Why I read it: I’d been eyeing this one for a while as the premise appealed. I snapped it up on special for 99c recently. (Then of course, it went on a promotion for free. Isn’t that always the way? 😀 I’m not complaining. It was worth my 99c for sure.)

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Desperate times call for desperate measures…

And desperate is the only way to describe Kayla Davis’s current situation. Out of work and almost out of money to cover her bills, Kayla finally caves to her roommate’s nagging and follows her to Arrangements, an online dating site that matches pretty young women with older men of a certain tax bracket.

Convinced this “make-rent-quick” scheme will surely fail – or saddle her with an 80 year old boyfriend – Kayla is shocked when Michael Bradbury, Internet billionaire and stone-cold salt and pepper fox, offers her a solution to all her financial troubles. It’s hard enough for Kayla to accept his generosity, but what’s a girl to do when the wealthiest man she’s ever met is a dream in and outside of the bedroom?

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I’ve never read a Sugar Baby/Sugar Daddy romance before. I’ve heard of the arrangements before and I admit I was curious about the concept. I think the author did a great job of making the arrangement palatable here; Kayla was uncomfortable with the idea of trading sex for money directly and wanted at least some emotional connection with the person she made any deal with – which didn’t quite fit with this:

Besides, neither of us were looking for Mr. Right or Mr. Forever. She was looking for Mr. 90 Days Max and I was looking for Mr. Hold Me Over Until I Find A Job.

but it was such a good line, I gave it a pass. 😀 Also, even when Kayla and Michael entered into their arrangement, didn’t just sit on her butt and be the kept woman. She still looked for a job, for example. She clearly didn’t want to be a sponge and Michael recognised that in her. In a weird way, it made the exchange of money kind of irrelevant. My impression was that Michael would have been in a relationship with Kayla regardless (and vice versa). That probably made more sense in my head.

Because it’s a novella of just over 80 pages, a lot is packed into a short word count. There were occasional awkward transitions or dialogue which felt a little forced but I put it down to needing to get that information to the reader without having the opportunity for a lot of exposition. For the most part, the sentences are short and declarative which worked in the story. Not a lot of space is wasted on adjectives – most of what’s in there is action and emotion.

I liked the stuff about hair wraps and sew-ins (we just call them extensions here) – I looked them both up and even got myself a little education which is always a bonus. Kayla came across as a black woman, in her speech and cadence and her style but it wasn’t a book which was about diversity or about an interracial relationship per se – it was rather, a book where those things just were; an intrinsic part of the story.

Kayla’s and Michael’s chemistry was scorching – just as well, they have quite a bit of sex in the novella, what a pity if he’d been a dud in bed! I also liked how they talked to one another and related in many ways other than sexually as well. And I enjoyed Kayla’s humour.

We can do rough. You have to let me know your limits though.”

“I will. What’s it called? A safe word. Let’s go with ‘hold on’, ‘wait’ and ‘stop’.”

I laughed out loud in parts and basically thought Kayla was a super cool person, the kind of person it would be fun to hang with.

What else? There were quite a few typos in the Kindle edition, which was disappointing. One or two I can understand getting missed, but there were more than just one or two and they threw me out of the story occasionally.

However, I liked Kayla and Michael and their dynamic and the sex was super hot. All in all, I count it a win.

I’m on board for the next book in the series, So Right which picks up about 10 months after the events of So Sweet. I’ll be stalking the author’s website until it’s out – which I think might be in May this year. (This novella ends happily though, so readers need not be worried about any non-HEA rubbish or cliffhangers.)