Fun in the sun awaits in this funny, flirty, and deliciously sexy rom-com novella by USA Today best-selling author Mia Sosa. Perfect for fans of Talia Hibbert, Olivia Dade, and Alexis Daria!
No-nonsense executive Naomi Reyes can't believe she let her boss manipulate her into babysitting Donovan Taylor, the most insufferable creative director of all time. Worse, she'll be trapped on a private island with him, while a bevy of gorgeous models vie for a coveted chance to grace the cover of M-Class Magazine's inaugural Swimsuit Edition—and, if the office rumors are true, an equally coveted place in Donovan's bed. Still, if she survives the trip with no major mishaps, she'll earn a shot at landing a dream job as an M-Class writer. Easy peasy, right?
Wrong.
Donovan detests people who try to undermine his artistic control, and his boss's latest machinations send Donovan to a very devious place. Sure, Naomi will get her precious photo shoot, but it won't be what she expects. Bonus? Ruffling the feathers of the humorless exec who's never liked Donovan will be satisfying too—assuming she doesn't drown him in the ocean first.
Mia Sosa is an award-winning and USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romance. Her books have received praise from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Library Journal, The Washington Post, Buzzfeed, NPR, and more.
Booklist called her the “go-to author for fans of sassy and sexy contemporary romances,” and Entertainment Weekly described her trade paperback debut, The Worst Best Man, as "rom-com perfection."
A former First Amendment and media lawyer, Mia practiced for more than a decade before trading her suits for loungewear (read: sweatpants). Now she writes fun, flirty, and moderately dirty stories about imperfect characters finding their perfect match.
Mia lives in Maryland with her husband, their two daughters, a gentle Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and one rescue cat that rules them all.
For more information about Mia and her books, visit www.miasosa.com.
This would’ve been absolutely perfect as a full length novel. But as a novella, it did its job of making me imagine more for these characters, picture the what-could-have-been.
I always enjoy Mia Sosa’s characters and writing. She’s one of my go-to authors when I want a solid story that will deliver.
2021 Spring Bingo (#SpringIntoLoveBingo🌷): Spring Break: Vacation
The narration is fantastic (I've never heard Valentina Ortiz narrate an audiobook before and I want more. She is great!) and I liked the writing a lot. Fun short about two bickering coworkers trying to save a haywire magazine photo shoot in a private island in the Bahamas. Definitely worth the listen (2 hours and 14 minutes), and there's an on-page sex scene near the end (which I was not expecting due to the shortened length, but it was a pleasant surprise)! I'd recommend it for folks who like banter between enemies-turned-reluctant-allies.
However: I am starting to think that I am not the best audience for a one-hour/two-hour audible short. I love novellas, but I was a bit confused as to how quickly the heroine went from "I can never date a co-worker because of this traumatic incident" to "I want to date you long-term." Same question about how the hero went from "I wanna sow my wild oats" to "let's be exclusive" in one day. I hate being like "it's too short," since it's not a fair critique for a novella, but I think some of the character development and change-of-hearts were unearned in the shortened time frame.
This is 100% a me issue, and I think you’d enjoy SUN OF A BEACH if you go in with the right expectations.
Read via audio (narrated by Valentina Ortiz and Sean Crisden).
Disclaimer: I received a free audiobook from the publisher (Audible) in exchange for an honest review.
I was lucky to get a free advanced listen from Audible in exchange for an honest review. If you want a quick enemies to lovers steamy beachside romance and you have an audible account then check this one out. The Caribbean backdrop is the perfect setting for Naomi and Donovan to be forced to work on a photospread for the magazine they're both employed by. It's the inaugural digital issue and this one is a swimsuit issue. These two often get under each other's nerves so neither is looking forward to the trip. But it seems like their little rivalry is just a way to cover up underlying feelings. This steamy romance has the perfect length for an easy 2 hr read and great narration to hold your attention.
Sun of a Beach is a cute romance novella that is workplace enemies to lovers. The characters work at a men's magazine and have very different ideas of what the vision of the magazine should be. But when their boss sends them to a tropical location for a photo shoot they must work together. This was cute and a little spicy, though I wish it was longer. I felt like things resolved too quickly for me to really be sold on the hero as a good match. But a fun listen!
I can see why the ratings are a tad low... This was a fine story but it just lacked romance and chemistry. It was just a business relationship romance.
This was too short! I wanted to go on the long journey with these characters. Maybe short stories just aren't my thing. I need 300 to 700 pages. Mia Sosa's writing was enjoyable and her characters were diverse. There were too few words to build the chemistry I like to read in the contemporary romance genre. It just was too little of a good thing. This was giving me prequel energy.
