tempted. haha that one bit of the blurb tempted me enough. and i was ready for this kind of book. i always have different genre moods for different points in my reading journey/moment/week. sometimes its romance. sometimes historical fiction. and sometimes its a bit of light relief or literary deep thinkers. and sometimes its for a book like this that makes me feel a little shy and little embaressed at how much i love them! and the "woke" in me sometimes doesnt want to love them so much.
but alas here i am. loved it. loved it loved it.
it was an easy read in the sense the writing and format of the story and chapters were just flying by. some books just have a real well thought out smoothness to them that allows the story to just be sat down and devoured. this was one of them. and thats harder to do than you think. ive read many a good book that is ruined by how bitty it feels to read.
im not going to give too much about the plot away as i think it would ruin it to write what i needed to.
but if you liked the blurb you will love the book.
and if you like this type of book you will love the book.

Corporate intrigue, power games, relentless paparazzi, and a tangled Cinderella story woven through it all. Interesting characters and complex p,ot keep things moving toward the eventual HEA.

Really enjoyed this book, the character development was great and I was hooked after a few pages, hence finishing it in a day!

Maria Mesmer has a great writing style and creates likeable and charming characters. Well worth a read.

****POSSIBLE SPOILERS****

3/5⭐️
3/5 🌶


While I loved the premise and forced proximity is a trope I like, Tempted was more than a bit predictable. The characters were well written but over promised and under delivered. Alex was basically said to be a dom but ended up being a very very soft dom. There was little dom-ness to the spicy scenes. The spicy scenes were the highlight of the book. Hailee was well written but annoying. The story had good bones but with the above ended up falling a bit short for me.

Okay, I wasn't expecting to get hooked to this book like I did. I finished it within a day. 🫣

The growing relationship between Alex and Hailee was lovely. Watching him go from cold, harsh billionaire playboy to the sweet, gentleman for Hailee was melt-worthy. HOWEVER, there was SO much whiplash between the two that I found myself groaning at them in some parts. As soon as you think they're good, together, in love - one of them does or says something that pushes them away even the slightest. LIKE KISS ALREADY.

Anyway - has a HEA, but it takes a while to get there. Loved the action and suspense throughout, and even though my heart broke at one part (you'll see), it was put back together by the end.

If you love these tropes, you'll enjoy this:
✨ Billionaire Romance
✨ Brother's Best Friend
✨ Forced Proximity
✨ "Mine"
✨ Grumpy x Sunshine

I'm also VERY excited on the prospect of a Sophia + James book soon!

Thank you so much NetGalley and Maria for the eARC!

I was not planning to, but this book hooked me and I ended up staying up all night reading it. This book has all the goodies, billionaire, brother's best friend, man out for revenge, gave up on love. Suffice to say, I was hooked! This was a great debut novel and I am looking forward to reading more from this author.