• Title: The Sweetest Taboo
• Author: Carole Matthews
• Genre: Chick-lit, Romance
• Format: Paperback
• Source: Own copy
• Reviewed by: Erica, Guest Reviewer
• Rating: 3 out of 5

Description:   A story of love, life and going completely la-la in LA, from the internationally bestselling author of Bare Necessity and For Better, For Worse, Carole Matthews.

One girl in love with two guys…
Isn’t that the sweetest taboo?

Sadie Nelson knows that falling in love can be big trouble – especially when she discovers that the best things in life are never free. Her heart starts causing trouble when she first lays eyes on Gil McGann, the sexy and powerful Hollywood producer at the London Book Fair. In no time, Gil is whisking her away from her dead-end job and drizzly old England to join him in the land of the perfect suntan. Then there’s Tavis Jones, an irresistibly endearing — and criminally good-looking — actor who’s soon pulling her heartstrings in a different direction. Suddenly the choices facing Sadie in the home of the famous and the desperate-to-be-famous are enough to drive a good girl insane — especially when no-one is quite what they seem to be. It’s not great to find out that Gil has a sticky ex who won’t let go or that Tavis’s uncertain orientation may permanently cast him in the role of “good friend”. With her real life turning rapidly into a mad movie plot, what does a slightly crazed woman two much in love do?

Lights, camera, action…

Review:  Well, I’d never heard of Carole Matthews before, and then I read two of her books in a row. Unfortunately I found this one to be the weaker one.

Sadie used to have a job in the high-flying banking world, until she was laid off. Since then she has been forced to grab every temporary job that’s offered to her in order to make ends meet. During a stint of handing out leaflets at a book fair she is approached by Gil McGann, a Hollywood movie producer who is on his last day in London, and they end up spending the night together… sitting on a sofa and talking, then falling asleep.

This marks the start of their rather unconventional romance, which ultimately results in Gil sending Sadie an open-ended ticket to Los Angeles because he misses her too much. Sweet, right? There’s just one problem: Gil hasn’t actually got round to divorcing his wife yet.

To his credit, he’s not the type of guy who knowingly messes around with another woman while still being married. He does genuinely seem to want to move on with Sadie. Unfortunately he’s also a spineless idiot who ends up continuously being manipulated by his almost-ex-wife, which makes it hard to root for him and Sadie getting their act together.

Sadie herself I found a bit… Well, I’m not sure what I thought of her really. I didn’t dislike her, but I can’t say I really liked her either, and as the book progressed, the situations she ended up in became progressively more convoluted and groan-worthy. She meets a drop-dead-gorgeous young actor, Tavis, and throughout the rest of the book she constantly bounces between him and Gil, never getting anywhere with either of them even though they are both crazy about her.

The writing in this book was excellent, I have no qualms with that. The problem lay with the content. It was enjoyable on the whole, but it just became increasingly difficult to suspend my disbelief, and the ending was rather meh.

Read if you don’t want to think too much, have no problem with cringing your way through a book and can handle the very British atmosphere that permeates it, for all that it mostly takes place in Hollywood.