Happy Endings by Thien-Kim Lam

 

Welcome Back Booklovers! I decided to pick up another romance and this one is a little out my comfort zone. It's still contemporary romance but the heroine has an unconventional job and it's Asian woman/Black man romance. I've been calling this the sex toy and soul food romance. I received an arc from Avon Romance in exchange for review.

Trixie Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American sex toy therapist who hails from New Orleans. After a messy breakup she moved to DC for a fresh start. Determined to prove her parents wrong she has a 5 yr plan which includes becoming a top seller. She's found a group of close friends, does volunteer work she enjoys, and is overall a more confident woman. 

Andre Walker took over his momma's soul food restaurant after she died but it hasn't been doing well. 2 years ago he left his girlfriend by breaking up via a note and moved out of New Orleans.  So of course he's surprised when she shows up at his restaurant and he discovers she's friends with his sister. The last thing he wants is to defile the image of his mother's restaurant with pop up sex toy events especially with his ex as the host.  But what other options do they have to easily bring in business right now?

I really appreciated the sex positivity in this story. Trixie tries to educate both young and older women about sex and help them be comfortable in their own bodies. 

The sex scenes were hot and there was even some inclusion of toys which I've never read in a contemporary romance. Trixie and Andre had no problems in that regard.

This book also touches upon gentrification as the neighborhood surrounding Mama Hazel's restaurant has had significant rent increases over the years and an influx of hipsters. The restaurant is one of the few neighborhood staples left.

While I understood Andre was still dealing with his grief he was a hard character to root for at times. He harbors the weight of everything on his shoulders despite friends and family constantly begging him to let them help. He need to dal with his control issues when it came to both his sister and Trixie.

I think there was a lot of family drama to get over and that was too quickly resolved without much effort. I think more time needed to be spent on resolving those issues since the book was already in women's fiction territory. And those larger issues made it hard to enjoy Trixie and Andre as a couple outside of the bedroom. Overall this is a fast paced read worth checking out at least to get a little variation from your usual contemporary.