Flawless by Elsie Silver | Book Review

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Title & Author: Flawless by Elsie Silver

My rating: 4/5

Publisher: Piatkus

Publication date: 10th February 2023

Blurb:

The rules were simple... Keep my hands off his daughter and stay out of trouble.

But now I'm stuck with her. There's only one bed. And, well, rules are made to be broken.

I'm the golden boy of professional bull riding. Or at least I was until it all blew up in my face. Now, my agent says I have to clean up my image, so I'm stuck with his ball-busting daughter for the rest of the season as my "full-time supervision."

But I don't need a goddamn babysitter, especially one with skin-tight jeans, a sexy smirk, and a mouth she can't stop running.. A mouth I can't stop thinking about.

She says this means nothing.

I say this means everything.

She says there are boundaries we shouldn't cross. That my reputation can't take any more hits-and neither can her damaged heart.

I say I'm going to steal it anyway.

My review:

I bought the entire Chestnut Springs series because of the hype then proceeded not to start it for months... because of the hype. I am kicking myself because I flew through the other four books in the series within two weeks. I became obsessed with these characters!

Rhett Eaton is a bull rider in his early thirties. It's all he's ever known and could never imagine giving it up. After a PR disaster, Rhett's agent Kip Hamilton has his work cut out for him when it comes to cleaning up his reputation.

Kip's daughter, twenty-five-year-old Summer has recently graduated law school and is working with her father. Kip decides to assign Summer essentially as Rhett's babysitter to ensure he stays out of trouble and to coach him for interviews.

Of course, a romance develops and I absolutely love how it was paced. It felt so real and unrushed. Both of these characters had their own issues but stayed true to themselves throughout. I would never really class myself as a cowboy romance girl but I was really interested in those aspects too.

It is a little spicy in parts and I adored the entire Eaton family and Rhett's protégé Theo Silva. 

Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh | Book Review

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Title & Author: Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh 

My rating: 4/5

Publisher: Viking Books

Publication date: 22nd February 2024

Blurb:

When Obiefuna's father witnesses an intimate moment between his teenage son and the family's apprentice, newly arrived from the nearby village, he banishes Obiefuna to a Christian boarding school marked by strict hierarchy and routine, devastating violence. Utterly alienated from the people he loves, Obiefuna begins a journey of self-discovery and blossoming desire, while his mother Uzoamaka grapples to hold onto her favourite son, her truest friend.

Interweaving the perspectives of Obiefuna and his mother Uzoamaka, as they reach towards a future that will hold them both, BLESSINGS is an elegant and exquisitely moving story of love and loneliness. Asking how we can live freely when politics reaches into our hearts and lives, as well as deep into our consciousness, it is a stunning, searing debut.

Review:

This novel is beautifully written and heartbreaking at the same time.

Blessings is a coming-of-age story following Obiefuna in Nigeria. He is caught in a compromising position with his father's assistant, Aboy, and he realises that he is gay. His father instantly sends him to a seminary, keeping the reason for this secret from Obiefuna's mother and brother. 

The novel follows his life at the seminary and into university when he meets his partner Miebi, the criminalisation of homosexuality in Nigeria in 2014 and what that means for their relationship.

Obiefuna's relationship with his mother Uzoamaka is beautiful and the novel really focuses on his Obiefuna's loneliness, surviving a strict Christian boarding school and love. Stunning.