Rowena’s review of Sweet (True Believers #2) by Erin McCarthy.
Jessica Sweet thought going away to college would finally make her free of her parents’ constant judgments and insistence she play chastity club role model for their church events, but if anything, the freedom has made her realize she can’t go home and be a hypocrite anymore. Tired of dodging their questions, she stays at school over the summer and lands in an unexpected crash pad: Riley Mann’s house.
Sarcastic, cocky, and full of opinions, Riley is also sexy personified with tattoos and biceps earned from working as a roofer all day. Not the right guy for her even if Jessica was looking for a relationship, which she is definitely not. But Jessica knows that Riley hides the burden of having to raise his younger brothers behind that grin and as she helps him get his house in order for a custody hearing, they begin to fall hard for each other, and she is forced to question what she’s hiding herself.
Jessica has never had a problem getting naked with a guy, but when it comes to showing Riley how she truly feels inside, her fear of rejection may just ruin the best thing—the best guy—to ever happen to her…
This is the second book in the True Believers series by Erin McCarthy and the story revolves around the hero from the first books brother and his girlfriend’s best friend and roommate. Riley Mann and Jessica Sweet like to bicker with each other. They spend most of their time together arguing about something or another, which suits them both just fine.
But when Jessica decides not to go home for the summer, she’s stuck without a place to stay until her sublet opens up…which leads her directly into Riley Mann’s house.
Riley lets Jessica stay with him when Tyler and the rest of his younger brothers go to spend a week at Rory’s house. It’s the perfect set up for Jessica since she needs a place to stay and she’s got nowhere else to go. For two people that have bickered as much as they have, over the course of that week, they become close and they inevitably fall for each other.
Riley receives news that he’s going to have to prove he’s a worthy guardian for his younger brother, Easton. He’s got absolutely no faith in the system to give him custody, to keep his family together but with Jessica’s help over the weekend, things are starting to look up. With her interior design skills, together they turn the house around and turn it into a home…rather than a hellhole.
Seeing these two come together was good. I enjoyed getting to know them and I really enjoyed seeing Jessica grow from the girl that I barely liked in True to the person that she ended up being in Sweet. Riley’s brother U kept me laughing throughout the entire book and seeing the family dynamic between Riley and his brothers was nice. I liked seeing them all together and seeing Jess win Easton over.
Riley was difficult to understand. I mean, he came off as rough and tough in True and like Jess, he wasn’t all that likable to me but he came around in this one. In this book, McCarthy kept him crude and rude as possible but it was likable in this book. I thought he was hilarious and I loved how he communicated with Jess. All awkward and cocky at the same time. His jealousy was hard to take at times but not enough that I didn’t enjoy getting to know him anyway.
This book was good. I liked it. Better than the first book and I’m really looking forward to the next book. Man, the whole thing with Robin? Holy crap, I can’t wait to see what comes from all of that drama.
Grade: 4 out of 5
This book is available from InterMix. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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