Reviewed by Chris
TITLE: Sweet Clematis
SERIES: Being(s) in Love #9
AUTHOR: R. Cooper
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 306 pages
RELEASE DATE: November 27, 2018
BLURB:
Can a curse be a blessing?
Clematis works hard to embody every fairy stereotype. He can be a sulky prince or a submissive flirt, slutty and arrogant or silly and soft. He makes himself into whatever causes someone to want him. Combine that with beauty that’s incredible even for a fairy, and everyone wants him sooner or later… just not for long.
Well, everyone except the fairy Clematis secretly adores. But then, he’s never expected happily ever after, not when he’s spent years burying his emotions and making himself unlovable to push people away and protect his heart.
But his curse changes all that, and Clematis can no longer prevent his feelings from rising to the surface. He’s terrified that when his few friends see him for who he really is, they’ll abandon him, just like his parents did.
It’s hard to imagine friends who see past his act to the sweet person within, but maybe happiness has been in front of him the entire time, waiting for the real Clematis to break free and blossom.
REVIEW:
I think I could describe this book in three words: Angst-porn crack.
And I bloody loved it!
If you have been following this series like I have, you will remember both Clematis and Flor from A Dandelion for Tulip, where they were secondary characters in Tulip and David’s story. Sweet Clematis is basically a follow-up to that story where we get to learn more about Clematis and the curse that Tulip laid on him at the end of book six.
If no one has taught you about love, perhaps it’s time you were forced to learn, Fairy Clematis. The light you want will never find you if you stay in the dark.
After being cursed to no longer be able to hide his feelings, Clematis is slowly starting to fall apart. After all, he doesn’t know how to live when he cannot hide behind his pretty looks and flighty ways. Because if anyone got a look at the real fairy he was deep down…well, there is no way they would stick around. But now his façade is slowly starting to crack, and Clematis can no longer keep from showing his true colors to those around him. Especially Flor. Flor, who never wanted anything to do with Clematis before—when Clematis was all smiles and flirty winks—and who will now no doubt be horrified by the damaged little fairy that hid behind those looks. Clematis only hope is to convince Tulip to take the curse away before Clematis loses everything and everyone.
R. Cooper brings us once again a highly emotional, but utter lovely story in their world of fairies, werewolves, dragons (and more!).
Like the previously connected story, A Dandelion for Tulip, this book is a sucker-punch of angst drenched in sweets and fairies in love. While this is book nine in the series, books seven and eight take place in a different setting, so are not quite as important to understanding Sweet Clematis, but I would absolutely recommend you read Dandelion before tackling this story since the plot of this book branches off directly from that one.
Yet this story doesn’t feel like it is trying to rehash David and Tulip’s story, but instead use the relationships between those two, Clematis, and Flor to explore just how easily the way you perceive someone can be off the mark. Clematis would be the first one to admit that he uses his looks and his body to draw people to him. He tries so very hard to be The Best Fairy. The type of fairy that everyone loves…mostly because he wants so desperately to be loved. And yet, because he doesn’t think anyone could love him for who he really is—and he knows that it will only be a matter of time before his lovers realize he is little more than a mask—he tends to hurt those around him. Not maliciously, but carelessly. Which doesn’t make it a whole lot better, to be honest. This book is all about how he learns to cope with breaking down those barriers, whether the breaking was of his own volition or not. It is highly emotional, but only in the best of ways.
This series has to be one of my favorite when I’m looking for a big helping of angst smothered in sweet and gooey romance. I can literally be sitting there with tears streaming down my face, and all I’ll be thinking is give me more!!
To be honest the only thing that I wish had been done a bit better is having some kind of resolution to the whole job situation. It is not a huge thing, but it kinda just got left as this hanging thread at the end and I was sorry to not see much closer there. Probably even a vague motion towards his decision as to what he wanted to do would have worked. But as I said, it didn’t even come close to ruining this story. Because on the whole I had a wonderful time reading this.
RATING: 
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