Bitter Sweet Love by R.C. Stephens
Publisher: Self-Published
Series: Twisted Love, book 1
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Source: Xpresso Book Tours
Purchase links || amazon || goodreads
Rating: ★★★★1/2
After enduring an abusive childhood and having her heart broken by the only boy she trusts, Alexis White vows to never let anyone hurt her again. She’s left her troubled past behind and starts a new life at college. For the past seven years, her social calendar has been filled with frat parties, drinking, and meaningless sexual hook-ups. Until one night she unexpectedly gets saved by a tall, dark, and handsome French foreigner, Luc Blanchard. He’s charming, sophisticated, and very interested in Lexi, who has presented herself as a challenge when she tells him relationships aren’t her thing.
She finds herself sucked in by his own intriguing past. But everything changes when Dylan Priestley, the gorgeous boy who broke her heart and shattered her faith in friendship and love, suddenly shows up in her life again while back home on a visit. Dylan doesn’t hide his feelings for Lexi, but she can’t forgive or forget being betrayed by the one person she ever truly loved.
Despite the pain Dylan’s caused her, Lexi is once again drawn to the blue-eyed-boy-next-door. Will Lexi choose the man who seems perfect but hides a dark side or the boy who smashed her heart into pieces so many years ago?
about R.C Stephens || R.C. Stephens was born in Toronto, Canada. She graduated from York University with a Master’s Degree in Political Science. Her debut Novel Bitter Sweet Love is book one of the Twisted Trilogy. Followed by Twisted Love and Sweet Love Forever. R.C. is an avid reader, so when she isn’t cooking for her clan or on her laptop writing, she’s snuggled tight with her Kindle devouring any romance novel she can. Okay, with the exception of Thursday nights. She makes time for Scandal and Vampire Diaries. She’s a fan of drama and suspense but she’s also a sucker for a happy ending. Her husband was her first teenage love. They live together with their three children in Toronto. Loving Canadian winters she could never think of living anywhere else.
{ review } .
This book is one of those that starts with a prologue that grips you, it sucks you in deep...
...and then chapter one goes back in time. Then you spend the rest of the book trying to get back to the point of the book that the prologue is. Another book that I've read that did this to us was Edie Harris's BLAMED -- a book that's prologue and beginning chapter still resonate in my head (and as I'm working on the next book in the BLOOD MONEY series, RIPPED, I can tell you that Edie Harris writes that way brilliantly).
But this is R.C. Stephens, not Edie Harris.
Regardless, such as with Edie, I find that if you can write that sort of prologue and drag the reader through the trenches, well, you've got a good thing going for you.
Beyond an amazing, gripping prologue, this is a story that flips between present day and Lexi's childhood. As things start to happen in present day, we get more of Lexi and Dylan's backstory -- and you want to know more; you want to know what Dylan did so wrong that scarred Lexi, you want to know what broke their friendship
We have three key players in BITTER SWEET LOVE: Lexi, Luc, and Dylan.
Lexi had a broken childhood. She was abused, physically and mentally, when her mother couldn't cope with her own feelings. When her mother's drunken rages happened, Lexi was sure to protect her sister, Ashley, and took the brunt of it. The neighbor boy, Dylan, became Lexi's knight in shining armor, patching her up and offering her (and Ashley) a safe haven. Slowly, their friendship turned to more, but with most teenaged relationships, there were roadblocks that caused them to break.
Now Lexi refuses to let another man close. She doesn't believe in relationships, but does believe in sex -- so she uses guys to scratch her itches, and moves on.
When Luc comes in to the picture, he's sweet ways and accent slowly bring Lexi around. She finds herself in a relationship and doesn't truly mind it.
The problem is Luc isn't what he seems.
And Dylan comes back into the picture.
This story takes you through the ringer, that's for sure. I can't say I even liked Luc and his smooth-talking ways; I'm a sucker for past love coming back all grown up, after all. But Dylan made his mistakes and I could understand Lexi's misgivings.
...and then chapter one goes back in time. Then you spend the rest of the book trying to get back to the point of the book that the prologue is. Another book that I've read that did this to us was Edie Harris's BLAMED -- a book that's prologue and beginning chapter still resonate in my head (and as I'm working on the next book in the BLOOD MONEY series, RIPPED, I can tell you that Edie Harris writes that way brilliantly).
But this is R.C. Stephens, not Edie Harris.
Regardless, such as with Edie, I find that if you can write that sort of prologue and drag the reader through the trenches, well, you've got a good thing going for you.
Beyond an amazing, gripping prologue, this is a story that flips between present day and Lexi's childhood. As things start to happen in present day, we get more of Lexi and Dylan's backstory -- and you want to know more; you want to know what Dylan did so wrong that scarred Lexi, you want to know what broke their friendship
We have three key players in BITTER SWEET LOVE: Lexi, Luc, and Dylan.
Lexi had a broken childhood. She was abused, physically and mentally, when her mother couldn't cope with her own feelings. When her mother's drunken rages happened, Lexi was sure to protect her sister, Ashley, and took the brunt of it. The neighbor boy, Dylan, became Lexi's knight in shining armor, patching her up and offering her (and Ashley) a safe haven. Slowly, their friendship turned to more, but with most teenaged relationships, there were roadblocks that caused them to break.
Now Lexi refuses to let another man close. She doesn't believe in relationships, but does believe in sex -- so she uses guys to scratch her itches, and moves on.
When Luc comes in to the picture, he's sweet ways and accent slowly bring Lexi around. She finds herself in a relationship and doesn't truly mind it.
The problem is Luc isn't what he seems.
And Dylan comes back into the picture.
This story takes you through the ringer, that's for sure. I can't say I even liked Luc and his smooth-talking ways; I'm a sucker for past love coming back all grown up, after all. But Dylan made his mistakes and I could understand Lexi's misgivings.
...He stands silently, staring at me. I can see he's deep in thought, like he has a lot to say but doesn't know where to begin. It's understandable. Where do you start when you completely hurt and then block the person you're supposed to love out of your life?This is a story that ends in a cliff-hanger, and while at times I don't appreciate them, the story is left with enough to make you want to put TWISTED on your must-read list, with a little reminder on any and every calendar to purchase it when the time comes.
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