Blogging for Books, Bittersweet

I received a free copy of Bittersweet from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.

I have mixed feelings about this novel. I enjoyed the languid pacing, which matched the summer vacation setting, with just enough tension to keep me reading the book. I really appreciated use of Paradise Lost as a parallel text as the protagonist faced her own personal temptation as well as the inevitability of what she chooses to do. Though I was a bit disappointed by how neatly and positively the ending was tied up and I felt that the family’s money source at the time of the bankruptcy was a little underdeveloped.

Finally, there is a definite “ick” factor with several sex scenes and at the close of the novel when the reader discovers what characters knew and did/didn’t do.