Kimberly Raye – Sweet as sugar, hot as spice

The third book in the Farrel Sisters series, published August 1, 2005.
Genre: contemporary romance
Cover: sweet



Sweet as Sugar
As owner and operator of Sugar & Spice Sinema, Eve Farrel creates red-hot how-to videos that help couples go from mild to wild. But Eve herself is single – and her famous feminist mother is determined to keep her that way. The only way Eve can get her mom off her back is to do the unthinkable – like get married.
Hot as Spice
Linc Adams is a bad-boy NASCAR driver whose love life is even faster than his car. The last thing he wants is to follow in his father’s footsteps and run for mayor of his Georgia town. Hoping to blow his electoral chances, he agrees to marry Eve. Surely, her knockout looks and steamy career will shock conservative voters! But Linc’s in for a shock himself on his wedding night. This fast-track ladies’ man is about to learn a trick of two about lovemaking … while Eve is about to learn something new about love.


After a hard week at the office, I needed something fluffy and fun and fast to read. And so I picked up this book, and knew I was going to have fun with it. And I did.
Jacqueline Farrel is a womanist, which is not really the same as a feminist, but close. She looks down on marriage as a man made institution to enslave women. Jacqueline is a famous tv show hostess, and she preaches the Holy Commitment Trinity: a solid foundation of shared interests, mutual respect, and great sex. After 30 plus years, her own Holy Commitment man has grown rebellious lately, and she really doesn’t know how to handle him. He wants to marry her! He has taken over her apartment lately, changed the tape for her answering machine, and she really doesn’t like seeing his socks in the livingroom and the toilet seat up all the time. But Donovan seems determined this time. This leaves Jacqueline with only one option: to move in with her only unmarried daughter, Eve.

Eve was always the rebel of the family, doing everything her mother doesn’t like, but so far, she has not found the man she wants to settle down with. And at the moment, she is really focused on working on her career. She cannot deal with a mother who wants to spend more quality time with her, as her mother drives her crazy.
So when she meets an old blind date at her sisters wedding, who has his own problems to deal with, the solution seems clear: marry him, pretend it is for love, while it will only lasts 9 months, and their problems will have been solved.
Eve has a successful company making instructional sex films for couples. And now a major network has asked her to do a series of documentaries, and Eve thinks it might be her big break to become the director of a major movie, her secret dream.

Eve was set up on a blind date with NASCAR driver Linc Adams a few months ago. And even though she was very much attracted to him, he acted like a real jerk and she walked out on him. This really surprised Linc, as women usually bought this act hook, line and sinker. He has become a race car driver on a later age than usual. His family has been in politics for generations, and his career has been plotted for him since the cradle. But he doesn’t want to be in politics at all, even though he has a law degree and was a successful public defender. When his grandfather died, he overheard his father cursing the dead man for ruining his life, and Linc is determined not to follow in his father’s footsteps. He does not want to hate his life and his parents for making him do things he does not want. And so he took up NASCAR racing for real, while his parents still think he will be the next major of their city. But Linc wants his best friend to win, as he is much better qualified for the job. If only he can ruin his reputation even more in the eyes of his voters … And marriage to a free spirit goth person like Eve might be just the thing …

And so they end up married after the bride and groom and most of the guests have driven off. Giving Eve’s mother almost a heart attack when she witnesses the last part of it. How can all three of her daughters so easily throw away everything she has thought them?
And now her mother is staying with her as well, and she is 71, and looking for a man to have her first orgasm with herself. Usually this would make her proud, a woman who knows what she wants and goes after it, but this is her mother! Sure, her mother had a horrible marriage to an abusive man, and when he died young, raised her and later her three granddaughters almost on her own, she never found someone to love. But hearing her talk about this, is just too much!

Meanwhile, Eve is really disappointed in Linc on their wedding night, and is determined not to have sex with him again, and Linc is completely amazed when he realised she faked an orgasm with him. And with the help of her own instructional dvd’s, he is intent on doing better the next time, and to woo her into staying married after all…


I really enjoyed this book. It was fun and fast and well written. Of course, the mother is a bit over the top, but she believed in what she preaches, and I admire her for that. We see a bit more of the NASCAR world when Linc is racing, and winning the Daytona. It was also fun to see Eve act out while in Linc’s home town, needling his parents and making a friend of his kid sister. Yes, I enjoyed everything about this book basically.

8 stars.

© 2013 Reviews by Aurian