The Blush Factor

It's always a treat to read a Gun Brooke book. I sometimes wish I could just live in one of her tales, her characters are so appealing and real and the love always so nice. This may be my favorite yet by the author, though I wouldn't have minded seeing Manon, Eryn, Vivian and Mike (wonderful characters from Coffee Sonata) pop in for a visit. Their music group (Chicory Ariose) is referenced more than once in Blush Factor.

I refuse to use the word "predictable" since Eleanor and Addison have their own dynamics going on that are different than the ones women share in other novels by Gun Brooke. The May-December romance motif may have been used before, but it's a popular one in lesfic and it works very well here. My only complaint is that show more Blush Factor had to end. It's a wonderful day's escape and just plain delightful. :) show less

The biggest, biggest plus about this book: it is a real age-gap romance with a gap of 23 years between the two MCs. We love this. What more, the author totally makes it work.

Eleanor Ashford is a very successful business woman who has inherited a dying make-up company, Face Exquisite that she is determined to turn around. The biggest problem with Face Exquisite is that it has no connect with the younger demographic. Addison Garr is a YouTube make-up celebrity with each of her make-up videos garnering almost a million views. Eleanor contacts Addison to offer her a consultancy position with Face Exquisite.


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I'm not exactly sure what I expected from this book. (I do know that I didn't love the cover). But I had heard of the author and so I thought I'd give the novel a try.

It's a May-December romance story. There's Eleanor. She's the head of the Ashcroft Group. A conglomerate of companies that includes a makeup company that has been steadily failing (not under her watch) for what seems like in the book, decades.

Enter Addison aka Blush, a YouTube makeup and hair guru with a humongous following online. She's contracted with Eleanor (since technically the company is Addison's client) to bring the company into the twenty-first century.

Addison also has a younger sister named Stacey that she's the guardian of since their parents died when they show more were younger. Stacey also has a brain aneurysm that could burst at any time (that's a definite different sorta thriller story line going on there).

Of course, because this is a romance, eventually there's quite the back and forth between Eleanor and Addison. None of that was too surprising (probably because I've read too many lesbian romance fics in general) but I haven't read too many May December lesbian romances (or romances in general) and so that was an interesting part of the book. And I thought that it was really cool how the author approached the age and money issues too, not quite the same as I've seen the money thing done in other novels.

Then there was Stacey. I thought all these characters were well written, but for whatever reason the character of Stacey just jumped off the page at me. Whens he had dialogue I could really hear her voice in my head.

Also I liked the humor in the novel as well, it was funny, but not mean. And using Wicked as the musical that the High School was doing. Very cool. All in all it was a solid four star novel.

I got this advanced galley through Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books. show less

Hmm, let's see. I've read this type of book before - several times, in fact. Before I read it, I wrote down my predicted plot:

Younger, poorer woman falls for an older, wealthier, take charge woman. Younger woman, or an immediate family member, runs into monetary problems (medical bills, mortgage, etc), which older woman pays for, which makes younger woman feel inadequate (questions herself and her ability to take care of herself and/or other dependents). Big fight ensues. Then they make up. The end.

Oh geez, did I nail it or what? :D

So, yeah, that is pretty much what happened in this book. I've read that story before. Multiple times. And nothing in this book makes it stand out more than the other times I've read it.

Also, don't judge a show more book by its cover, etc, etc, but this book's cover is bad. Really bad. I did not take this into consideration for my review and rating of said book. show less