The Shipwreck (Lavender Shores, #4) by Rosalind Abel 3.5 Star Review!
Lamont Price’s romance novels have been a hit for the past few years. With his gorgeous looks, kind heart, and tender disposition, Lamont is the darling of Lavender Shores. He’s the guy everyone wants to be their best friend, the guy everyone wants to protect. But even with his success and the love of his family, Lamont feels hidden from those around him. Maybe the first step is attending a writing conference and revealing the man behind his pen name....
Tyler Dixon survives off his beauty and charm. From cover model to runway fashion to weekend arm candy, Tyler’s prices aren’t cheap. While his appearance is taking him places, his life as an artist has little more than flatlined. When an author hires him to appear as the face of her brand, Tyler thinks it’s just one more job. Little does he know another writer is going to steal all of his attention.
Escaping the conference to find some breathing room, Lamont runs into Tyler at a bar. Casual conversation leads to Lamont revealing his family’s obsession with helping him find love. It’s not a big deal to Tyler, who has played the role of boyfriend for other people in the past. Before either of them can rethink the situation, Tyler is in Lavender Shores meeting Lamont’s family. Though they’re only pretending to be in a relationship, the chemistry that ignites between them is anything but imaginary…
Review
These are fun reads with a great cast and setting. Here we get love lorn and shy Lamont a romance writer from one of the town's founding families and Tyler, cover model, photographer, and porn star.
So, opposite attract with one hero needing emotionial connection for sex (though not demi) and the other shutting down emotions and sex after a cheating and mentally abusive ex.
The chemistry between these too is solar and we get a little pretend relationship thrown in.
The drama comes from Tyler not sharing his adult film work in due time as you might guess. But this conflict is handled really well as really being an internal conflict for each hero and the book remains very sex positive and non shaming.
There are some cool aspects of the book I really liked such has both Tyler and Lamont have great parents though very different from each other, Tyler is very well endowed and Lamont doesn't just take him, and these two talk for the most part. Lamont get therapy. Tyler evaluates his choices with great self reflection and honesty.
Some parts of the book go a bit fast at the end but a nice read overall.
3
