The Daddy Arrangement

jacqui_monet
May 29, 2019

Title: The Daddy Arrangement

Author: Paige Parsons

Series: Sugar 101: Book 1

Genre: Romance/ BWWM

Pages: depends on your e-reader

The Daddy Arrangement is a cute first installment to the Sugar 101 series.We are introduced to Keila as an incoming college freshmen and her RA Bri. When Keila mistakenly assumes that Bri’s much older boyfriend, Michael, is her father hilarity ensues, deep conversations are had, and Keila’s eyes are opened to the exciting and nuanced world of sugaring.

I enjoyed that the characters sounded like real people, especially Keila and Bri. So often I read a book or a short story containing modern day college students and I’m left feeling frustrated and fatigued because 18 and 19 year old characters are speaking with the vocabulary of 30-something business executives. Personal pet peeve, I know, but it drives me up the wall. The dialogue is well written with the college girls sounding like college girls (and maturing as they age) and the businessmen sounding like businessmen without slipping into caricature.

If you want something fun to read while sipping a cocktail poolside, this the perfect book for that. Easily finished in a weekend, The Daddy Arrangement is a wonderfully easy summer read and I look forward to reading the second book.

Ratings

Plot: 4/5          Characters: 4/5          Ease of Reading: 5/5

Taking The Stage Book Review

jacqui_monet
September 5, 2016

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Title: Taking The Stage

Author: Paige Parsons

Series: n/a (well, not yet anyway)

Genre: Romance, Interracial Romance (BWWM)

Pages: 134

Taking the Stage is the debut novel of Paige Parsons and I have to say I loved every second of it. I’ve never read a romance novel with the intention of  sharing my experience with the public, but I’ve decided to go for it anyway. You know, why not?! That being said, let’s jump right in to it.

This book centers around the working and personal relationships of stage manager Robyn (Roby) Rose and her director Joseph (don’t-call-him-Joey) Davis. Roby has moved back to her home state of Arizona because she suffered a massive personal blow; she caught her husband with his head between the legs of a hot young teacher. Considering that he was the principle of the school that both women worked at, he’s lucky there wasn’t a messy lawsuit along with professional embarrassment. Roby, however, stuck it out for the rest of the school year and then bounced which is more than I can say for myself, I honestly would have walked right out of his office never to be seen or heard from again.

Anyway, after a few weeks or so in good old AZ, Roby is settling into a new apartment and is handed a job at a theatre in town. Roby is chronically late to everything which drives Joseph crazy. He wants to resolve the problem and gives her a choice: 1) every minute late will be docked from her pay or 2) each minute results in a swat. A SWAT!! As in, spanking. There is spanking in this book! At first I thought, “Mm sounds like a sexual harassment lawsuit to me,” because well, he is her boss. But as the book went on I became okay with it  because the spanking wasn’t sexualized. What was sexy though, was the dialogue and their inner monologues about each other. I could feel the sexual tension between them as the story progressed. Throughout the novel, our potential lovers deal with family, meddling mentors and an old flame come back to town in the form of a desperately needed leading actress.

Now, I know I listed above that Taking the Stage is an interracial romance novel but I didn’t really touch on it. In all honesty, the book doesn’t either. The most we get is the occasional description of her skin comparing her to chocolate, which I hate! Why are black characters always described in conjunction with food? Ugh. We don’t describe white characters as mashed potato colored. Anyway, I did like that race never came up. Roby’s blackness is never used against her nor is Joseph’s whiteness used against him. Seriously, I loved that this is a modern story and that race just isn’t an issue.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. Once I got past the um “original” spellings of Roby’s sisters’ names, Taking the Stage ended up being a very quick read. In fact, I wish the book had been a little bit longer; I could stand to know a little bit more about what happened between Joseph and his ex. But when all is said and done, this novel was fun and sexy and full of accurate theatre lingo. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone, especially my theatre friends.

Check the links below to get this e-book for yourself!

https://www.amazon.com/Taking-Stage-Paige-Parsons-ebook/dp/B01IWQEP3G#nav-subnav

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/taking-the-stage-paige-parsons/1124141693?type=eBook