Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Silky Smooth
SERIES: Bold Brew Book #6
AUTHOR: A.M. Arthur
PUBLISHER: self-published
LENGTH: 141 pages
RELEASE DATE: March 30, 2021
BLURB:
Falling in love isn’t always smooth sailing.
College drop-out Nicolas Cannon has a secret he’s been hiding for all his adult life. A secret that has left him isolated and mostly friendless—until the day a very friendly parrot flies into his life. In his search to discover the parrot’s owner, Nicolas meets the handsome, enigmatic and much-older Alex Durant. But Nicolas has become fond of Alex’s pet Calamity, and the pair develop an unexpected friendship over their love of the bird.
Alex Durant is a man with money and power, but he’s also haunted by his past with an abusive ex. Calamity saved Alex’s sanity, and he’s surprised at how easily he shares her attention with Nicolas, a young artist who arrests Alex’s attention. As their friendship takes a brand-new, sexy turn, Nicolas discovers Alex also possesses something else he never expected: a shared love of silky underthings. But Nicolas isn’t out to his family, and that decision may test his fledgling relationship with Alex to the breaking point.
Silky Smooth is a stand-alone story in the multi-author Bold Brew shared universe, centered around an inclusive coffee shop set in a fictional college town. Each steaming hot coffee shop romance can be enjoyed alone, but collect all ten for the most fun! My 40k word story features a reclusive artist, a lonely restauranteur, an emotional support parrot, age gap, and satin underwear.
REVIEW:
Silky Smooth is the sixth book in the ten book multi-author Bold Brew series. Bold Brew is an inclusive, kink-friendly coffee shop set in the fictional college town of Laurelsburg. Each book focuses on a romance with a kink-element to it, and Bold Brew serves as a connection point, either as the location that plays into the plot or through one of the Bold Brew staff.
Silky Smooth uses the Bold Brew coffee shop as the jumping off point for the story. Nicolas, having his daily lunch while sitting at his favorite Bold Brew table, sees a parrot staring at him from outside the window. The persistent parrot attaches itself to Nicolas and parrots self-esteem bolstering words of assurance to him (“You success”; “You matter”) that lonely Nicolas can’t resist. Nicolas and the parrot’s owner, Alex, finally find each other, and meet for the first time at Bold Brew.
This setup provides an auspicious beginning to the story. The parrot turns out to be an emotional support parrot whose name is Calamity (“Cal”). The interactions between Nicolas and Cal are funny and heartwarming. The author does a good job of portraying Nicolas’ loneliness and heartbreak from recent traumatic events concerning his sexuality that drove him to drop out of school. Nicolas now hides away in his small apartment, staunchly following a daily routine that helps him cope. He apparently has only one friend, and a strained relationship with his mother and stepfather.
Unfortunately, the story went downhill from there. The setup made me intrigued and excited to meet Alex and see how Nicolas and Alex’s relationship develops based on this unique premise. So Nicolas and Alex finally meet at Bold Brew and … nothing. No chemistry. No spark. I hoped it would develop later in the story, but nope … didn’t happen.
Alex is nothing like what I expected. The blurb describes him as a “much-older” man with money and power. But he’s only 35! Yes, he’s 14 years older than the just-shy-of-21 year old Nicolas, but I expected someone in his late 40s. The way Alex speaks and acts is consistent with that view. That age disconnect just totally threw me off. And the book’s repeated reference to him as an old man just compounds that discrepancy. The author, I think, intended the “old man” comments to provide self deprecating humor. But the “joke” fell flat.
Nicolas, for his part, is not even 21, so I couldn’t get the image of an almost 50 year old man with a barely-legal kid out of my head. Additionally, the story portrays Nicolas with this confusing mixture of adult-sized trauma and mature behaviors and speech. Yet, at the same time, the story tells us that he’s a college kid and reminds us about juvenile and harmful incidents involving his college-aged peers.
Silky Smooth is told through a single narrator, Nicolas. I don’t think that choice helped the situation. To be honest, the single narrator point of view typically doesn’t work for me, unless it’s executed well. As a reader, I want to understand the other main character, the other half of our couple (here Alex), and how they are experiencing events. If the author doesn’t provide his voice so I can absorb that directly from his point of view, then it needs to be communicated through the narrator’s observations and his interactions and dialogue with the other character.
The blurb previews Alex’s troubled, traumatic history with an “abusive ex”. But the story doesn’t deal with that issue in any meaningful way. At least partially, I think that is a consequence of the single narrator issue. But I think it’s also due to rushing the story and squandering potential.
Overall, I don’t view Silky Smooth as essential to the Bold Brew series experience. However, to be fair, if the single narrator point of view doesn’t bother you, you might enjoy this book more than I did. Personally, I found it to be an overall confusing and frustrating read. Clearly, my expectations did not align with the author’s vision for the story. However, you may find this story enjoyable even though I didn’t. Either way, Silky Smooth is a short read, so no harm done if you give it a shot and end up agreeing with my view.
RATING: 
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