Flushed by Sally Felt

Flushed
by Sally Felt
Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

My Review:
This book was fun and serious all at once. Both characters are dealing with large issues – mostly the kind common to romance novels: trust, cheating exes, heroes who have never wanted a long term relationship. They have family problems and external adventures too which create a bunch of interesting excitement and interactions.

Isabelle is dignified, regal, and feminine, but is also “a lioness” with a good sense of humor. Being from the west coast, I found her fun and quirky. There are times I felt she went old-skool heroine on me; she'd get really fragile, have a don't-rock-the-boat attitude (Southern Charm maybe, I couldn't be sure), or seem to not care about her job. But on the other hand, she owns her own business and was really sexually expressive. I liked her even if I didn't always understand or connect with her. Her biggest conflict in the story is that every man she knows has cheated so she doesn't trust them. She knows her own worth and enjoys her sexuality, but she's also demure and...maybe I would say she's up for the game. And she was good at playing: the banter, sexiness, flirting, she had it all in spades.

Kim has never been one to stick around. He's is an on-edge but go-with-the-flow kind of guy. I liked how caring he was without being demanding or smothering. He had some growing up to do in this book, but he took it well and matured eventually. And he was a nice guy, even if he had very little relationship sense and even less ability to express himself for a good portion of the book.

I thought the story didn't have enough conflict for the length. Isabelle and Kim seemed to just keep rehashing exactly the same thing for a long time, but there was a nice amount of mystery and adventure to keep things going. The mystery part was slightly a letdown; things were sorted out quickly at the end and there wasn't a big reveal like I was hoping for. But the action was nicely written and as I went further through the book it got harder to put down.

Isabelle and Kim were fun together in a way-back kind of way. The book had today's confidence, technology, and sexual openness, but the charm of days gone by. Most of the sex scenes were not very explicit, but not quite closed door. I had a good time reading this story and although I didn't laugh, I had a smile from all the silly dialogue.