Review of ‘Dare to Love’ by A.L. Brooks

This was a sweet, slow-burn, toaster oven romance book. This is technically a sequel to ‘Write Your Own Script‘. What I mean by that is that the main characters from that book are secondary characters in this one. You could read this book without reading ‘Write Your Own Script’ first, but it is nice seeing characters from that book really get their happily ever after in this one. I did enjoy ‘Write Your Own Script’ slightly more than this book, but it’s because I’m a sucker for “celebrity” or “Hollywood romances”. I did enjoy this read and I expect most fans of slow-burn romances will too.

I found myself drawn into the main characters lives right away. One is the owner of a tattoo shop and the other owns a talent agency. One of the mains is 43, the other is slightly younger but I don’t know if it was ever said so I was guessing maybe 38. I liked the mains being a little more mature and set in life except for their love life. They had good heads on their shoulders and were just likeable. There always was a storyline with one of the mains trying to help her teenage niece with the coming out process and that was really sweet to read.

This is slow-burn. I’m a fan of my romances to be medium to slow so I’m always up for a good slow-burn. What I like about the slower process is that you get to see the chemistry really develop before your eyes and by the time they finally have sex, you are like “yes, finally!” And that is exactly what happened in this book. The chemistry was really well done for my tastes.

The actually sex scenes didn’t blow me away, but since it was the first lesbian relationship for one of the mains, you didn’t want her to be a porn star already, that would just not be believable. I was glad they finally found the bedroom, so I was fine with it and honestly their chemistry together did make the sex scenes steamier than the actual mechanics of it, if that makes any sense.

While I did like a lot that was here, I did have few issues. For one, how can you date a tattoo artist and not let her tattoo you? This is really a fake issue that I didn’t take into account in my rating, but yes I did actually think this while reading. My real main issue was the story behind the angst. I did like where the angst in this book occurred. I liked that it all happened before the “I love yous”.

The problem I had was the origin story behind the angst. One character was so damaged by another woman, that it affected her dating life still to this day. I kept thinking wow it must have been really bad. But when the story comes out I’m like that’s it?! I mean it must have sucked and I felt sorry for her, of course, but I can think of a million people who has had worse heartbreak. I needed a much more dramatic story for the way that the main character was acting so damaged.

So while yes this book had a few bumps for me, I still really enjoyed it. There was a lot of good in here and I’m glad I read it. I do want to warn that it is a slow, slow-burn romance. If that is not your thing this book might not be for you. If you are a slow-burn fan, chances are good that you will enjoy this too. 3.50 Stars.

An ARC was given to me for an honest review.