Blurb: Andrew Prince wakes up before everyone else. He schedules the bar shifts, demands perfection from Long Beach’s lifeguards—most of all himself—and makes sure the family debts are paid. His unfaltering worth ethic might leave him exhausted, but it comes with one advantage. It distracts him from the love he’s been harboring since childhood for the girl next door—who he cannot have.
Jiya Dalal has dreams. To fly a plane, see the world below…and prove irresistible to her best friend, Andrew. But she needs to be a good daughter first, which is becoming an increasingly difficult task, since her parents expect a good marriage and the man she loves with all her heart refuses to pursue the blistering connection between them. Just when she’s beginning to believe Andrew truly doesn’t want her, a moonlight tryst on the beach exposes his true feelings. But an echo from the past kept them apart before…and it’s only growing louder with every stolen kiss…
Review: I have adored the entire Beach Kingdom series. Mouth to Mouth was hot, insta-love. Heat Stroke was frenemies to lovers story with a splash of questionining one's sexuality. And Sink or Swim was that long-time-coming best friend romance we've been dying to get our hands on. Each book brought a different dynamic, a different love, a different spark... like Tessa Bailey knew exactly what the reader is craving.
I'll be honest. I wasn't as excited for Sink or Swim as I was for the first two books in the series. I mean, still excited obviously because everything Tessa Bailey puts out into the world is absolute gold, but I wasn't foaming at the mouth. But that's only because I hadn't the faintest idea that it would become my favorite of the entire series. I am not a time traveler or I would go back in time and slap myself for my lack of enthusiasm going in. I mean, god, it sat on my Kindle for three days before I read it. What's wrong with me?
I usually like my alpha males brash and arrogant and take-no-prisoners attitudes, and I'll admit that I was expecting Andrew to be along those lines. But while he was a total alpha, Tessa threw in a little wrench. Someone--cough cough--likes being told what to do by his beautiful woman. Andrew longs for her to give him things to do, making him work for her approval, her appreciation, her body. He's not submissive, by any means, but that little extra something about him made him all the sexier.
Jiya was my favorite sort of heroine. She didn't play the role of simpering female waiting for the hero to get his head out of his ass. She wasn't going to give up on the man she loved just because of his misplaced sense of morality. No, she was going to make him hers. She was going to reach out and take him.
Tessa Bailey weaves their dynamic so spectacularly that he never once strays from the ultimate embodiment of the perfect alpha male. I actually cried during the first sex scene. Tears rolled down my face. That has literally never happened to me before, so take that how you will.
The Beach Kingdom series is one of the best series I've read. I've reread the first two books several times and read Sink or Swim twice in one night. That good. And it's not just the relationships between our heroes and heroines (or heroes and heroes) that keep me coming for more. It's also the love between the brothers. Their bond is something we all long to have with our family and friends. Their witty banter, their standing together against all odds, their open and loving dynamic is what makes these books something special.
Oh, and the sex is so hot your Kindle will burst into flames.
To read my reviews of the first two books in the series click the links: Mouth to Mouth and Heat Stroke.