I really loved this installment by Thien-Kim Lam. The main reason why I gave it four stars though is that the romance between the two leads at times wasn’t the main focus. I think there was a lot of plot stories that kept derailing the main story of Zoe and Derek. Also, I was so excited to read a book starring a heroine that is a demisexual. It just didn’t shine through at all in this story. It is said as a throwaway by another character and Zoe goes yes she does need the emotional connection before she will start a relationship with anyone. She also talks a little about never understanding celeb crushes (I concur on that one) and everything that came along with that. I just wanted more of that to be part of this story. I know that the author says in the afterword that she wanted to start with Zoe having the emotional connection ahead of time with the hero. I think I would have liked it more if they had just met and Zoe explains she’s a demi and watching the emotional connection between the two build.
“Something Cheeky” follows Zoe Tran, Zoe is a plus sized lingerie designer living in D.C. She finally has her name out there and is very happy with where she is in life. However, her ex-best friend Derek pops back in her life and asks Zoe to design costumes for a musical they two of them came up with years ago in college. Zoe has every reason to say no since you get hints here and there about why Zoe dropped out of college and never finished her degree. Now though, she’s determined to finish what she started all of those years ago with Derek.
I did love the character of Zoe a lot. Her and Derek definitely made sense and I thought their love scenes were fantastic and wonderfully done. Friends to lovers is a popular romance trope for a reason, and I liked how this one was executed. That said, I wish that we had more of them as a couple in this one before the obstacle got tossed at them. Again, the theater setting, new characters, etc. just caused the book to drag towards the end.
We get a HEA, but everything that came with it didn’t feel super realistic, but I didn’t care. I loved it.