Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE:  It Might Be Hot

SERIES: Suntastic Fun Book 1

AUTHOR:  Ariella Zoelle

PUBLISHER:  Sarayashi Publishing

LENGTH: 58 pages

RELEASE DATE:  August 13, 2021

BLURB:

After another disappointing breakup, Lachlan is tired of dating all the wrong women. Even though he’s straight, his curiosity starts to get the better of him. What would it be like to be with his gay best friend, Alessandro?

Lachlan

I’m sick of wasting my time with women who love my money more than me. The only person who has ever cared about me and not my fortune is my flirtatious best friend, Alessandro. We always joke about me switching teams when I get bored with being straight, but lately, I’ve stopped laughing it off and started considering it as a very tempting possibility.

After breaking up with another gold-digging girlfriend, why shouldn’t I cheer myself up by having a little sexy fun with Alessandro? After all, it might be hot, right?

Alessandro

I’ve always had to joke about my attraction to Lachlan, because I know he’ll never take my feelings seriously when he’s straight. But he shockingly asks me to show him what he’s been missing by only being with women. This is my big chance to convince him that there could be more between us than just friendship. How can I say no if it will make my dreams come true?

If he wants me to show him a good time, I’m more than happy to teach him a lesson about why I can be more to him than the women who don’t deserve him. But can I make him fall in love with me for real?

It Might Be Hot is the first book in the Suntastic Fun duet. This novella features a friends to lovers, bisexual awakening, no angst romance. If you love cute sweetness, sexy fun, and scorching-hot banter that will make you laugh and swoon, you’ll adore this satisfying HEA without cliffhangers. Each book can be read as a standalone but is best enjoyed in order.

REVIEW:

Ariella Zoelle’s It Might Be Hot is most definitely hot.  But that’s about all it is.  

This novella – honestly it’s so short at 58 pages I’d almost call it a short story – shows two best friends, Alessandro and Lachlan, spending a night and a morning having all kinds of feral, kinky sex (if you can’t tolerate cum play, don’t read this).  Almost the entirety of the story shows them having sex.  

Alessandro and Lachlan are likable guys and you can definitely sense the chemistry between them.  However, we are given almost no details about them or their backgrounds.  How did they meet?  How did Lachlan get rich?  Do they have families?  What are their last names??  We also aren’t given much of a storyline and the emotional dynamics are almost non-existent.  It hits one-note:  Hot.  Which is apropos given the title.  It’s hard to call the story cute or sweet because we don’t know enough about Alessandro and Lachlan to get emotionally invested.  

Ms. Zoelle demonstrates her usual solid writing here.  She has a playful style that immediately translates into light-heartedness.  She’s also particularly good at creating “found family”, which is the best part of her other stories, as it is here as well.  Here, we see four fast friends in Alessandro, Lachlan, Baxley, and Callahan.  She’s immediately able to communicate how close-knit they are and we inherently know they’d do anything for each other.

As is usually the case in her stories, It Might Be Hot contains zero angst.  But it also contains zero plausibility.  Lachlan goes from actively pursuing women to suddenly realizing he’s not only attracted to Alessandro, but that’s he’s all in for all the sex with a man and also all in for a full-blown, romantic forever relationship with Alessandro – all in the span of twenty-four hours.  Further, at the risk of getting on my proverbial soap box, the way safe sex is shown (read, it’s not) is irresponsible.  The story also espouses patriarchal, gross stereotyping of women as only good for fulfilling a man’s sexual needs, or as “gold diggers”, trying to “trap” rich boy Lachlan into marriage by stealing his sperm. 

Overall, It Might Be Hot caters to readers who can completely disengage higher thinking and just want to read about hot sex for an hour.  No judgment here; there’s nothing wrong with that.  Just know that is all you’re really getting in this story.  So if you are looking for more, you’d be better off trying one of Ms. Zoelle’s other stories, like the Good Bad Ideas series.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS: 

Amazon