Cake by Nicole Reed

Would you be willing to make a mess of your life to get exactly what you want?Kylie Lord has known Trent Moss and Dray Savage since college. Trent, the smart and kind-hearted humanitarian has had her heart from the moment they met, but someone else always had his. Dray is an arrogant professional football player who happens to be Trent's best friend and Kylie's nemesis “with benefits.”Three years after graduation, Kylie is commanding the world with a successful business; however, she lacks the one thing she wants and the one thing she can never have. That is, until one fateful day when Kylie decides to go after all of her forbidden fantasies and risk everything.Two men, completely different and poles apart, but together they are her idea of perfection. One can only offer her tonight and the other forever, but can Kylie settle for just one man, or can she have her cake and eat it too?

Kylie Lord has known adoptive brother’s, Trent and Dray for a long time. Nearly as long as she has been in love with Trent. Drey, however, has been nothing short of an asshole to her. Drey lays on thick the sexual innuendos and just triggers her rage. They tolerate each other for the sake of Trent. She can’t imagine a time where Drey would ever treat her with respect. That all changes when Drey suffers a serious concussion and Trent encourages Kylie to be by his side, seeing as he can’t. Trent is the humanitarian that is currently in Africa, improving water supplies for impoverished communities.

Whilst Kylie helps Drey back to full health and fitness, things seem to irrevocably change between them. Her feelings alter, develop and then Trent returns home. She still loves Trent but can she have them both. Can she have her cake and eat it too?

I have read a few other love triangle novels and more often than not I’m hard to please because the female character usually fustrates me no end with their indecision. Kylie Lord, owns a boutique and is financially stable and responsible. It was good to read about a slightly more mature female character that hasn’t needed to rely on a boyfriend. The one sticking point for me in regards to her character was, how long until this point that she waited around for a guy that essentially seen her as a sister. Like, why? Live your life have fun, You can’t make someone want you. Drey, was a nice guy that disguised his feelings in banter that Kylie took as meanness. He didn’t tell her that he was interested, due to two reasons. 1- That she was waiting for Trent and 2 – because both the brothers had no idea how to engage in a healthy romantic relationship, having never experienced it as children, being passed from foster family to foster family. Brilliant complimentary characters, Kylie’s best friend Madison had a whole lot of Drama herself but the bond between them was heartwarming. My favourite character had to be Kylie’s aunt who was dying of breast cancer, who not only imparted little pearls of wisdom and some awesome witty comebacks. I CRIED. (That’s all I’m saying.)

“I once heard that love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend”

The book is set in Atlanta and you get a feel from the dialogue and descriptions of the area what it is like to live there. It set up the story nicely.

I really hate to bring this one up, but for me it really is a big one. I don’t know if I had an earlier edition of the book or not bad I did find some of the writing was poor. Grammar was all over the shop at times and sometimes I had to go back over a passage as some of it didn’t initially make sense. I don’t like bashing authors, I really don’t, I know how much hardwork goes into producing it but I do feel editing services would have greatly helped.

Apart from the spelling and grammar issue there wasn’t anything really that I hated about the story. The only knit picky things are, how Kylie was happy to wait around for a man that he himself stated, loved like a sister. I also didn’t really feel an emotional connection to Trent. His emergence into the story was very late on so didn’t really see the amazing connection that they apparently had. Also what was the end story between Madison and Nick Andrews, that really seemed to be a loose end that was tied up at the end.

The book was fun, would I recommend it to friends, not sure. The humor and the angst was enough to keep me entertained. Lots of people seemed to love this so maybe its just me.