Saturday 15 March 2014

☼ St. Bart's ☼ Emme Cross ☼

© Bianca ✰ 



EMME CROSS - ST. BARTS

• 456 pages
• re-release date: March 13 - 2014 
• Published by The Writer's Coffee Shop


★★★★★
5 Stars




Sunny O’Hara hopes to call the tiny slice of France her new home. Her parents met and fell in love on the Caribbean island, but she and her dad left after her mother’s death.
Sunny is back on St. Barts hoping to build rental villas on some family land and finally have a social life after nursing her father until his death. Sunny hasn’t dated and sometimes feels as though she’s wearing a scarlet “V” on her chest.
Enter Sven Larsen, a Hollywood bad boy, a movie star in the making. He’s on St. Barts for what could be a career-changing role. He’s also antsy. His steady diet of booze and eager bed partners has left him feeling empty. He wants something more, something real. He’s intrigued by the strange woman he meets cooking after hours at a local restaurant. When she turns up on set as a translator, he gives in to temptation and asks her out.
Sunny turns the table at dinner and propositions her date. Will he be her sexual mentor? Sven is shocked, intrigued, and ultimately enthusiastic. The lessons proceed in scorching secrecy, but word leaks out, and soon the tabloids are hunting for Sven’s latest lover.
Not everyone is pleased about the liaison. Sunny’s friend, Mimi, worries that she’s in over her head. Sven’s friend, Clyde, worries the actor is getting too attached.
As lust flares into love, someone decides to take drastic action and the romance between the virgin and the movie star takes a tragic turn.
St. Barts is a novel about the allure of celebrity and fame, about the enduring need for roots, and ultimately, about love. It’s also a love letter to a beautiful island.



Listen to the Soundtrack of the book & my review☺


MY THOUGHTS

Sunny was born on St. Bart's. That was almost 23 years ago. 
After moving all over the world for her Dad's job she's now back on the beautiful island to bury her father's ashes. It was his last wish to be laid to rest with his beloved wife.
And she's back on St. Bart's to finally start her own, grown-up life. She plans on building and then renting out vacation villas to all the über-rich and sometimes famous tourists.


She's extremely busy with her renovations and the plans for the villas and jobbing in a restaurant - cooking is one of her greatest pleasures! Then she's offered a job as a translator for a movie that's being filmed on the island. That's when we meet Sven Larsen - he's on his way to become a big name in Hollywood. And he really wants to make it because he's not getting any younger - he's in his mid-thirties already. This movie could be really good for his career. Little did he know that the island would also bring him Sunny. He's totally charmed by her innocence, her joy for life, her naturalness. And Sunny - she finally knows what she wants. She's always had journals full of plans and to-do lists (she's a list-a-holic!) - and on one of her lists it says: Have Sex!

  "You're fucking kidding me! Haven't you ever been kissed before?"

Her Dad always sheltered her way too much - she never had a real social life. But now's her time. That's why she asks Sven to be her sexual mentor.☺ and because she doesn't have one of those:


  she'll use this:


It takes a while for Sven to get over the shock of hearing this innocently asked question - but he just can't do it. He doesn't want to 'destroy' the innocence of someone who's so beautiful - inside and out.

".....the kiss. I've practiced on my pillow, but it doesn't kiss back."

But - of course - his oath to keep away from her doesn't keep her away from him, and he finally gives in. And thus start some very sexy and romantic sexual lessons.☺☺☺
And for Sven those lessons are very frustrating! He wants to go really slow with her...

 That's where his very unlikable Co-Star Eden comes into the picture. He needs to have sex with someone other than his sweet & innocent student!
Eden is not the only person who wants Sven to get somewhere in Hollywood. There's also his best friend Clyde. He can't understand what Sven sees in this island whore - as he calls her.
Then there's a whole bunch of other great co-stars in the book. Mimi - who becomes her best friend - she knew Sunny's parents. Mimi's lover, Restaurant-owner Philippe. Ivan - the sleazy russian movie producer - he has his own reasons for wanting Sunny to work at the movie set. The moody russian Director Mikhail. Then there's Sunny's family doctor - the police captain - a few stray dogs etc. etc.

 Lots of things happen in this book and I really mean LOTS of ... funny things - romantic things - sexy & very hot things - moving things - sad things - heartbreakingly sad things .....
 
Will Sunny & Sven make it? Will they get their HEA? Or will everybody die at the end? Will there be a Cliffhanger????☺☺☺
 

I'm not telling you of course ☺☺☺ 

 

 Ok - I might tell you that, since there will be 4 more books about Sunny & Sven, there will be much more to tell - BUT there's no Cliffhanger really - The series could be over now - it could be a stand-alone Romance and we could live with it - BUT we'll get more ☺YAYYYY

_________________________________________    

I REALLY ENJOYED READING THE BOOK!!!
 

A book that makes me cry in the first chapter can only be awesome!!!


and it really was! It was Emme's first book - she previously only wrote short, unromantic stuff for Radio News etc.
And for a first-time Romance - it was really amazing!!!!


 Hm, even if it had been her 15th book it would've been amazing ☺
You might think it starts out a bit... bleh...boring - uninteresting. And it really does - a tiny little bit maybe....
It's really cute and moving and interesting in the beginning - we learn a lot about all of the characters and especially about the Island, but the REAL interesting story starts towards the middle of the book.

You won't be able to put the book down. You NEED to know what will happen. It's like a Hitchcock/StephenKing-movie - you sit there with your little reader-heart pounding like crazy!  

Ugh it was so amazing!

We have SEX of course - really sweet and innocent and HOT sex! Sven is so adorably patient with Sunny! He's had it with this stupid Hollywood lifestyle of parties, sex, drugs, sex, alcohol etc. He wants...
  
Something real. Something permanent.

 Then we have all the jealous and greedy and unlikable side characters with their schemes... Then there's suspense!!!! There are many parts of the book where I SOOOO wanted to do this to a few characters - including Sven!


I really liked Emme's writing style. I felt like I was right there on St. Bart's with them. Like I was an extra in the movie production and got to eavesdrop on everything that happened ☺
 And the idea of writing a book about this beautiful island - PERFECT! It was so totally different from all the other books we're always reading. No New York, LA, Seattle, London ☺ St. Bart's!!! ♥ I wanna go there now!!!!! (OK, that's not totally true - we WILL go to LA & Norway etc. but we're on St. Bart's most of the time!!)

OK, that's it!! I'm not telling you any more about the book - I don't want to spoil too much and your already weak heart might not like it when I tell you that Ms Cross is not a fan of HEAs!!! Hehe ☺☺☺
   
Please go and buy the book - you won't regret it - you will fall in love with Sunny, Sven & St. Bart's just like I did!  

Now I can't 
wait for the next book to come out!!!!!

I'm really excited to read what will happen to Sunny & Sven next!
 



LINKS TO THE BOOK AND AUTHOR
STALK EMME ON:

EMME CROSS:      
Emme Cross is a veteran journalist who has worked at the biggest media outlets in Canada and has met everyone from politicians to rock stars. She writes for and reads the news on the most popular radio station in the entire country and researches and writes for the largest radio news station as well. She is an avid reader, gardener, world traveler and foodie. She lives in Oakville, Ontario, with her husband and their English Bull Terrier.