SWEET LIFE (Sugar Rush #5) by Nina Lane-Review and Excerpt Tour
SWEET LIFE
Sugar Rush #5
by Nina Lane
Release Date: December 12, 2017
Genre: adult, contemporary, erotic, romance
Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / iBooks /
ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date December 12, 2017
He knows if she’s been bad or good.
Amidst the sugarplums and mistletoe, fashion stylist Julia Bennett is every inch a scrooge. Known for her ice-queen ways, she’s having a meltdown over a botched business deal and an upcoming milestone birthday. Add the pressure of forced holiday cheer, and she’s ready to dive into the spiked eggnog and not come out until summer.
Warren Stone, president and owner of the Sugar Rush Candy Company, is determined to make Julia slow down and enjoy the holidays. As her friend and confidante for thirteen years, he knows her better than anyone. But when decking the halls leads them to an explosive, sexy night, everything suddenly changes.
When Warren decides Julia is all he wants for Christmas, will she risk their longtime friendship for the gift of love?
••••••••••
REVIEW: SWEET LIFE is the fifth instalment in Nina Lane’s contemporary, adult SUGAR RUSH erotic romance series focusing on the Stone family and the Sugar Rush Candy company. This is patriarch and Sugar Rush president Warren Stone, and fashion stylist Julie Bennett’s story line. SWEET LIFE can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from previous story lines is revealed where necessary.
Told from dual third person perspectives (Warren and Julia) SWEET LIFE focuses on the friends to lovers relationship between fifty-four year old widower, father of seven, and President of the Sugar Rush Candy Company Warren Stone, and his forty-nine year old, sister in-law Julia Bennett. Fourteen years earlier Warren lost his beloved wife Rebecca to a tragic accident that also saw our heroine lose the sister she would never forget. Throughout the years Julia has been the family’s rock, helping to take care of her sister’s seven children but in the ensuing time our heroine’s personal life took a backseat to the fulfilment of her career, and the support of her extended family. Fast forward to present day wherein Julia’s attraction to Warren is met with an equally aggressive reaction by her late sister’s husband-a man she has lusted over for close to thirty-five years. What ensues is the building romance between Julia and Warren, and the potential fall out as their secret romance becomes fodder for the family, and Julia is unable to let go of the past.
Throughout the story line the ghost of Warren’s late wife Rebecca is a major stumbling block for our story line couple. Unable to get past the breakdown of her relationship with Rebecca, prior to the death of the sister she loved, Julia struggles with the memories of what happened, and the revelations about her feelings for the man she would grow to love. As Warren prepares for retirement, the family must come to terms with their father’s decision, and the change in direction for the Sugar Rush company.
The relationship between Julia and Warren is a friends to lovers, older couple romance; a brother in law / sister in law attraction that has continued to flourish, building towards something more than friendship and mutual loss. Secrets are revealed that could potentially destroy Julia’s relationship with the family she loves. The $ex scenes are intimate, erotic and intense-it is wonderful to see an ‘older couple’ enjoying an active sex life not deferring to questionable age-related ability.
There is a large ensemble cast of secondary and supporting cast including many of the previous story line characters: Luke and Polly (Sweet Dreams #1), Evan (Sweet Escape #2), Tyler (Sweet Surrender #3), Gavin an Mia (Sweet Time #4) Adam, Spencer, and Hailey Stone; Julia’s assistants Anisa and Marco, as well as several local residents of Indigo Bay, California who are participating in the local Christmas pageant.
The world building focuses on family; on Warren’s upcoming retirement plans; and Julia’s inability to love and be loved. The premise is captivating and inspiring; the romance is passionate and seductive; the characters are charismatic, energetic and lively. Nina Lane is a go –to author for me for her ability to pull me in, suck me under, make me cry, and never let go.
Reading Order and previous reviews
Sweet Dreams
Sweet Escape
Sweet Surrender
Sweet Time
Sweet Life
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Sandy
Julia blinked at his hard tone, her gaze shifting to his closed office door. “I beg your pardon?”
Warren opened the door. “In. Now.”
Her features tightened with resistance just as the elevator doors opened and several employees emerged, their voices rising in chatter. Julia crossed the hallway in front of them, her shoulders rigid. He caught a whiff of Chanel No. 5 as she passed him.
He entered the office behind her and closed the door, flicking the lock shut.
“You are not to take out personal crap on my employees,” he said. “That’s not how I run this company.”
Julia’s lips compressed. “Odd that you’ve never before questioned my treatment of your employees. And it wasn’t personal. She needed to know she’d screwed up.”
“Announcing the holiday party early is not screwing up,” Warren replied evenly. “You’re pissed off because you’ve had a shitty week, you have too much on your plate, an old bucket list has thrown you off your game, and you don’t know what to do with the fact that we fucked the other night.”
Two spots of color appeared on her cheeks. “I seem to recall that what I did with that fact was tell you it wasn’t going to happen again. After which you informed me in excellent caveman style that I was wrong. You seem to forget I’m never wrong.”
About this, you are.
