Review: Sex. Love. Repeat. by Alessandra Torre

4.5 stars

This is probably the most unexpected, mind-boggling, jaw-dropping and unconventional book I've read in a long, long time. Oh, how to write a review without spoiling you people! :) There is so much to tell about this story but I'll limit it to what you'll get from the synopsis...

Sex. Love. Repeat. is about a woman who is in a relationship with two men.
She is in love with both of them, and both love her in return.
The clincher: both men know the entire deal. And they are okay with it... for the most part.

I have two rules when it comes to books I read. First: no cheating! I absolutely hate that in a story. It turns my stomach inside out. I am an emotional reader, and anything that makes me hurt so bad is out of the question for me. That leads me to my second hard limit: no love triangles! Honestly, I think the last triangle I read was the Twilight series. If there are triangles in other books I read and reviewed, it's either I didn't know about them or that the outcome was already hinted at in the synopsis.

So in this book I was safe from my first hard limit. I wish I can say the same for the second one, but that's all my fault. It's already obvious from the synopsis that there is a triangle. It just sounded so compelling and so different that it was difficult to resist the opportunity to read and review the book. I'm glad I did though because it definitely made me think about the characters and the plot long after I finished!

This story was so unbelievable, and it's a credit to Alessandra Torre's skill that she was able to make a screwed-up arrangement sound so perfect for the characters. It helped that the two men of the hour, Paul and Stewart, were not drama kings. Nor was Madison, the lucky lady, a drama queen herself. In fact theirs was probably the most open-minded and chill relationship/arrangement I've ever read about.

Madison was likable. To be honest I was so prepared to judge and dislike her. She proved me wrong though. With the exception of her love life, she is a very normal person with more likable qualities than most. She is honest with herself. She is straightforward, supportive of the men in her life, does her work well, is nice to other people, has a sense of humor, and so forth. It's not surprising really that two men fell for her.

Paul and Stewart are two very different men. I wished countless times while reading that they were just one man combined! Each of them have qualities that women love. Paul is a sexy surfer with whom you can sit back on the sand and have a beer with. Stewart is the wealthy businessman who will give you everything you could ever want, but he's not materialistic and he's incredibly sexy in--or out of--his suits. It isn't difficult to see why Madison grew to love both of them equally.

One thing I liked about this entire thing was that Madison acknowledges that their arrangement cannot last forever. She knows she'll have to make a decision soon and when she did, I was already a mess. It's not just because of the stress of waiting to see who will be chosen and who will end up brokenhearted, too. When I said this book is incredibly unexpected, I'm not just talking about this love triad.

There are surprising twists in the last half of the book that had my jaw dropping more than once. I screamed and bit into my pillow more times than I could count! I thought this was purely a love story but it's actually a bit more than that. There is a secondary character who sees everything from the sidelines at the beginning. The moment this character entered the action, things started to roll at a more exciting pace. Even that particular secondary character turned out to be incredibly unexpected as well!

Sex. Love. Repeat. definitely blew all my expectations off the roof. Up to the very last page I was mentally wringing my hands and screaming "Oh my gosh!!!" I have very little to complain with how Alessandra Torre write this book. Too many sex scenes? Sure, there were times I just skimmed through them to get on with the story. Immoral? Sick? That depends on you.... but like I said, this author is such a genius this whole thing just made sense to me.

Read it yourself and I promise you, at the very least it will make you keep thinking about Paul, Madison and Stewart days after you finish.


Synopsis:

I love two men. I screw two men. I am in a relationship with them both, and they are both aware there is another. That is all they need to know, that is all I let them know. They don’t need to know a name; they don’t need to know anything but that they are not alone in my heart.

They have accepted the situation. Stewart, because his life is too busy for the sort of obligations that are required in a relationship. Paul, because he loves me too much to tell me no. And because my sexual appetite is such that one man has trouble keeping up.

So we exist, two parallel relationships, each running their own course, with no need for intersection or conflict. It works for us, for them, and for me. I don’t expect it to be a long-term situation. I know there is an expiration date on the easy perfection of our lives.

I should have paid more attention, should have looked around and noticed the woman who watched it all. She sat in the background and waited, tried to figure me out. Saw my two relationships, the love between us, and the moment that it all fell apart.

She hates me.
I don’t even know she exists.
She loves them. I love them.
And they love me.

EVERYTHING else hangs in the balance.

Thank you to the publisher Patchwork Press for providing me with a copy via NetGalley.