Sweet Filthy Boy by Christina Lauren
Published: May 13th 2014 by Gallery Books
Number of Pages: 416 Pages (Paperback)
Series: Yes, #1 in the Wild Seasons Series
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One-night stands are supposed to be with someone convenient, or wickedly persuasive, or regrettable. They aren’t supposed to be with someone like him.
But after a crazy Vegas weekend celebrating her college graduation—and terrified of the future path she knows is a cop-out—Mia Holland makes the wildest decision of her life: follow Ansel Guillaume—her sweet, filthy fling—to France for the summer and just…play.
When feelings begin to develop behind the provocative roles they take on, and their temporary masquerade adventures begin to feel real, Mia will have to decide if she belongs in the life she left because it was all wrong, or in the strange new one that seems worlds away. (goodreads.com)
“Life is built of these little horrible moments and the giant expanses of awesome in between.”
Sweet Filthy Boy is one of those books that have totally improbable plots yet still suck you in from page one on and won't let you go until you're done reading the entire thing. I read more then half the book the day it arrived at my house, needless to mention that I only stopped reading because it'd been already 4:00 am and I had stuff to do the next day.
The story follows Mia Holland, a college graduate, and sets off when she decides to drive to Las Vegas with her two best friends. Because Vegas is Vegas things happen in the form of Mia meeting Ansel, a guy from France, and marries him while completely drunk. That in itself sounds like any other story featuring two people getting married drunk in Las Vegas, but what follows after those events is what made the story interesting and infinitely cute and addicting.
“I wonder if he thinks he married a girl with two personalities: vixen and wallflower.”
I really liked Mia. She was a very interesting and relatable female protagonist. She was shy but still had a wild side yet she wasn't one of those characters who, when they see something they just go for it because they are strong like that, even if it doesn't go along with their character. Some of her decisions were a little weird but who hasn't made a weird decision at least once. Most of her actions made sense, or at least made sense for her character.
I, like probably most females reading this novel, really liked Ansel, despite his ridiculously unsexy name and the fact that men like him don't exist in real life. He was charming, caring, kind and sweet with a spicy/filthy side to him. I loved how much he cared for Mia, even though she was a still a stranger, kind of, when they flew to France together. One of his decisions seemed totally ridiculous to me, but I guess it was necessary for the plot to play out the way it did. I wished he would have handled the situation a little differently and clarified a couple of things before the blew up in his face, but in the end I still thought he was a great character.
“He’s the guy who’ll do a ridiculous robot dance to make you laugh, who’ll lick the
tip of your nose, make a fool out of himself for a smile. I’m sure if I tried to
wrestle him to the ground, he’d let me win. And enjoy every minute.”
The writing style was addicting, extremely funny and descriptive, but not too much. I could easily slip into the story, though in the very beginning of the book I was a little lost for a moment as to who narrates the story, which I know I'm not the only one to whom that happened. The characters were well developed and the scenery made me want to visit Paris, like, yesterday. I loved the couple of french sentences that were thrown into the dialogues. I really like it when authors do that as it underlines even more that the characters are in a foreign country and have to ability to speak in a language other then English. This was also beautifully underlined by how Ansel sometimes didn't remember a word in English and needed to describe it to Mia so she could try and guess which one he means.
Sweet Filthy Boy was entertaining, steamy, creative and utterly addicting, a perfect read to get out of the reading slump, or at least it was for me. The chemistry between Mia and Ansel was off the charts, the story interesting and set mostly in a country other then America, which is always nice, and offered many moments to laugh out loud. I definitely recommend this one to lovers of contemporary novels, those old enough to read NA since this novel features a number of sex scenes, and those who are on the hunt for a addictive romance read.
I give Sweet Filthy Boy by Christina Lauren 4 out of 5 stars.