He bit back the words. He hadn’t become the president of Sugar Rush by throwing his weight around. He knew how to bide his time, work his way into getting what he wanted. And damned if he didn’t want her more with every passing second.
“Well?” Julia put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “Are we done here?”
Under her make-up, purplish smudges shadowed her eyes. Brackets of tension lined her mouth. His jaw tightened.
“You had a migraine yesterday,” he said.
“What the fuck do you care?” Julia snapped.
Warren’s hands flexed. He was used to her quick-fire cursing, all the more effective when delivered by a woman who looked like royalty, but he didn’t like being the recipient of her wrath.
“I’m putting Mia Donovan in charge of the Sugar Rush holiday party,” he said.
“You’re firing me?” Julia stared at him, her eyes widening. “Are you serious?”
“Yes.” He steeled himself against her shock and the knowledge that he was hurting her. “You’ve planned it for the past ten years, and it’s time to hand it over to someone else.”
“You don’t get to decide that.”
“Yes, I do. Sugar Rush is my company. This is also the event where I’ll be announcing my retirement. You’re not going to plan it.”
“Because I have too much on my plate?” Julia stopped in front of the windows, her arms crossed and her fiery gaze fixed on him. “Thanks for your concern, Daddy, but I assure you I can handle everything I take on.”
“That’s why you’re such a success. It’s also why your headaches are getting worse.”
“You are not my fucking doctor.”
“Stop swearing.”
She barked out a laugh. “You need to rethink this retirement thing, Warren. It’s making you soft.”
Given the state of his dick, he was anything but soft.
“If you won’t delegate your projects, I will,” he said.
“Because you can’t stop being the boss, even if you think otherwise.” Julia paced angrily to the desk, her eyes flaring with blue ice. “Why are you retiring, Warren? Everyone knows you’re the power behind the throne, much as you’ve let the boys take all the glory. Three months—hell, one month from now when you have nothing to do and no one to order around, you’re going to wonder why you made such a bad decision.”
Warren’s jaw clenched. He was sick of getting pushback from all sides. “I’ve been in business my entire life. I know what I’m doing.”
“So do I, dammit,” Julia retorted. “I don’t need you looking out for me.”
“I will always look out for you.”
She came to a halt, her whole body stilling. By contrast, Warren’s heartbeat kicked up, sudden heat flooding his veins. Their gazes met across the room, a crackling electric current firing through the air.
Julia took a breath, her breasts heaving beneath her jacket.
“Goddamn you, Warren Stone,” she whispered.
“I told you to stop swearing.” He advanced, his own breath increasing, his hands fisting and unfisting at his sides.
Rebellion tightened her features. “And if I don’t?”
“You sure you want to find out?”
He closed the distance between them, his lust flaring like a match to dry leaves.
What the fuck was going on with them?
The question flared like a comet through his mind and died just as fast—because he didn’t care about the answer. His mind was consumed with the thought of tasting her red lips again, sweet like cherries, spicy like peppers. Her mouth could deliver an insult as sharp and searing as a blade, but he knew—had always known, even if he’d smothered the knowledge—that the sounds issuing from Julia Bennett’s mouth could also be smooth, hot murmurs of lust that rushed straight to his blood. Weakening him of all thought, all control, inciting him with the urge to—
He grabbed her shoulders, hauling her soft, slender body against him. He’d always loved the contrast of Julia, the sharp-tongued, acidic queen and the relentlessly devoted aunt. The rigorous boss who shot orders like arrows, and the loyal friend who bought Hailey’s favorite peanut butter, sent care packages to Gavin Knight when he was deployed in Iraq, spent hours on end with Evan at the hospital.
He stared down at her fine features, pale skin, and wide blue eyes that he’d seen almost every day of his life for the past thirteen years—and suddenly now it felt as if he were looking at her for the first time. Had he never noticed that tiny birthmark right beneath her left eye? Or the silver flecks in her irises, like falling snow? Or the perfect curve in her upper lip, tempting him to put his tongue there and—
Oh, he’d noticed all right. He’d just tried to pretend he hadn’t.
“What the hell am I going to do with you, Julia?” he muttered.
“Fire me, apparently.” Her tone was bitter, her eyes blue fire.
Her gaze flickered involuntarily to his mouth, her lips parting. He slipped his hand beneath her chin, lifting her face to his. His heart jackhammered. Her breath brushed against his mouth, the familiar scent of her—Chanel No. 5, lavender soap, pure Julia—suddenly exotic and tantalizing.
“I’m going to let you go,” he said slowly, “and take two steps back. I want you to reach under your skirt and take your underwear off… if you’re wearing any.”
New York Times & USA Today bestselling author Nina Lane writes hot, sexy romances about professors, bad boys, candy makers, and protective alpha males who find themselves consumed with love for one woman alone. Originally from California, Nina holds a PhD in Art History and an MA in Library and Information Studies, which means she loves both research and organization. She also enjoys traveling and thinks St. Petersburg, Russia is a city everyone should visit at least once. Although Nina would go back to college for another degree because she’s that much of a bookworm and a perpetual student, she now lives the happy life of a full-time writer.
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