Review of ‘Night Life’ by S.J. Hartsfield
This was a good steamy romance! I’m actually surprised by how much I enjoyed this one. I like the premise of a WLW Pretty Woman story but they don’t actually come around all that often and with this being a debut on top of it, I had my expectations tempered. I’m glad to say that this was an enjoyable read, a solid debut, and all the steam I was hoping for.
I’m currently fighting off a small reading slump. I’ve been reading shorter fiction to combat it which I think has been helping. With all the ARC’s I have left to read and review, I was hoping I would get my reading flow back with this full-length book. Surprisingly, I found myself hooked after only the first few pages. The pace of this book was really good for a steamy romance. Because steamy romances have a lot of sex and less plot, if it’s not written well the story can drag. I’m happy to say that was not the case with this book. This never felt boring or repetitive and I’m impressed with how well it kept my attention. The story even had a baby twist or two, and while I figured out one, the other I didn’t see coming and it made the ending quite enjoyable.
The best part of this whole book was the CHEMISTRY. Lovely in your face chemistry and I just ate up every second of it. I was all in on this romance. You feel the connection between these two women and you just hope there is some way that they can have a HEA. The sex scenes are really enjoyable too. There is plenty of steam and I’ll just say that the scene with the remote was great.
Now, I do have to say that the book had a couple of bumps. Both to me seemed like more newbie author bumps and if Hartsfield can tweak a few things, I think she will be a force to be reckoned with. While this book was packed with wonderful chemistry, the characters needed to show more of that emotional drama. There was not enough of that inner voice that could not stop thinking of each other. It was there, but the overall emotions just need to be bumped up a level.
The last thing is that the characters were unevenly built. The one character of Diana, has a best friend, another friend, and an intense mother in her life. In comparison, Ronnie only really has one co-worker who is a sorta friend. Because of this, once the characters are apart, the story surrounds Diana so much more than Ronnie. Diana becomes the main, main character that you connect more with and learn much more about. It’s a shame too because I really liked the character of Ronnie and wanted to connect to her even more. I’m hopeful that a better character balance should be an easy fix for Hartsfield’s next book.
Overall, I’m quite happy with this book. Even with a couple of newbie bumps, Hartsfield is a very promising author and this was a good debut. I would easily recommend it to fans of steamy romances, especially if you are looking for a WLW Pretty Woman story. I can’t wait to see what Hartsfield writes next and I’m putting her on my authors to watch list for sure. I just noticed that the price of this book is pretty low right now. Not sure if that is a pre-order price or a permanent one but you sure get your monies worth at that low price.
An ARC was given to me for an honest review.
