Title: Never Sweeter

Author: Charlotte Stein

Rating: 2 Very conflicted Stars

Reviewer: Melinda

This book is in the New Adult genre, which is unusual for Stein, as she usually writes more straight forward adult romances. But I am a fan of NA and of Charlotte Stein so I was excited to read this one. To be honest I didn’t even read the synopsis because I like her writing so much – she writes so beautifully and with an erotic edge to it. 

Letty was tormented by Tate Sullivan in high school and now that she’s in college she thought that she would be free of the torture. And by torture I mean he stood by and and watched as his friend rammed her off a cliff in a truck. So, not anything small by any means. So when he’s there at college and then teamed up with her on a project no less it’s definitely time for panic.

When I realized pretty quickly that this book was based on the bully trope I was not so happy because I haven’t liked a single book that uses that. I just can never get my mind past it. And in this case the bullying was not just picking on someone – Letty literally ended up in the hospital. For me redemption can just never go from standing by while someone gets hurt all the way to falling in love.

However, this is Charlotte Stein so this is so well written and very steamy. I did get invested in the relationship between Letty and Tate and legitimately liked them together. I found myself getting caught up in their romance and thought they were very sweet together. But when the reality of their relationship came crashing back in I would be reminded that I couldn’t get past the beginning of their relationship. AT ALL.

There is also a really odd and random plot insertion about 3/4 of the way through the book that threw me way off. It was used to essentially get the characters back together but it didn’t really make sense to me and was kind of jarring.

So, this specific trope is not for me. But I still love this author, this was extremely well written and very steamy. Just not for me.