Review: Sweet Thing by Renee Carlino

Sweet Thing

Author: Renee Carlino

Series: -

Pages: 331

Genre: Adult Contemporary

Publisher: Self

Release date: 17^th April 2013

Synopsis. (Goodreads)

Mia Kelly is a twenty-five-year-old walking Gap ad who thinks she has life figured out when her father’s sudden death uproots her from slow-paced Ann Arbor to New York City’s bustling East Village. There she discovers her father’s spirit for life and the legacy he left behind with the help of an old café, a few eccentric friends, and one charming musician.

Will Ryan is good-looking, poetic, spontaneous, and on the brink of fame when he meets Mia, his new landlord, muse, and personal heartbreaker.

A story of self-discovery and friendship, Sweet Thing shines light on the power of loving and letting go.

Review: 3 ½ out of 5 stars

Sweet Thing intrigued me right from the onset, it was a book filled with hope, friendship, self-discovery and love that I found myself really enjoying.

Our main protagonist is twenty-five year Mia Kelly who has moved to bustling New York City to run her recently deceased fathers’ coffee shop. My thoughts about Mia are truly conflicted, I honestly felt sorry for this broken-hearted, seemingly lost girl but she came across as uncaring and aloof and frustrated me on so many occasions with the way she treated others without even realising that she was hurting them but I also saw that she was trying to find herself and determine what she wanted to do with her life.

On the plane on her way to NYC, Mia meets musician Will Ryan and after running into him again offers him her vacant room to rent & I have to say this smexy, carefree and loveable guy honestly made the book for me, he knew what he wanted and worked hard to achieve it. He was charming, smexy and with his love of music it showed his passion and sincerity to follow his goals. As the story progresses you could see how much he loved Mia who was not only his room-mate and best-friend but someone he thought he could trust and who supported him whole-heartedly, it’s just a shame she couldn’t admit her feelings or accept him completely for who he was and for this she made me so mad.

Both of these characters were on a journey of self-discovery but for different reasons and I enjoyed seeing them find their way, but not without miscommunications, disagreements and a few partners who weren’t so right in between. I loved the banter between them, the chemistry and attraction, the time they spent making and playing music, it all came together beautifully and the slow to build romance was so worth it in the end.

Overall, Sweet Thing is wonderfully written with a great cast of characters, it doesn’t come without angst and drama but the end result is all worth it.

Quote: You have to teach your heart and mind how to sing together... then you'll hear the sound of your soul

About the author: Renee’s first friends were the imaginary kind and even though her characters haven’t gone away, thankfully the delusions have. She admits she’s a wildly hopeless romantic and she blames 80’s movies starring Molly Ringwald for that. She lives in Southern California with her husband, two sons, and their sweet dog June. When she’s not at the beach with her boys or working on the next book, she likes to spend her time reading, going to concerts, and eating dark chocolate.