Book Review: Sweet Filthy Boy, by Christina Lauren

How old this city is. The plaque on the building I'm up against states it was built in 1742. This structure alone is older than any love affair alive in this country. Ours might be the youngest, even though it always felt as though we were picking up where our souls left off on a thread much further up the line.

I know now that I love him, that what we have is real, and that I probably loved him that first second I saw him from across the room, enjoying my happiness as much as I did. For whatever Lola and Harlow say about it, I'm a true believer.

It is possible to fall that fast.

The team of Christina Lauren (pen name of duo Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings) are back with new material, having finished their successful Beautiful Bastard series, and it's just as good, if not BETTER, than that series. I am a huge fan of that series as well (click on the link to see my reviews of all the books in it), but the characters in this one have even more complicated backstories, and the fact that it was set in both Vegas and Paris probably had something to do with my love for it as well.

Official synopsis:
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.

First off: I love the tagline of this book ("What happens in Vegas ends up in Paris"). Also: if someone buys you an open-ended ticket to Paris, YOU TAKE IT. (which Mia, the main character, did)

Mia meets Ansel while celebrating her college graduation in Vegas, and what is supposed to be a one-night stand turns into going to the chapel to get married. Her two friends, Harlow and Lola, quickly get theirs annulled, but apparently when Mia was drunk she told Ansel not to let her get an annulment, or at least to wait until the end of summer. Ansel offers her a ticket to Paris to be with him, and the rest unfolds from there.

As usual, the sex scenes were beyond hot, and the relationship between Mia and Ansel was interesting as well. Both of them come with baggage, and they slowly reveal their secrets to one another. Paris is just as much a character as these two, as well, and I was happy to recognize landmarks and streets; I visited there in April 2012 (I lucked out, one of my college roommates was there for a few months for an internship) and would love to go back some day.

This is the first in the new "Wild Seasons" series by Christina Lauren, and I'm definitely looking forward to Dirty Rowdy Thing, the second in the series, which will be out in November of this year.

4 stars out of 5.

*Disclosure: I received a copy of this novel for reviewing purposes. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own.