ROMANCE

Sweeten the Deal

Berkley. Oct. 2023. 384p. ISBN 9780593549315. pap. $17. CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
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When Caroline’s beloved grandmother left her a $2 million inheritance, she also gave her the ability to break out of her sheltered existence of competitive tennis and small-town life. Moving to Boston for business school broadened her horizons, but she didn’t know how hard it would be to build a fulfilling social life. Like any good business student, her strategy for reaching her life goals involves hiring someone with the skills she lacks. She finds local artist Adrian on a sugar-baby website, and it seems like a perfect match, with no physical relationship involved. Caroline wants to live a life full of new things and sophisticated people, while Adrian needs rent money until he can find a new gallery to display his work after a bad breakup. But neither Caroline nor Adrian could have predicted their growing chemistry and connection. Though there is some awkwardness in the growth of the characters and their relationship, it makes the happy ending even more fulfilling.
VERDICT Fans of Helen Hoang’s The Kiss Quotient will be charmed by neurodivergent Caroline and worldly, handsome Adrian in Shepard’s (Bear with Me Now) latest.
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