Full Review on NetGalley

I really enjoyed this.
This is a deeply flawed couple who’s behaviour I really should find abhorrent but this is clever writing and I found myself sympathising strongly with them, even wanting them to succeed in their deception.
I was hooked by their story.

The story ends, not on a cliffhanger, but with so much left to tell and thankfully the next books are out already so I won’t have long to wait.
( )

Oh.My.God. This was a freaking rollercoaster.

She's addicted to sex and he's addicted to alcohol. I know, I know, you're thinking "that sounds like lots of spice and grafic scenes whitout plot" but you're wrong. In fact, there's no grafic scenes and almost all the spice is fade to black.

I'm not going to lie, I struggled a lot with this book. It wasn't easy to read about Lo(mmc) and Lily( fmc).

The first half half or so was straight away uncomfortable and with lots of red flaggs. The way Lily objectifies people, the way she thinks sometimes, how Lo abusses alcohol, like, passed out on your vomit levels. The way they lied for each other, turning blind eyes on their problems and even supporting their addictions to each other, that was a toxic relationship with capital letters.

But then, Connor and Ryke entered the picture and all changed.

I liked how the authors didn't sugarcoat anything, they gave us all the ugly, uncomfortable details to understand what a big of a problem that is. They didn't lie to the readers with the typical "love solves all the problems", that's not true. Lily and Lo's struggles at the end were real, raw, described in such a way that it was heartbreaking. I'm adding a star to to the rating just for that.

I feel like this book is just the introduction to Lily and Lo's lives and I can't wait for more. ( )

My Rating 4.46 out of 5 Stars
Wow! That's my first initial reaction after reading this book. At first I thought it was just a typical romance/erotica book, and don't get me wrong, I enjoy those just fine. However, this book is so much more than that. It shows you what its like in the life of a sex addict, and I for one knew it was an addiction, but until this book it never really occurred to me how serious and destructive such an addiction can be. I think this book will open the eyes of many who read it. It will also show the same with alcohol which is also a serious addiction but more well known.
While addictions are bad Lily's and Lo's are made worse by each other. Both covering for and enabling the others addiction. It was obvious to me right from the start. As a previous smoker, this was the only addiction I have ever had to deal with and so my only point of reference. I found I needed it just to fully understand why they couldn't see it. While this book is marked as romance I think the main focus of this book really was the addictions. This book was an emotional ride. It had me in tears for at least the last three chapters. I will be continuing this series.
My rating system:
initial feeling= 4.75
writing= 4
story= 4
originality= 4
unpredictability= 4.5
ending= 5
interest= 5 ( )

Lo and Lily, best friends forever, are both struggling with addictions. His to booze, hers to sex. To top it all off, they both come from wealthy and controlling families. While uncomfortable at times and slightly cheesy at other times, I really liked this book. I appreciate it when authors take the time to really research their subjects and when they don't let their characters take the easy way out when it comes to healing. This series is definitely on my radar now!

Received from NetGalley for an honest review. ( )

'I've trained myself to self-medicate with sex for so long that stopping seems so unfeasible, like trying to brake a high-speed train before it crashes into a cement wall. So I'll crash. I'll splinter and break. But it'll feel damn good going two hundred miles an hour beforehand.'

Plot

Lily Calloway and Loren Hale have been enabling each other's addictions for years. By living together and pretending that they're a couple, they keep their addictions hidden from their families.

No one would suspect that Lily is a sex addict. Her addiction leads her to more one-night stands that can remember, and steamy hookups that she often regrets. Loren is the only one that knows Lily's secret. But he has one of his own; he's an alcoholic, and he can't go more than a few hours without a drink.

As their addictions become more and more dangerous, they desperately hold onto their messed up relationship and wonder if a real life together is better than a lie. As strangers and family members begin to break down their lies, they realise that they may also be addicted to each other.

My thoughts

I saw this book on NetGalley and decided to request it as it sounded interesting. I'd not read a book about two people battling through two different addictions and enabling each other to continue. The premise of the book sounded good, so when I was accepted to read a copy, I started reading it a few weeks later.

Whilst the idea of the book was good, I think it could have been executed in a better way. The basis for a great story was there, but it didn't seem to really go anywhere for me. Not enough really happened in the plot to make this a great book, and for me it was just entertaining and nothing special.

I liked the idea of Lily and Loren's fake relationship, as the only book I've read with that kind of set up only spanned over the Christmas holiday, not over three years. So this was an enjoyable aspect for me, as it was an interesting set up, and it was really only a matter of time before they realised that they wanted to be together for real.

One of the things that bothered me, is how easily Lily manages to find a man to have sex with in a club. I know that sort of thing does happen in clubs, but I found it hard to believe that with just a look at the first man that catches her eye, Lily is able to lure him to the bathrooms. It just seemed unrealistic to me that it would be so quick and simple for her to find somebody with exactly the same thing on their mind.

There were some interesting plot points, shocks and revelations that kept this story interesting, but it just didn't grab me as I expected it would. The plot seemed to move quite slowly in places and it really didn't feel like much happened until the end of the story. So for me, while the story was entertaining, I can only give it three stars. ( )