Book Review: The Look of Love by Bella Andre

Title: The Look of Love
Series: The Sullivans, Book 1
Author: Bella Andre
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: Novel Publicity & Co.
Published: June 2011

With THE LOOK OF LOVE, bestselling author Bella Andre introduces you the Sullivan family. In this fun and emotional contemporary romance series, when a Sullivan bad boy falls...he falls hard. And it's forever.

Chloe Peterson is having a bad night. A really bad night. The large bruise on her cheek can attest to that. And when her car skids off the side of a wet country road straight into a ditch, she’s convinced even the gorgeous guy who rescues her in the middle of the rain storm must be too good to be true. Or is he?

As a successful photographer who frequently travels around the world, Chase Sullivan has his pick of beautiful women, and whenever he’s home in San Francisco, one of his seven siblings is usually up for causing a little fun trouble. Chase thinks his life is great just as it is—until the night he finds Chloe and her totaled car on the side of the road in Napa Valley. Not only has he never met anyone so lovely, both inside and out, but he quickly realizes she has much bigger problems than her damaged car. Soon, he is willing to move mountains to love—and protect—her, but will she let him?

Chloe vows never to make the mistake of trusting a man again. Only, with every loving look Chase gives her—and every sinfully sweet caress—as the attraction between them sparks and sizzles, she can’t help but wonder if she’s met the only exception. And although Chase didn’t realize his life was going to change forever in an instant, amazingly, he isn’t the least bit interested in fighting that change. Instead, he’s gearing up for a different fight altogether…for Chloe’s heart.

Why I Read this Book: Bella Andre is one of those authors I’ve been hearing a lot about. I am constantly seeing her name on the Amazon top list of romance books. I even have a couple of her books that have been sitting on my Kindle for way too long; I just hadn’t read any of her books until now. And now that I’ve had a taste, I want more.

What I Liked: I love Bella Andre’s voice. Her writing is smooth and fluid and it has me wanting more. She has created an interesting family (the Sullivans) and has set the series in the beautiful backdrop of Napa Valley. Sadly, it’s going to be a while before I can read the rest of this series but I am certainly looking forward to it.

Chloe is comfortable in her own skin. It was nice to not have a heroine worry about the way the looks or worry about how others conceive her. And she wasn’t intimated by the models Chase worked with. Chase was such a nice guy; I couldn’t help but like his character. I also loved that he’s a photographer and how that element came into play in this story.

I loved that the epilogue wasn’t closure for Chase and Chloe’s story. I’m expecting to read more about them as I continue reading the series. What the epilogue was, in fact, was a glimpse at what’s to come in book two of this series. The reader finds out what happened regarding a Sullivan sibling and their relationship, which tells me that this particular Sullivan’s story will be in book two. And I can’t wait to read it!

What I Didn’t Like: My one gripe with The Look of Love, and it’s a BIG one, is how quickly the hero and heroine exchange I love you’s. How quickly? you ask – a mere 3 days. I had a hard time with this and it utterly stopped my reading dead in its tracks. Other than that, it’s a great story and it’s beautifully told.

There was some history of abuse with one of the characters, and while it was touched upon, I didn’t feel like it was enough to fully substantiate things. One of those things being falling in love as quickly as this character did.

Memorable Moment: When Chase gave Chloe the photos he took of her during her rawest moments. It’s a beautiful moment, not only when he presents her with the photos but of the moments he captured through the lens.

Overall Impression: If The Look of Love had taken place over the course of a few months as oppose to just a week, I would have loved this book. However, that was not the case and because of the speedy declaration of love, it was just an okay read. That said, I am eager to read the rest of this series and to meet the rest of the Sullivans. I would love for Marcus to get his HEA. I am also looking forward to Smith’s story, especially if he (a celebrity) falls for a commoner (one of my favorite tropes).

Brianna’s Rating: