Pleasure Under the Sun by Lindsay Evans

 

Welcome Back, Booklovers! I'm back with another romance review. April has been a big romance reading month for me with 6 out of 12 books read being romance. That being said I'm going to jump into other genres for a bit so this will probably be my last romance review for awhile. I've discovered Hoopla has a decent amount of backlist Black romance from Harlequin and I'm a sucker for sexy Black folk on a cover.

Pleasure Under the Sun was my first read by Lindsay Evans and upon further reading it was also her debut book. I came in expecting a whirlwind romance story with exotic locals and lots of opulence. I wouldn't really call Seven a playboy.  He has money but he's very humble about it and was instead tagging along with a much wealthier friend who was throwing elaborate parties with harems of women.

I expected insta-lust but Seven was doing the most to try and woo financial advisor Bailey Hughes. He was smitten the moment he met her and inviting himself back the same day to her office uninvited with an impromptu picnic. He convinced himself they were destined to have a future together from day 1 and I just never quite saw it.

Bailey was reluctant about jumping into a new relationship after her last one crashed and burned. Her late parents were artists and she had a lot of hang-ups about her lack of a stable childhood. So she threw herself into work with the goal of becoming partner at the firm to gain financial stability. And she's known for being very closed off and at sometimes cold. I thought this was valid but neither her sister nor Seven seemed to truly understand. And her issues were often brought up but written in a way like she should just get over it. I didn't think this book had the depth to tackle that especially in such a short amount of time.

Seven meets Bailey's visiting sister by randomly seeing her walk by a café he's sitting at and her sister just decides to play matchmaker and they come up with this elaborate plan to basically kidnap her and force her on a private Caribbean cruise. Seven makes her think she's going to a charity event for a mutual friend when he arranged instead of them to take a the yacht to a location he doesn't disclose. She puts up a fight for a couple of hours before just accepting it. 

I just could not get behind the romance. They barely knew each other but he took her to meet and stay with his family in Jamaica like that was normal. It was odd to have this forced family time in between what felt like a very casual sex type of situation. And all the sex scenes were written like, "I shouldn't, but I must! And I'm angry but I can't resist!" And then there was this unnecessary set of scenes where his twin brother's woman tried to fight her. Seven just came across as very controlling but it was brushed off because he's Jamaican. And I felt like Bailey was a boss who had to dim her light and conform for a man.

I just couldn't gel with this book because it seemed unsure of what it wanted to be and I felt like the character development was unequal between them despite both having POVs. This book wanted to be deeper than it was but the writing wasn't there to hit the mark.