Gentlemen Prefer Curves by Sugar Jamison

Hello everyone,

The book:

Stuck. At thirty years old Belinda Gordon felt her life was at a total standstill. With her love life in the dumps, her best friends happily married and her parents smothering her, she decides her life needs a little bit of shaking up.

Just when Belinda is about to make a move, her estranged husband and the last man on earth she ever wants to see, Carter Lancaster, comes storming back into her life. And this time he's not taking no for an answer. Armed with his sweet daughter and a take no prisoners attitude, he's determined to win his wife back.

Can Belinda let go of their rocky past and let love in? Or will she let it prevent her from finding her happily ever after?

My Thoughts:

Do you know what I loved most about this book? The fact that Belinda being bigger didn’t define her. Sure, she has insecurities about her weight, moments of sadness or self-doubt, but for me this just made her more relatable without making her unlikeable. She was confident, sassy, empowered but human. I read this as a stand-alone and now I want to go back and read the others in the series.

Belinda and Carter have history and the main conflict in the book revolves around them overcoming their pasts, joint and personal, and being able to move forward as a couple. I loved Belinda; during the course of the book she became one of my all time favourite heroines. She isn’t presented as perfect; she has parents issues, struggles with juggling work and friends, her dating life is... bad.

“When I saw you - “. He paused to study her “- I thought, If she were just thirty, thirty-five pounds thinner she would be perfect”.

And that was one of the ‘better’ ones. Now of course this doesn’t make her happy, but because she knows who she is as a person they don’t affect her long-term. If someone harasses her she doesn’t just accept it, instead she gives them what for. For me this made a refreshing change from the heroines who make mountains out of molehills. Of course the one person that does affect her long-term is her husband Carter. It quickly becomes clear that Belinda has not gotten over Carter, and for that matter Carter hasn’t gotten over Belinda.

These two have chemistry, serious hot, can’t keep their hands off each other even though they know better chemistry. Carter is a great hero; he’s sweet, caring, hot and a little bit of a mess. In many ways him and Belinda are complete opposites, Carter’s good at work and business whereas Belinda is better at dealing with people. Carter is slightly cold and awkward, whereas Belinda is warm and friendly. The author did a great job of presenting fully developed characters, even the secondary characters were believable and interesting. I particularly liked Carter’s daughter Ruby, for me she was an important part of Carter’s and Belinda’s story rather than just being a child put into the novel for ‘cuteness’.

“I just wanted to talk to you. I never slept in nobody else’s house before and I wanted to make sure you wasn’t sad without me”.

Now I don’t have a child and I don’t interact with children on a daily basis, so weather Ruby is a realistic child I couldn’t say, however, I did love the interactions between Ruby and Carter and also Ruby and Belinda. This is a book that focuses on emotions, internal conflicts but without being angst filled and unrealistic. It has humour, heart and a tiny bit of sass that made for the perfect combination. I loved this book and I will definitely be reading more from this author in the future.

My rating:

Now I’m off to Malta for a week, which means lots of reading and relaxation for me. Happy reading and see you next time!