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Hello sassy people! Today’s post is a review of Cream and Punishment, the brand new release from Susannah Nix in the King Family series. Thank you, Susannah Nix for providing this copy in exchange for an honest review.
This was a delicious read and honestly surprising in how amazing it was! I believe I have one more author to add to my favorites list.
Cream and Punishment
(King Family #2)
by Susannah Nix
She’s not just my ex-girlfriend. She’s my new coworker.
I knew Lucy Dillard was The One the first time I met her. Yes, I’m enough of a sap to believe in love at first sight. When I fell for Lucy, I fell hard. Everything was great between us—until the moment she dumped me.
Now I just want to forget about her. Instead, I’m stuck staring at her face all day. But I need this job, so I’ll find a way to be civil and professional.
There’s just one small problem: I’m nowhere close to being over her.
First, we were lovers. Then enemies. Now we’re trying to be friends.
I didn’t set out to break Tanner King’s heart, but you know what they say about the road to hell.
I’ve got too many responsibilities and no room in my life for love. I can deal with Tanner’s resentment until he starts working at the desk directly across from mine. Obviously, a truce of some kind is required. We’re both grownups. We can handle this situation like professionals.
There’s only one thing threatening this fragile peace we’ve negotiated: all these inconvenient feelings I apparently still have for him.
Cream and Punishment is book #2 in the King Family series set in the small town of Crowder, Texas, home of the King’s Creamery ice cream company. Each book is a standalone, full-length contemporary romance that follows one of the six King siblings as they find and fight for love.
Genre: Romance, ARC
Year: 2022
Goodreads rate: 4,25
Tropes: Rom-Com, Romance Family, Second chance romance, Small Town Romance, Workplace romance
Smut factor: 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥 4/5 (steamy)
TRIGGER WARNINGS (Based on StoryGraphs): Death of a parent, Emotional Abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Toxic relationship
Main characters: Lucy and Tanner
Main conflict: Both characters have personal issues, related to their families, their childhoods, and how it affected their adulthood, and both of them have to work through and overcome a lot of things to be happy, individually and as a couple.
Pacing: Medium
Mood: Amazing, Deep, Delicious, Easy, Fun, Sweet
Hero: Book boyfriend, Cinnamon Roll Hero
Plot or character-driven: Character Driven
P.O.V.: Double P.O.V.
Character development: Deep
Diverse Cast: Nope
Read in: 2022
My Rate: 5/5 (The writing in this book is amazing, the visuals the author creates (at least in my head) were funny and just incredible. She approaches very deep and sensitive topics, in a light and fun way, but without taking away the heaviness and seriousness of them. I have to say, I saw myself in a lot of moments with these characters and their experiences and it was a huge reason why I loved this book so much, I felt seen and understood in a lot of moments, even when it wasn’t a personal experience, we are always able to understand the characters reasons, motivations, pains, and emotions. This is a book about self-development, these characters were not working only to make their relationship work, but also to make their individual lives better and that to me is just precious.)
Feminist rate: 5/5 (This book was very political and very feminist in subtle ways, but it abdicated for so many causes that I love, so I couldn’t be happier about a book.
The whole scene with the menstrual cup was one of my favorite scenes ever, not only because it inserted the use of menstrual cups as a normal, day-to-day thing (which I appreciate) but it also allowed the hero to show his amazingness. We have small phrases or actions that show the character’s positions about so many things, mentions of mansplaining, global warming, fascist movements…
And last but absolutely not least, the lessons in how a healthy relationship should work, about partnership and communication. This was just delightful.)
Adjectives and general thoughts: Feminist, sweep, delicious and fun
Recommend this to people who love a soft cinnamon roll hero, a heroine who has reservations but has a long and amazing journey, and a bunch of amazing secondary characters. (Also, if you like to suffer, because I hope this series covers all the brothers, and I need all the books now!!! But don’t worry, this is not a cliffhanger)
This book was delightful, fun, conscious, deep, interesting, and sweet. Both characters have very hard life experiences and they have to deal with them, this is a book about personal growth, about relationships, but not only romantic ones, relationships with parents, siblings, friends, coworkers, and with ourselves. This book made me feel seen and understood and gave me hope about relationships in every form. This was funny, witty, full of personality and opinions, all of which I love and want more. I believe a great part of my favorite aspects come from the author’s way of writing and her subtle way of putting political views, worldwide problems, deep discussions, and approaching meaningful and important topics. I will definitely read all the other books in this series and also anything from this author.
If you want to buy this book, it is now live on Amazon. You can also add it to your shelf on Goodreads and see what other people thought about it!
Well, that is all for today, I hope you like this post, hope you enjoy this book as much as I did. Feel free to leave your opinion about it in the comments and I will see you next time!
Bye sassy people!
- I know that some comments I make about decent guys on my posts are the bare minimum a guy should do, so no, they don’t deserve to be treated like gods for doing the minimum, but at the same time, I’ve read a lot of sexist books and I appreciate authors who make characters that can serve as role models and examples of how a decent guy acts and what a loving and respectful relationship looks like. I believe we should always encourage these authors and bring attention to the ones that still write sexist characters and stories.
- I make a lot of comments about sexism and healthy role models in books, but a lot of times these characteristics don’t make the book a bad book and definitely don’t make the author a bad author. Please never shame these authors and these books for these comments, I simply feel that we need to have awareness of the less than ideal situations some books bring us, and not use the romanticized problem as examples of what a relationship should be. Most of these authors are still amazing, and the content they write doesn’t reflect directly with their personal views and opinions. Always make sure to respect and be kind to everyone, even while criticizing their content.
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Meet Me
Brazilian architecture student and book lover
One of my goals in analysing my readings was to talk about important topics, like feminist and consent, because literature, art and culture influence us, and I believe we should always encorage authors who talk about this topics.
Come check out my Goodreads Reading Challenge!
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2020
I read 148 books in 2020, come see them!
