The Next Life by Lise Gold and Madeleine Taylor is a rich girl/poor girl romance that shows the next life can be the best life for love.
Reina Amari has been stuck in a rut for the better part of a year. It’s to be expected when your husband leaves you for a younger woman after twenty some odd years of marriage. Now she’s lost her sense of self. Then one day, she meets Belle, her pool technician. Suddenly, Reina begins to feel more alive, and she’s certain it’s because Belle has stirred long, hidden desires she thought were dead and buried. Belle brings the color back into Reina’s life, and when Reina discovers her other profession, she can’t help but wonder if she should finally give in to her desires and feel the touch of someone who wants her for who she is.
Single mom Belle Rodgers services pools during the day and works for Hamptons’ Escorts a few nights a week. She loves satisfying her female clients, giving them the best night of their lives. Plus it allows her to feed her sexual needs without disturbing the life she’s built for her four-year-old daughter. Her one and fast rule is do not get emotionally involved with a client. It’s not that difficult a task until the Reina Amari books her. Reina, who is her daytime client. Reina who made Belle fall fast and hard after the first day servicing her pool. Belle knows she risks losing her heart if she gives Reina what she desires, but it’s a risk she’s willing to take for one night with the woman of her dreams.
Nothing is simple, especially a night of passion. Together they’ll need to navigate social and financial differences, as well as a sexual chemistry that will not be denied.
Pros And My Favourite Parts
I really love the title of this book because it made me look at this story in a different way. Classifying what Reina and Belle experience separately and together is too much to be considered a new chapter in their lives. They experience extreme dramatic shifts that opens their hearts to something they’d never would’ve ventured to try. That’s when they start their next life and find the happiness they’d never though they’d have.
Bell was a quintessential lothario of New York. She was young, care-free, and could bed any woman she wanted. Then, her sister dies, and she’s instantly the mother to a little girl. Now she has responsibilities, someone depending on her for every need. So, Bell must begin a new life. She gets a job as a pool technician and moonlights as an escort for Hampton’s Escorts to supplement her income. She’s even preparing to start her own business. Everything in this life is going well. And when she meets Reina, she feels there may be room for more.
Reina’s old life was being the perfect wife with the perfect house and the perfect friends. Her world revolved around throwing the best parties and being part of the New York high class social scene. But then her husband runs off with their interior designer, and her old life seems so foreign. The things that used to make her happy no longer feel adequate. But one look at the new pool tech and suddenly all of Reina’s desires and urges spark into life. And when she finds out Belle is an escort, Reina realizes her fantasies could become reality.
Both women have a lot to navigate in their new lives, but together they may just find that the next life is so much better when you have someone to share it with.
Cons And Heads Up
I usually don’t mind if antagonists disappear and reappear in a book at a later date, but I honestly wouldn’t have minded seeing the stalker client come back a few more times. It would’ve added an interesting wrinkle to some of the reveals Reina and Belle had to make to their family and friends.
The Conclusion
This was a story filled with just the right amount of angst and sweetness. Belle, Reina and their friends and family were all a joy to follow, and what was really impressive was how seamless everything flowed from one moment to the next. If this is what a collaboration between Lise Gold and Madeleine Taylor looks like, I hope to see more in the future.
Excerpt from The Next Life by Lise Gold and Madeleine Taylor
The escort website looks high-end. It’s not seedy in any way, and there are not even references to sex on the first page. No red, no pink, just white and gray tones…
The tabs ‘our ladies’ and ‘our gentleman’ at the top of the page direct me to the escorts and instinctively, I find myself drawn to the list of female escorts. There’s a filter for ‘men only’, ‘bisexual’ and ‘women only,’ and I click on the latter…
I scroll further down and my breath catches at seeing the fourth lesbian escort on the page. I don’t register exactly what it is at first that draws my attention to her face. Something just feels oddly familiar, and then it comes crashing down on me.
“Bell,” I mutter under my breath and take another long drink of my wine, then refill the glass. She’s seriously cute, with her dimples and cheeky smile. Her big, brown eyes that beckon me to click on her stare playfully into the lens. What is she doing working for an escort service? She already has a job, and doesn’t seem like the type at all, but then we only exchanged a couple of sentences. Nobody knows what dark secrets people hide behind closed doors…Scrolling through her three profile pictures, I study each of them at length, taking in every detail of her…Belle’s wearing jeans and a slinky, gray jersey T-shirt. ‘Trust me; I look good naked,’ it says underneath and I chuckle, partially because I’ve seen her in real life and have no doubt that she looks amazing naked, and partially because it’s a little cocky, and that amuses me.
Heat spreads between my thighs when I imagine her mouth on my neck, her body draped over mine, her hands roaming over my naked flesh…It’s been a long time since I’ve felt aroused, and it’s a pleasant surprise.
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Bits and Bobs
ISBN number: 9781838164362
Publisher: Lise Gold Books
Lise Gold Online
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