Lips Like Sugar by Jess K Hardy
Bluebird Basin #2
Contemporary Romance
March 28, 2024- Self-Published
ARC

Review by Angela

Y’all, this book has everything I could ask for. Over 50 main characters? Check. Deliciously swoon- worthy, beta rock and roll hero? Check. Sexy, sexy times galore? Check.

Lips Like Sugar is the second book in the Bluebird Basin series and focuses on Cole Sanderson, best friend and former bandmate to Madigan, and Mira Harlow, single mother, parental caretaker, and small-town baker/business owner in Red Falls, MT. They meet quite by chance–when Mira pulls Cole into her lie about having a date for Madigan and Ashley’s upcoming wedding. Cole is taken with Mira right from the first moment they meet and insists upon some getting to know you time in order to make their fake date believable to her ex.

What starts out as a fake date turns into a genuine, real connection between the two when they start to get to know each other. The chemistry is real y’all. I really, really loved this couple in all their messy, authentic glory. Cole is only in town for a short amount of time, and he has a whole life back in Seattle, but he can’t stop thinking Mira. She can’t stop thinking of him either, even though she has a mother and son to take care of and a business to run. This begins a relationship through texts and even some facetime sexiness.

Both of them have a lifetime of baggage along for the ride. Mira has issues with being left behind, and Cole knows he tends to fall harder than his partners than they do him, which often leads to heartache, but they fall anyway and fall hard. There are so many soft, sweet moments. So much understanding. These are main characters in their 50’s, so there are frank discussions of what it means to be growing into older bodies, how decisions in their pasts affect their future, and the challenge of taking care of both their children and their parents while still making time for themselves. This is the exact place I am in life, and I connected to each of these characters immediately.

I really love this series. LOVE. Even the easter egg mentions of both music and movies from the 90’s make me smile. The romance between the main couple is super-hot, but also tender and sweet. I love the friendships and how they are a vital part of the main character’s lives. There is just so much to adore about this Gen X romance series. I’m looking forward to whatever comes next.

Content warnings- mentions of past alcohol and drug abuse, secondary characters in drug rehab program, parent with early onset memory impairment.

Final grade- A