The only thing tempering their insta-hate is delicious attraction.
Sunny chocolatier Charlotte Beecher is unemployed, in student debt, and on the verge of hawking her beloved copper pots just to make ends meet. So when a gourmet chocolate factory chooses her as one of five candidates to help re-launch the company in their Charlie and the Chocolate Factory inspired competition, Charlotte begins to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Fellow contestant Luke Wells complicates her plans to win by a landslide with his flow charts and marketing projections. Mr. Tall, Dark, and Haughty is all about the bottom line and is as bitter as she is sweet. And when he snubs Charlotte in the first challenge, misunderstanding or not, she transforms from cream puff to jawbreaker. Bring. It. On.
But when these two rivals find themselves distracted by delicious attraction, will they let their passion get in the way of winning the competition?
| Title: | My Sweet Enemy |
| Author: | Jenny Hartwell |
| Series: | Simone’s Chocolates (Book 1) |
| Pages: | 296 |
| Category / Genre(s): | Contemporary New Adult |
| Trope(s): | Enemies to Lovers |
| Point of View: | Third Person, Past Tense, Dual Viewpoint (H & h) |
| Location: | Seattle, Washington, USA |
| HEA: | ✔️ |
| Release Date: | 8th February, 2021 |
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Sweeter than a box of truffles
This is the debut novel by Jenny Hartwell and by and large it’s a cute, sweet and fun enemies to lovers story. I would also class it as new adult as our characters are 21 and 24, and quite often they very much act like it. Goodreads also says this only has 150 pages but it’s actually got nearly 300 – so my expectations of an insta-hate to insta-love story were never going to happen.
This was an enemies to lovers story but wow – this pair really took enemies to the extreme. At times they were downright vicious to each other. I had hoped that Charlotte could have at least taken the high road or stayed true to her kind personality – but that’s what I meant by the pair acting young.
Like others, the competition aspect was a bit confusing to me. Surely a successful company already has good food techs, marketers and business professionals? And how can you have a competition with such different specialities? But I went with it and it was fun just to watch the show.
“…a sweet treat with a dash of humour and heat.”
Charlotte was a sweet and kind girl and I liked her a lot. Luke was a little bit more of a mystery to me. Harsh and cold at the start, he seemed to have a massive personality shift once he and Charlotte got together. I still liked him in those times but he seemed like a completely different person BC and AC (before Charlotte and after Charlotte). Oh but he wore glasses (something I’d have liked the cute cover to show) which makes him damn near perfect in my eyes. Love me a sexy nerd. The pair had an interesting chemistry and I did like their interactions. The sexy times were nicely naughty and I felt the feelings so I was happy. And if the ending didn’t give me a quick tear in my eye then the acknowledgements definitely did!
There were a few soapbox moments which were quite heavy handed but apart from that, the writing flowed and I kept turning those pages. I was engaged and interested from beginning to end. I also laughed out loud on numerous occasions – Ms Hartwell’s humour definitely shone through.
A nice cast of supporting characters also added some meat to the bones, although why authors use characters with the same first initial bothers me greatly. Surely I’m not the only one that gets muddled when trying to remember which one was Simone and which one was Sofia.
I enjoyed this book and it really was a sweet treat with a dash of humour and heat. I will definitely look out for further books by Jenny Hartwell, especially if she plans to give Megan and Damien their own story. 4 stars from me.
*I received this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.*
Jenny Hartwell has a confession–she loves People magazine as much as Pride and Prejudice. Her fun, pop culture adoring side shines in her contemporary rom-com novels set in a gourmet chocolate factory while Jenny’s Regency romances feature strong damsels and swoony lords. Her writing has won or finaled in numerous contests including the Golden Heart, The Emily, Four Seasons, Fool for Love, and The Catherine. Jenny lives with her family in the verdant Pacific Northwest. She loves movies, travel, and staying up late with a good book. And, of course, chocolate.
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Simone’s Chocolates:
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