2.5 stars Well, when i declared today as cute and fun novella sunday, this was so not what I was had in mind. Nothing really interesting or exciting happens here. It was a lot of business talks(which surprisingly I did not hate) with zero romance or chemistry. And that one sex scene just come out of nowhere….I was confused asf. Highly disappointed ☹️
Sun of a Beach is a short and fun listen with just the right amount of drama and humor to make it feel like so much more. I listened to this while on a road trip and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I mean, what's not to love? We get an enemies to lovers storyline set on a scenic tropical island where the MCs ( who have total opposite personalities) are forced to work together. Yeah, I bet you can already imagine the sort of drama this situation brings about.
The characters are well rounded with complete, absorbing back stories and ambitions. You can't help but root for them.The narrators have done a great job with this story and Mia Sosa is, as always, wonderfully talented to give us such a wholesome novella.
Happy Listening !
This audiobook is an Audible original and is available for free for members with an Audible Plus membership.
A fun and surprisingly sexy novella. I realize that these audios may seem too short to some but they are just the entertainment I need while doing chores.
Very short, kinda sweet enemies to lovers work place HFN. This could be the start of something good. But for me there really wasn't enough to be actually really good. So if more comes, I'll probably read (listen) it. The narration was good. Happy reading!
Overall 3 out of 5 stars Performance 3 out of 5 stars Story 3 out of 5 stars
3.5* This was a quick, easy listen. Nothing really stood out, positive or negative. The main characters really didn't seem to like each other all that much, I'd say it's an enemies-to-lovers light. It was also a bit of an insta-lust/love, since for most of the listen they were at each other about work issues and then *boom*! The narrators were good, they played their parts well.
This book turned out to be surprisingly fun. I thought the reason behind Naomi’s dislike of Donovan made sense, it came from a bad previous experience coupled with his behavior at work. On Donovan’s part, I don’t think he hated Naomi but enjoyed making her tick, poking the bear, so to speak. I felt like the background both characters came in with made sense. Many times, in hate to love romances, I think that the hate is either extremely over-the-top—he accidentally knocked over her coffee that one time and now, ten years on, he’s a monster—or not well-established. Because they were both professionals, they worked together, but, being human, couldn’t resist sniping at one another. I even believed it once they began shifting from enemies to lovers. It seemed like a (fairly) natural progression. Naomi’s inner dialogue was great, wanting to make herself into a Naomi-burrito with shame sauce, saying that her unexpected chirp was appropriate as she was acting like a dodo bird, and then, the even better part, when she was so excited she asked to fist bump her boss. I don’t remember Donovan being as internally funny, but I do feel his actions and motivations made sense. With a book this length, I think the story could have gone either too fast or the MCs could have been underdeveloped but I don’t feel that was the case here. I’d definitely give Mia Sosa another try. I also really enjoyed both narrators, Valentina Ortiz—new to me but I enjoyed her voice—and Sean Crisden. I kept flip-flopping between a 3.5 rating and rounding up or just leaving at 4 because while it was light and fun, I don’t think it’ll stick with me. But it made me laugh and I enjoyed the narration, so 4 it is.
This was a really cute quick novella! The audio narration was lovely, and I loved reading another story from this author! I can't wait to see what else is to come! Donovan and Naomi were loveable characters, and we got enough of their past and their budding relationship for their enemies to lovers story to thrive!
A quick but entertaining forced proximity, enemies to lovers, workplace romance that takes place on a tropical island as co-workers Naomi and Donovan have to learn to work together to pull off a swim suit shoot and impress their boss. Full of Mia Sosa's trademark wit and steam, this was a fun read although a bit pricey in my opinion for a 2 hours audible only original novella.
I truthfully only got it because it was free. I get that it’s a novella, but it moved wayy too fast. So fast I nearly had whiplash. For me, there’s some potential, but I wasn’t rooting for either of them at all. The narrators weren’t great either.
ALSO. Super cringy at parts. I literally almost stopped listening because of them.
I was really looking forward to listening to this audiobook because it looked really fun and it was in the Audible Plus catalogue but I was so very disappointed.
Being a romance audiobook, there was absolutely no Chemistry in this one. And what was the most infuriating was how at the very end, these characters just ‘automatically’ fell in love and it was just so shallow. Plus she ended up repeating the same thing she told herself she wouldn’t. No respect for this character or this book.
Solid 3.5 ⭐️. Short 2 hour audiobook. Coworkers venturing off to the Bahamas for a job. Attraction that starts with bickering and ends with them together. Real cute. Not mad at it.