DELICATE (Sierra Cove 6) by Lyssa Cole
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 1, 2024
Have you ever been in one of those relationships where you love the person no matter how much they hurt you?
They leave scars. Permanent, ugly ones that my naive self didn’t see coming. One day it all went wrong. He hurt me and left me more guarded and closed off to the only thing I’ve ever craved. Love. I’ve always been good at hiding my pain, being closed off to the world. I don’t let anyone see the scars from my past or my present.
Until Rhett saw them. And yet he still wanted to be my friend. Despite my damaged heart.
When Rhett helps me find my happiness again with surf lessons, volunteering at the local animal shelter, movie marathons, road trips, and lots of laughter, I start to feel things I never thought I would.
Yet he insists on keeping things platonic leaving me with the proven fact that love isn’t real. I’d be stupid to open my heart up again. As graduation looms near, Rhett is headed back home to Florida and I’m stuck here in California. Leaving us right where we started. Nothing more than just friends.
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REVIEW: DELICATE is the sixth instalment in Lyssa Cole’s contemporary, new adult SIERRA COVE erotic, romance series. This is college seniors Rhett and Maia’s story line. DELICATE can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary.
NOTE: Due to the nature of the story line premise, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers
Told from dual first person perspectives (Rhett and Maia) DELICATE follows the building romance and relationship between our story line couple. Maia is in a committed relationship with her boyfriend Alex but all is not well in romance land. Alex is controlling and emotionally abusive, and when Maia is befriended by fellow student and local surfer Rhett, Alex sees red. Refusing to see the real Alex, Maia continues to defend the young man with whom she claims to love until Maia sees beyond the façade, and the monster within. With Rhett by her side as emotional support, Maia walks away, and with a new direction, sees a little more clearly what was happening around her. What ensues is the building relationship between Maia and Rhett, and the potential fall-out when a trip to Florida reveals a friendship that turns into something more.
The worlding building focuses on controlling relationships, struggles to be free, new found friendships, miscommunication and misunderstanding.
The relationship between Rhett and Maia begins as friends in which Rhett see more than Maia refuses to admit. Always the protector, Rhett is often caught in the middle of Maia’s relationship fall-out but Rhett is hoping for something more from a woman who is struggling to walk away. The $ex scenes are limited but passionate.
Several of the previous story line characters and couples return in secondary and supporting roles including Holden and Lennox, Everleigh and Landon. We are introduced to Rhett’s large extended family, as well as Maia’s soon to be ex boyfriend Alex.
DELICATE is a story of power and control, emotional abuse, secrets and lies, friendships and relationships, acceptance and love. The premise is dramatic and emotional; the romance is seductive; the characters are determined and animated but our heroine is slightly immature.
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Sandy
