Sweeten the Deal is a contemporary romance that flips the usual financial conventions around. In this book the heroine is a decade younger than the hero, but she’s also a millionaire who hires him to be her companion. Typically the person with the financial power in contemporary romances is the hero and the older character, not vice versa.

I picked up the book because I was intrigued by that premise, but what I found I liked the most was how gentle and kind this book is with regards to not having figured your life and career out–not in your twenties, nor in your thirties. 

Caroline Sedlacek comes from a very controlling family. Her entire life up until now has been playing tennis at a collegiate level, being pressured to perform, and being isolated and unhappy. Her family justifies this by claiming she can’t manage on her own socially because she was bullied in school (it’s hinted at that she might be neurodivergent but not confirmed). When Caroline’s grandmother dies, she leaves Caroline two million dollars and tells her to take the money and enjoy her life. Caroline’s father immediately tries to get her to sign over the inheritance, but she flees (literally out a window) to Boston where she quits tennis and enrolls in a MBA program.

Caroline is smart and capable, but she’s been told her entire life that she’s not. Because she was kept isolated, she doesn’t have many friends or know how to navigate social situations that people her age are more adept at. Lonely, she logs onto a sugar baby website and hires Adrian Landry to be her paid companion. This is not a romantic or sexual relationship. Caroline needs a friend, and because Adrian is an artist, she wants his help learning to appreciate the arts on their dates. 

Adrian was a much lauded up and coming painter, but he’s been struggling lately. His ex, who paid the bills, broke up with him after he caught her cheating. She also runs the gallery where his art is sold, so that hasn’t been great. He’s been rooming with a friend and he needs to make some quick money. He assumes that the sugar baby site will pair him with an older woman who wants him on her arm at social events, not a woman ten years his junior who wants to figure out how to fit in with her MBA crowd.

A lot of the conflict in this book is Adrian worrying he’s taking advantage of Caroline because she’s younger and she is paying him for his friendship. When he starts to have feelings for her, that fear increases. He also got burned by being in a relationship where his partner supported him financially (and held that over him) and he’s not sure he’s willing to leave the boundaries of their business relationship to shift into a romantic one.

Caroline has feelings for Adrian, but isn’t sure if they’re reciprocated or how to handle it. A lot of her social awkwardness is really just inexperience and the old tapes of her dad playing in her head, telling her she can’t handle things. 

There’s also a lot of fun discussion of art (visual and performance) in this book, so if that’s your jam, check it out.

What really worked for me though, was how Sweeten the Deal normalizes not having your shit (professionally, socially, financially) figured out yet. It’s a book that says, “Hey, it’s okay to be a thirty-something who is going to couch surf for a bit because you suddenly realized you want to get into the arts. Do the thing you love. There is no timeline you have to hit.” Since a lot of contemporary romances I’ve read heavily feature the protagonists’ careers, this sort of “figuring it out” stage was really great to see highlighted.

I did like the fact that the financial power dynamic between the couple was flipped too. I have read eleventy million books where the hero is older, and a billionaire, and he helps the heroine out somehow financially or with regards to social position. I think I’ve read less than five that invert that dynamic.

Caroline and Adrian are both in an in-between place in their lives when they first meet. She’s out on her own for the first time after living with a controlling family for years. He’s striking out as an artist without his wealthy, gallery owning fiancée to manage his career. I think the best romances are the ones where the hero and heroine help each other grow and get stronger, and Sweeten the Deal does that. 

Adrian doesn’t intervene with Caroline’s parents, but he gives her the confidence to set better boundaries with them and to feel like she is able to manage her own life. He also gives her confidence with regards to her social isolation, and I love this line:

“I’ve met thousands of people, all over the world, people who made incredible art, people who’ve lived amazing lives. I’ve never met anyone like you. You don’t need to change. Everyone else should.”

That, for me, is the definition of swoon right there.

Caroline, in turn, helps Adrian get some of his painting mojo back and encourages him to do what makes him happy versus what his ex thought would sell. 

I love a book where the main couple is so obviously better together, not just because they’re in love, but because they support each other in the unique ways they each need it.

Sweeten the Deal is a really great romance that reminded me to be kind to myself, regardless of where I am in life and lets the heroine be the Sugar Mama for once. It’s one of my favorite reads of the year.