MATING THEORY: A Trust Fund Standalone Novel by SKYE WARREN

‘I want to punish her for the emptiness inside me, except when she makes that little sound of fright, it fills me up with something else. Pleasure like black velvet, the kind of darkness I want to stroke my fingers over, back and forth, to feel the fibres pull against me.’

Mating Theory by Skye Warren was a quick dark and edgy passionate read. This Author writes in such a manner that the raw emotion spills from the pages in an almost lyrical and poetic way. We were gripped from page one and immediately fell in love with Sutton and Ashleigh. There really was something quite mesmerising about their story and the passion literally ignited the pages.

‘I was born with too much dirt to ever wash away, but as always, it can’t actually be seen; I can only feel, and God, I feel it.’

Sutton Mayfair is a tempting but messed up bastard with a broken heart, and a penchant for darkness and desperation. How can you not fall in love with such an enigmatic, controlling and passionate man?! His story is a complex one, a tragic one as well as heart-breaking. The vulnerability shines bright underneath the arrogant dirty talking persona. Meeting Ashleigh stops Sutton in his tracks, and her effect on him slows the out of control downwards spiral of his life.

“They’ll think they know better, because it’s easier than acknowledging the truth – that we’re all vulnerable, that we’re all one second away from a life of desperation. It isn’t something you brought on yourself. It’s something you’re surviving, and you’re doing it with more grace and more strength than those people could dream about.”

Ashleigh, the brave innocent waif living on and working the streets, is running from a danger she shouldn’t have to face in the sanctity of her own home. Living hand to mouth in the shadows. Her story is so bloody sad and we wanted to grab her and protect her. Meeting Sutton is just about the best thing that could’ve happened to her, but she guards her heart and her past right from the get go, scared of coming out in the open about who she is and what she’s running from.

‘Why can’t I be everything? Whoever decided we had to be only one thing – the virgin or the whore?’

As a standalone Mating Theory is intense, sharp and filled with heat. A story of personal survival, broken hearts that heal, and overcoming fragilities through love, compassion, hope and helping hands. We really enjoyed Mating Theory, it was an emotional ride as well as super-hot. We do wish however that we’d read the Trust Fund duet that came prior to Mating Theory, as throughout we felt we were missing background knowledge on the importance of the secondary characters and their relationships with Sutton Mayfair. That’s on us and we will definitely be going back to read the duet that came before. We also could’ve kept reading as we loved experiencing Sutton and Ashleigh together as a couple; we wanted more! We highly recommend this book to readers who fancy an erotic and much darker version of Pretty Woman!

“Don’t break his heart again.”