Cristin Harber’s Sweet Girl is a prequel to her Titan series and its raison d’être is setting up a reunion plot in subsequent entries. Those books will feature a CIA operative and a black ops team member. They are introduced as university students in this contemporary new adult romance, but don’t be fooled. Sweet Girl is the opposite of all those tough-as-nails professions impy. I plan to spoil the story below.

From Amazon: Nicola Hart grew up under the heels of her older brother and his sexy best friend, Cash Garrison. Years of ignoring her spark with Cash has transformed their friendship into a slow burning sizzle.One night with him could ruin everything. Or it could be more than she ever dreamed. They play. They flirt. But they haven’t crossed the line because too much is at stake. Family. Friendship. And the deepest kind of love that she’d have to be crazy to walk away from.

Guys, they TOTALLY cross the line and I read this book weeks ago, but I’ll do my best to remember what I can.

1. The characters are co-eds in a very 1980s movie way
2. There was judgement of sexually active women who are not the heroine.
3. There was non-judgement of sexually active men who are the hero.
4. “They play. They flirt.” includes Cash throwing Nicola over his shoulder and carrying her around, being overprotective, and quiet longing.
5. They get busy by a camp fire.
6. Hearts, hearts, hearts.
7. MEANWHILE, Nicola has an internship at a local company of whom she immediately suspects malfeasance; APPARENTLY, they are a criminal organization and they hired the unsuspecting co-ed specifically to frame her for their financial shenanigans so she would take the fall while they went on with their evil deeds, BUT Nicola figures  out all by herself that they are up to no good, so they change plans and try to have her killed before she can testify against them; HOWEVER, the FBI intervenes and tells her she has no choice but to fake her own death and enter the Witness Protection program; OBVIOUSLY, everyone who knows and loves her is totally bummed, especially Cash after all the campfire sex.

I’ll let Bertrand Russell comment on the kind of criminals who hire an intern to blame for their ongoing activities: My fellow-prisoners seemed to me in no way morally inferior to the rest of the population though they were on the whole slightly below the usual level of intelligence, as was shown by their having been caught.

In the next book, Nicola works for the CIA because, in this world, going into the witness protection program and working in a professional, clandestine capacity for your government are not mutually exclusive. I find that unlikely, but Cash is going to be so stoked that she’s alive.

4.4 out of 5 stars on Amazon. This is why you shouldn’t trust online reviews!

New Adult romance recommendations, of which this review is not one, can be found here.

Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.

Tagged: contemporary romance, Cristin Harber, New Adult romance, romance reviews, Titan Series