Unravel You by Diana A. Hicks

Unravel You
Diana A. Hicks
(Cole Brothers, #1)
Publication date: November 18th 2019
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

UNRAVEL YOU is the enthralling sequel to LOVE OVER LATTES and can be read as a standalone. It is also book one in the Cole Brothers series, a new family saga, binge reading experience: 5 brothers, 5 full-length novels in 5 months.

College graduate Valentina never expected to fall for the hot as hell and intimidating Derek Cole when she accepted his offer to rent his property.

From cottage to mansion, Valentina is certain she doesn’t deserve the fairytale unfolding. But Derek gets what he wants… and he wants her.

He’s “the one” for her, but before she says I do, she has to survive a month long trip to his family’s estate in Atlanta. Gaining approval from four brothers and an over-protective mother might just be her hardest test yet.

For billionaire Derek Cole, this homecoming is a chance to mend the damage he caused when he walked away from the family business.

Just when they think they have a handle on their happily ever after… their past and future collide.

Note: This is a steamy romance with explicit sensual scenes, happily ever after, no cheating, and no cliffhanger. Can be read as a standalone.

Praise for LOVE OVER LATTES:
“Hicks’ first installment of her Desert Monsoon series is confident and assured with strong storytelling, nuanced characters, and a dynamic blend of romance and suspense…A sexy and irresistible tale for fans of contemporary romance.” – Kirkus Reviews

Don’t miss out on this suspenseful and seductive series.

Unravel You, Book 1 (Derek and Valentina) – 11/18/2019
Provoke You, Book 2 (Matt and Ela) – 12/16/2019
Escape You, Book 3 (Tyler and Mia) – 1/13/2020
Unleash You, Book 4 (Wesley and Anabelle) – 2/10/2020
Defy You, Book 5 (Zack and Rebecca) – 3/9/2020

Goodreads / Amazon

Author Bio:

Diana A. Hicks is an award-winning author of steamy contemporary romance with a touch of suspense. Book two in her Desert Monsoon series, LOVE OVER LOGIC, won the 2019 Readers’ Favorite Silver Medal Winner in the Romance – Suspense genre

When Diana is not writing, she enjoys kickboxing, traveling, and indulging in the simple joys of life like wine and chocolate. She lives in Atlanta and loves spending time with her two children and husband. Connect with Diana on social media to stay up to date on her latest releases.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Bookbub

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Review

🍸🍸🍸1/2

I like to start out with all the things I loved about a book, and there were a lot of things to love about Unravel You. In fact, I sat down to give the book one rating, and I increased the rating just because I realized how much there was to love about this book.

I truly enjoyed the fact that this book was about an established couple. We avoided the meet-cute and the awkward getting-to-know-you phase. Instead, we got directly to the heart of the story and everything I personally wanted to see. I loved the sacrifices these two characters were willing to make for one another. I got a lot out of just how far they were willing to go and what they were willing to do to make the other one happy.

The blurb makes this book seem like a contemporary romance, but there’s a strong element of suspense in this book. Personally, I loved it. I felt like this book needed that element, and not just because l need an element of violence in my entertainment. (We’ll get to that in a minute.)  The suspense element helped to add some necessary drama.

And I liked a lot about how Hicks handled Valentina’s history with domestic violence. There’s this idea of domestic violence, as though everyone who endures it is meek and mouse-like, and Hicks did a fantastic job of showing the complexity that goes along with this issue. She showed remarkable sensitivity to the challenge of raising a child whose bio dad is, in fact, a monster as well. I loved that, and Hicks deserves a ton of praise for that alone.

I did have a couple of issues with the book. For one thing, the suspense element is kind of loaded into the back of the book. The first half of the book feels like a hand-wringing drama about two people getting married too fast, the conflict in this part of the book is over by forty-nine percent, and I’m left feeling like my sweet tea got sweetened with saccharine. Then BAM! There’s an external threat to get my blood pumping and (mostly) wash the taste of TAB out of my mouth.

(Most of you are too young to remember TAB. The rest of you… you know.)

Which brings me to my second point. Valentina has almost no agency in this book. Derek hides things from her “for her own good,” because he doesn’t want her to worry. It sounds sweet – there’s a lot to worry about – but this action takes away most of her agency, causes her to run directly into harm’s way based on a perfectly rational decision, and basically leaves her reacting to things completely out of her control.

And the agency thing is hard to navigate when we’re looking at a huge power differential like we see in a lot of billionaire romance stories. Derek is used to just taking care of things, largely by throwing money at them. He wants to make everything as smooth as possible for her, which is understandable. In doing so, he takes away any power she might have had to act for herself. She winds up stranded in Georgia, a place she’s never been, surrounded by people she can’t trust and who seem borderline hostile at best.

There’s a lot of backstory here, to the point where this book feels like a sequel. It’s book one. On the one hand, the choice to leave little hints makes the whirlwind romance between Derek and Valentina seem much more real. On the other, I definitely felt like I’d picked up a series in the middle – and I’d probably have been a little less frustrated if I’d read those other books first.

Like I said, there was a lot to love about Unravel You. There were a few things I loved less, and they weren’t trivial, but at the end of the day it didn’t hold me back from wanting to see what happens in the next book.

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