Love Script: Deluxe Edition by Tiffany Ashley

Love Script is a contemporary, interracial romance where the bulk of events take place on a passenger cruise ship. For those of you wonder why this is a "deluxe" edition, Ashley has stated that this version adds on 40 more pages than the original and goes more into scenes that took place. This theme is what I call "Fake relationship", where the hero/heroine finds someone they're usually unlikely to date personally and use them to pose as their partner, for some some form of approval. Usually family or superiors. The trope is that the hero/heroine usually end up falling in love with the other as the story progresses, and their polar personalities become something they've never dealt with before.

Laney Parks, a disgruntled graphic designer for a financial company. Though she's been a very hard worker for Sinclair Corp. her achievements go unnoticed due to her superior Mary-Knight, who tends to put all her work and mistakes on Laney. Her career isn't progressing the way she had hoped, but she manages to survive her days because of her loving boyfriend Robert "Rob" Smith III and her best friend and neighbor Daniel "Danny" Rush. Laney awaits a cruise her and Rob are set to go on in a week from the beginning of the book. She feels that Rob is the best man she can ever hope for and even moved to her place of living, San Francisco, to be with him. Her boyfriend Rob however doesn't seem to trust her around Danny though he is a gay man, and constantly fight when in the presence of each other. As Laney takes her vacation for the cruise, she decides to stop by Rob's house to surprise him after work. They have a trusting relationship to the point of even owning each other's home keys. However Laney comes in to discover Rob in bed with his coworker. As you can imagine all hell breaks loose, so Laney decides to avoid Rob and take the cruise by herself. What she did not know was the proposition that would be given to her.  I'm not gonna lie, I thought the name Mary-Knight was one those outrageous romance novel names you'd never see anywhere else and found myself laughing at the first. It didn't really sit well with me that Rob's explanation for cheating was "Nina and I were saying goodbye", this man was cheating for the bulk of the bulk of their relationship and had the nerve to think that would be a good excuse.

Nicolas "Nick" Sinclair, a silver spoon child and young CEO of Sinclair Corp (as taken over from his father). Not one to be turned down so easily, Nick tells a potential client of his wife and agrees to accompany the client, William Zelman, on a cruise ship in order to seal the deal of combining his company with Zelman. Problem is, Nick is isn't married and doesn't plan to be anytime soon. Within is social circle Nick is well known to be a notorious playboy and known to break hearts. After deceiving Zelman about his "wife", Nick comes with a plan to keep the lie going, for as long as it takes to make the merger that is. His long time lover, Kim, refuses his take part in the farce because of her deep feelings for Nick and confesses her love for him. Nick  makes the rash decision of randomly choosing Laney to be his faux-wife after bumping into her on the ship. She agrees to be his pretend wife, in return she is paid for her services and given a promotion.

For me Love Script did feed my personal need that goes with these deception romanticas. I say romantica because though it presents itself as largely erotic, the book goes very much into the emotions of each protagonist. I loved the progression of the story such as Laney actually being quite a favorite of those she encountered on the ship, as well as Nick's slowly growing possessiveness of Laney. One of my biggest critiques of this story was Nick's promiscuity. As much as I hate slut-shaming, Nick's nonchalant attitude with sex was a bit uncomfortable. When Laney refuses offer of sex he goes to find a random woman, while giving him oral sex, his mind drifts to Laney and he could not rise to task. A lot of the time he seemed not to care whether or not he's even wearing a condom, even when sleeping with Laney. The super dominant heros can be sexy I will admit but there were scenes that shocked me. It really wasn't necessary to have Nick force Laney into some sexual encounters. I'd hate say it but that is a declaration of rape.

Laney, while she reminds me a lot of traits I carry, seemed to wait too long to stand up for herself. She let most of the people she knew walk on top of her, and only decided to stand up to Nick when he told her he had no intentions of making their fake relationship real. Her best friend Danny, while entertaining, seemed to only be added in as the "GLBT comic relief". His sole purpose was to be the sassy (while not an ultra fem gay man) side kick who pushes Laney to stand up for herself. There is little said about his past and no character development.

As the story went along the Zelmons, including Vivian Zelmon, were quite the characters. One would think authors would portray those of old wealth to be stuck up and bored with conversations of those "beneath" them. I applaud Ashley on the character development of the secondary characters such as the Zelmons and Cooper Wright.

Cooper, who serves as Nick's rival, not only seeks the same goal as him but also is in pursuit of Laney. Encounters between the three definitely stir up quite a bit of drama that had me drawn in.

Love Script is definitely a story of epiphanies and those who struggle to do the right thing. The romance and sex scenes left nothing to be desired. I caught myself swooning and looking over my shoulder at each chapter. One thing about erotica/romantica novels is that, many authors tend to go into a repetitive stage with sex scenes, however Ashely did keep it hot yet tasteful. Though I did have some pet-peeves with certain situations that occurred in this story, over all it was an entertaining book and I do recommend it to those who enjoy this genre, however with this review you've probably spoiled yourself. If you still want to read after reading this review, you can find the book here The Cafe gives Love Script: Deluxe Edition 4 stars. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.