gold Reviews 