Bliss

Bliss Sinclair is leading a regular life. Working in the accounts department of a publishing house, dating a guy she likes. A chance meeting with Regina, one of their authors, sends Sinclair’s life into a tailspin. Regina aggressively comes on to Sinclair and barely three days later, Sinclair finds herself breaking off from her boyfriend. Regina introduces Sinclair to all sorts of sexual experiences and a month later, calmly announces that their time together is over. To get over her heartbreak, Sinclair accepts her father’s oft-extended invite to visit him in Jamaica for a month. In Jamaica, Sinclair meets her step-mom – twenty-two year old Nikki, a twenty-five year old sister, Lydia and Lydia’s darkly wicked, seductive girlfriend Hunter. Hunter and Sinclair end up together soon.

The author writes about the lushness and beauty of Jamaica with love even while exposing the poverty and crime (especially against lesbians) with honesty. The sex scenes are many and highly descriptive. There is quite a bit of drama thrown in. However, for all these elements, the emotions do not reach the reader. At the end of the book, we actually like Nikki and Lydia more than any other character in the book. The conversations between Sinclair and Hunter at the start of their acquaintanceship sound unbelievable. Somewhere around the middle of their romance, Hunter seems just too cocky.

All in all, it is an average read.

I ARC received via NetGalley and in exchange for an honest review.

Bliss life is full of unhappiness and boring routine. A chance meeting with a provocative writer name Regina makes her realize she not as straight as she thought.

When Bliss decide she need to escape from Regina she goes to Jamaica where she was born to reconnect with her estranged father and her family. The first part of the book was very erotica and second we learn more about Bliss and her family and different things about Jamaica. It had two homophobic violence that made me cringe it sad to say that we still have homophobic in this world today.

In the beginning this novel feels like it’s pure erotica with Bliss Sinclair’s meeting and total infatuation with Regina making her realise she’s not as straight as she thought. Then in an effort to escape from herself she decides to return to Jamaica for a holiday to see her father whom she hasn’t seen in 20 years. This part of the novel is much more of an exploration of Sinclair’s relationship with her family and Jamaica itself. It settles into what ends up being a good romance surrounded by a lot of realism.

I enjoyed both parts of the book but I’m struggling to connect them as one in my head. Regina is a powerful character and has a marked impact on Sinclair and the reader (in this case, me). Hunter has a much longer and far steadier appearance but not the same presence and for much of the novel I felt like Hunter was temporary or even worse, second best.

I am a fan of Zedde’s writing, so even when I’m not sure where I stand on the story line, I still enjoy the way it is written; the directness, the explicitness and pushing of boundaries. Hunter and Sinclair appear in a short story in “Language of Love – A Flirty, Festive Anthology” and I would have had a much greater appreciation for that story if I had read this first.

(Note: there are two instances of homophobic violence in the novel.)

Book received from Netgalley and Red Hills Publishing for an honest review.

Great read. The author wrote a story that was interesting and moved at a pace that kept me engaged. The characters were easy to invest in.