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Jonas Durand is successful, rich, and controlled. He owns a prestigious modelling agency and has the world at his fingertips, but a turbulent childhood has taught him to be focused and never deviate from a plan.
Dean Jacobs threatens that stance. He’s one of the world’s most sought-after supermodels, but he’s also laidback and lighthearted and free in a way that Jonas has never quite managed.
Dean has always been interested in Jonas and has never made any secret of his admiration, but from the beginning, Jonas put him in a neat little box labelled, “Don’t touch,” turned the key, and never looked back.
However, the universe seems determined to thwart Jonas’s plans. Over the course of one hot summer, the two men come together, and Jonas’s well-ordered life becomes something a whole lot wilder.
Moving from the glamorous worlds of London and Paris Fashion Weeks to the sleepy South of France, Jonas finds himself liberating partridges, chasing his supermodel, and falling in love.
From bestselling author Lily Morton, comes a romantic comedy set in the fast-paced and snarky world of modelling. This is the first book in the Model Agency series.
Title: The Sunny Side
Authors: Lily Morton
Series: The Model Agency, Book 1
Genre: Contemporary, Romantic Comedy.
Tropes: age gap, controlled man/carefree man.
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Dean nods. “Last week, a model didn’t turn up to a fitting. No excuse,” he says in a scandalised voice. “Just couldn’t be bothered to get out of bed.”
“One of mine?” I ask, frowning.
“No,” Dean says. “He was from Browns.”
“They don’t so much run a modelling agency as a circus,” I say with no small amount of satisfaction.
I eye him and Mal. They don’t make them like these two anymore. They come from a background where serious work was the norm. Mal might throw tantrums to rival Marie Antionette, and at one point Dean might have been more stoned than the entire cast of Reefer Madness, but both are as reliable as the sun coming up. They’ve always turned up on time and got the job done.
I’ll miss them when they retire and leave me to the less than tender mercies of the new models. I shudder at the thought and feel a sudden sadness at the idea that one day I won’t see Dean anymore. I rub my stomach absently and look up to find the two of them watching me. Mal looks amused as if he can read my mind, which I wouldn’t put past him, but Dean seems concerned.
“Is your ulcer playing up again?” he demands.
Mal snorts, and I roll my eyes. “No, it is not,” I say in a reproving tone that, as usual, Dean completely ignores. He picks up fewer social cues than an old matron in a Jane Austen story.
“No coffee, then. I’ve got some green tea brewing.”
“Where did that even come from?” I ask despairingly. “I’m sure I don’t have that in my kitchen.”
“Dean carries it around with him,” Mal says, filching a piece of Dean’s omelette and feeding it to the dog. “Remember when Dutch customs found it, Dean?”
Dean grins. “I still remember that strip search. It’s definitely in my top ten.”
I stare at him. “You have a top ten of strip searches?”
He shrugs. “Of course. Most customs officers are rough, but that one had very gentle hands.”
Do a little dance, readers. Lily Morton has started a new series. Squee! And what a start it is!
Obviously it centers around a modeling agency in London. Jonas runs it after a sort of hostile take over from his mother. Dean is one of his most popular models. They have separately and quietly crushed on each other. But Jonas thinks he has no chance with a model (and the whole boss/emplyee thing) and Dean thinks he is too stupid to have a chance with Jonas. Silly boys.
This is a pretty slow burn because of the obstacles they put in their own way. But that makes it all the sweeter I think. In so many stories they will suddenly come together, ripping clothes off, etc. But not this time. I mean it does come to that but it doesn’t start that way. There is WAY more flirting and courting without saying it.
Besides getting to know some new fun characters (PIP!) we get to see characters from previous series and books. Dean is step brothers with Asa and actually set up he and Jude. And his best friend is Mal, who still leaves Cadan on the farm to model, but then runs right back.
I love how it is highlighted that male models aren’t nearly as popular as female models and they still are driven to perfection. By themselves, by photographers, by designers. Dean eats almost NOTHING because he has runway shows coming. Sexual harrassment is also mentioned. And I am sure it is FAR worse than what was in the book.
Dean will absolutely steal your heart. Pip is just amazing. Jonas loosening up is a revelation. Plus kids and dogs and vacations to France. Just swoony.
I cannot wait for more.
4.5 pieces of eye candy
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Lily is a bestselling gay romance author. She writes love stories filled with heat and humour.
She lives in sunny England with her husband and two children, all of whom claim that they haven’t had a proper conversation with her since she got her Kindle.
Lily has spent her life with her head full of daydreams, and decided one day to just sit down and start writing about them. In the process she discovered that she actually loved writing, because how else would she get to spend her time with hot and funny men?
She loves chocolate and Baileys and the best of all creations – Chocolate Baileys.
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