A sexy category romance from Entangled’s Brazen imprint…The only thing naughtier than a bad boy is a good girl…Amara Maria Robles is a good girl. So good that she gave up her dreams of becoming a renowned pastry chef to help her parents with their struggling Mexican bakery. Yet her parents reject any changes she suggests, and refuse to sell her mouth-watering confections. Clearly being a good … confections. Clearly being a good girl isn’t paying off. So when her brother’s sexy ex-best friend walks into the bakery, Amara’s tempted to be very bad indeed…
After a scandal twelve years ago, resident bad boy Eric Valencia has returned to make things right with his family and friends. One glance at Amara and her wicked curves, however, and Eric finds himself thinking about how she’d feel beneath him-something he promised Amara’s brother he would never think about, let alone do.
But this bad boy is in deep trouble…because Amara’s determined to have her cake, and Eric, too.
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I REALLY enjoyed this book. Both Amara and Eric are trying to prove themselves. She’s been called home from a pastry chef job in Chicago to help the family’s struggling bakery except her parents don’t trust her to do anything BUT bake (and nothing out of the box). She attempted a cupcake shop early in her career and lost a bunch of money and now, despite her talent and hard work is never allowed to live it down and never allowed to be anything but a child in her parents’ eyes. A “good” child, but a child.
Eric made a TON of mistakes in high school and is a recovering alcoholic. While his grandmother is supportive, his mother is so scared for him to fall that the two butt heads constantly. It doesn’t help that the neighborhood still only sees his past mistakes, which makes it very difficult for him to keep holding his head high no matter how much progress he makes.
And SO, no one wants the two of them together, especially as Eric is Amara’s brother’s former best friend (they are SLOWLY reconciling). So the two of them start a secret friends with benefits thing because they have AMAZING chemistry and the book is about the two of them figuring out their lives and how to live them out loud as they are now, not as they were in the past as WELL as find a place for each other in those lives.
Watching them figure out how to move forward and take risks was lovely and resonant. I adored all the family relationships and how IMPORTANT they were and how no one was “bad” it was just about figuring out how to love each other without killing each other.
The sex and chemistry were HOT and it was all such a lovely delight to read and I am so READY to read book too. I am SO grateful that this was recommended to me!
Loved this story so much! Incredible, colorful characters. Lots of delicious sizzle. In turns funny and yet with some haunting and emotional passages. Tugged at the heart, even while I smiled, and laughed out right at some of the funny and witty dialogue. Bittersweet at times, too. The book was a real page turner for me. Read it in a little less than 2 hours, non-stop. The desserts, yum. The hero, yummier. The heroine you want to cheer for. All I can say is…more please.
When Amara sees her brother’s former best friend, the guy she had a crush on when she was young, she’s taken aback by the hot kiss they share. But when Eric finds out who she is, the little sister of his former best friend, he backs off. Eric is back in town, forced by his situation, and to make up for some of the bad decisions he made when he was younger. Can he ever redeem himself in Amara’s eyes, in his family’s eyes, in the town’s eyes?
I wanted to like Delicious Temptation, unfortunately, it fell short of my expectations. The connection between Amara and Eric didn’t feel strong, except in the bedroom, and that’s not enough to sustain a relationship. Not to mention that though they were in their late 20s, they acted more like they were in their early 20s. I just did not find myself connection to or liking either character, especially Amara. She was absolutely ridiculous. Really, there wasn’t a lot to like about Delicious Temptation other than the yummy treats baked up in Amara’s bakery. So not a delicious temptation, but a rather boring, flat piece of flatbread perhaps.
I didn’t like the two main characters as they tended to be annoying, and the plot was boring.