Choices by Sydney Lane
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
An impressive first effort by new author Sydney Lane. What sounded like a fairly typical romance triangle story has some surprises and situations that add a real depth, and a thoughtfulness too often missing from Young Adult/New Adult books, especially first efforts.
For the most part the characters were well drawn, at first the two male leads Brody and Declan were a little two dimensional but as the book wore on, our understanding of them grew with the main characters understanding of them. Done a little differently than I am used to, but I liked the effect. The best friend Jenna was fun, flirty, and the kind of friend most of us have had. I would not at all mind seeing her get her own book. The main character’s family behaved like a real family as well, in some ways reminded me of my own.
If I had one word of advice to the author it would be to work on the transition from dialogue to eros. Sometimes it came across a little abrupt and slightly unrealistic, more often not though. The erotic scenes were VERY erotic and believable. One had my blood boiling so much I decided to surprise my wife in the shower. . . .LOL If there is one thing I love it is a writer who can write an extremely erotic scene that while getting you all worked up, never comes off as cheap or smutty and Ms Lane has that down solid. I also liked that the sexual acts were also realistic, not everyone is a porn star, and they aren’t hanging from a trapeze wearing rubber their first time together. Lately I’ve read a few books where they seem to think you have to get strange to be erotic, while that can be fun, it is not usually a part of early in a relationship.
I think the thing I liked the most is the book grabbed my interest from the first, then slowly and steadily built up until it got more and more intense. The end of the book was unforgettable, emotional, realistic, and wonderful.
I cannot wait to see more books from this author, and will seek them out the day they are published!
Baalat's Temple 