I had never read a book by Annie Dyer before now. That being said, when I read the teaser for Sweetened, I knew I had to pick it up. I just had to. And now, well now I want to go back to the start of the Severton Search and Rescue series and get to know everyone.
Now I will admit that it took me a little bit to get into Sweetened. My gut tells me it was just me getting into the world, and figuring out the characters. I also think it too me a bit as this book is set in England. So there were certain words that I had to look up. That's all minor things though, and you may have a completely different experience.
The banter between Lainey and Jake was fantastic. The pranks also had me chuckling. You could feel the relationship building, even though they were both fighting it. (okay more so Lainey, but still) Their relationship had a bit of a slow burn to it, and I was here for it. Let's set aside the relationship, and talk about the setting! Could not have been more perfect. I love the farm setting, the small town environment, and the businesses that Lainey and Jake had created. Oh and those alpacas had me laughing a few times with their random appearances.
I do wish that Annie Dyer had elaborated more on Lainey's business. That was so intriguing to me, and after a bit that faded into the background as the relationship progressed. When Lainey revealed her past trauma to Jake, I honestly thought that would have been built into the storyline. In my mind it would have been awesome to see Jake (and team) rescue Lainey from the situation. But it is what it is, and just because my mind went some where, doesn't mean that the author went there.
All in all I'm glad I read Sweetened. It was a good story with great characters. If you're following my Goodreads reviews, you'll notice that I gave 3 "physical" stars to the book. Since they don't do partial ratings, I did put in my description that I felt this was a 3.5 star. Thinking about it now, I could even bump that to a 3.75.
Thank you for taking time to read my thoughts about Sweetened. If you keep scrolling a little bit further, I have the teaser posted for you to read. I've also added links to Goodreads (add it to your TBR!) and Amazon.
SWEETENED by Annie Dyer is LIVE!
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