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A review by trish_beautifulchaosreviews
Sweet Little Lies by J.D. Hollyfield
4.0
Sweet Little Lies, the other half of the Dirty Little Secret Duet, was not a sequel but more of a parallel story--slightly staggered. We met both of our main characters in Bad Daddy. Gabriel, Heath's best friend since college, and Hazel, Heath's daughter. It's a bit of a twisty mess of characters, but it works. Although we liked Heath from Bad Daddy, we get a different perspective of him here--that from his daughter's eyes.
Hazel did not have a great childhood. Her mother was an abusive alcoholic before she left, and Heath was absent. He was making money, and he just didn't pay a lot of attention to Hazel. Now they are close, but Hazel has developed a deep attraction to Gabriel Heath's best friend. We know too from Bad Daddy that Heath and Gabriel have particular tastes. Hazel decides she's waited long enough and decides to pursue Gabriel, and she is more than ready for what he has.
From there, we get the story of their romance. It's quite spicy and steamy; there's a lot of tension with the hiding that must go on. Let's face it; Heath is very aware of Gabriel's tastes, and the scene when he discovers the relationship is quite explosive. I did want to scream hypocrite once or twice. But it's different when it's your daughter, and Violet is very good at putting Heath in his place. J.D. manages to slip a nice bit of suspense into the story that moves the plot along to a satisfying conclusion. The age-gaps in these novels left me guessing as to Heath and Gabriel's ages. We know that Heath and Gabriel met their freshman year of college, so I assume they are the same age, and Violet and Hazel are the same age meeting their freshman year of college. Nevertheless, the age disparity works in these novels, and I enjoyed them.
Hazel did not have a great childhood. Her mother was an abusive alcoholic before she left, and Heath was absent. He was making money, and he just didn't pay a lot of attention to Hazel. Now they are close, but Hazel has developed a deep attraction to Gabriel Heath's best friend. We know too from Bad Daddy that Heath and Gabriel have particular tastes. Hazel decides she's waited long enough and decides to pursue Gabriel, and she is more than ready for what he has.
From there, we get the story of their romance. It's quite spicy and steamy; there's a lot of tension with the hiding that must go on. Let's face it; Heath is very aware of Gabriel's tastes, and the scene when he discovers the relationship is quite explosive. I did want to scream hypocrite once or twice. But it's different when it's your daughter, and Violet is very good at putting Heath in his place. J.D. manages to slip a nice bit of suspense into the story that moves the plot along to a satisfying conclusion. The age-gaps in these novels left me guessing as to Heath and Gabriel's ages. We know that Heath and Gabriel met their freshman year of college, so I assume they are the same age, and Violet and Hazel are the same age meeting their freshman year of college. Nevertheless, the age disparity works in these novels, and I enjoyed them.