Reviewed by Valerie
TITLE: Sapphire Spring
SERIES: Sapphire Cove #2
AUTHOR: C. Travis Rice
PUBLISHER: Blue Box Press
LENGTH: 364 pages
RELEASE DATE: September 6, 2022
BLURB:
Naser Kazemi has never met a problem a good spending plan couldn’t fix. But working as the chief accountant for his best friend’s resort isn’t turning out to be the dream job he’d hoped for. It doesn’t help that his fashion designer sister is planning an event that just might bring Sapphire Cove crashing down all around them. When the wild party unexpectedly reunites him with Mason Worther, the gorgeous former jock who made his high school experience a living hell, things go from bad to seductive.
The former golden boy’s adult life is a mess, and he knows it’s time to reform his hard partying ways. But for Mason, cleaning up his act means cleaning up his prior misdeeds. And he plans to start with Naser, by submitting to whatever the man demands of him to make things right. The offer ignites an all-consuming passion both men have denied for years. But can they confront their painful past without losing each other in the process?
REVIEW:
Sapphire Spring is the second book in C. Travis Rice’s Sapphire Cove series. Naser is the controller for the Sapphire Cove resort owned and managed by his best friend, Connor. One night during a party at the hotel he sees Mason, one of his high school bullies. Mason is a diehard, partier and raging alcoholic, ruining his life with the bottle. He has to tolerate horrible verbal abuse from his father/boss who is a despicable, homophobic character, as is Mason’s best friend, Chadwick, one of Naser’s other bullies. Naser and Mason get tied up in some business transactions, spend more time together, and one thing leads to another.
Unfortunately, this book did not work for me. I enjoyed Sapphire Sunset so when the request to review Sapphire Spring came along, I accepted it without reading the blurb as generally we like to review a series in its entirety. However, the primary trope in this story is a bully/victim romance which I strongly dislike.
I found it to be preposterous. I can’t accept that Naser had a crush on and fantasized about Mason during high school while Mason and two friends were actively bullying him daily, nor can I fathom why, after three years of hard-core bullying, the very sight of Mason wouldn’t trigger him or lead to PTSD.
There are positives such as likable secondary characters including Naser’s mother and sister, and Mason’s supportive next-door neighbor. The alcoholism subplot is interesting and seemed realistic, although I have no personal experience to determine if it’s authentic or not. I’ll give Mr. Rice the benefit of the doubt that he fully researched the subject – particularly the ins and outs of AA meetings, rehab, and recovery. A lot of time is spent on Mason’s alcoholism. There are numerous, powerful chapters devoted to Mason and his father’s relationship vis à vis Mason’s drinking. I found these parts of the book more compelling than the romance.
If you can suspend your disbelief of this scenario better than I can, perhaps you’ll enjoy the book. I feel like it trivializes the victim’s experience to have it set aside so easily. I have to rate the book based on my reading experience, therefore I don’t recommend it. Perhaps you will if the trope doesn’t bother you. To each their own; many reviews praise the book.
RATING: 
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