N.G. Peltier’s debut romance is as gorgeous inside as it’s cover. Sweethand is the start of a series, so not only do we have a romance to root for, Peltier is also establishing a community and laying the groundwork for the romances to come.
Cherisse is running a dessert catering business out of her apartment and rebuilding her brand after a public meltdown when she broke up with her ex. Her ex, a star in the local soca music scene, soured her on relationships in general and men in the music industry in particular.
Keiran King has more going against him than being a music producer. He and Cherisse have known and disliked each other since they were kids. Keiran loves making Cherisse lose her cool, but he doesn’t love the assumptions she’s made about him. The two are forced to work together when his friend and her sister ask them as the Best Man and Maid of Honor to plan a joint bachelor & bachelorette party. Their temporary truce is jeopardized when Keiran makes a poorly considered joke about Cherisse’s baking to a reporter.
Keiran and Cherisse start out certain of a lot of things, including the rightness of their opinions about each other. Once they are forced to reconsider and learn something true about the other, the attraction and the feelings grow. When Keiran starts to go soft for Cherisse, he goes soft and vulnerable all the way.
Food, music, family and friends are central to Cherisse and Keiran’s lives. Rom-coms are a running theme in the book, which ends with a dance sequence like the Hitch closing scene
Cherisse was a delight from page one. I want all the good things for her. Once Keiran started loosening up, I enjoyed him, even while I was shaking my head at choices I knew would go badly for him. The cast of friends and relatives is engaging and I can’t wait to read the rest of the series.
