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Sweethand is N.G. Peltier’s debut romance novel. Set on the beautiful island of Trinidad, this story follows pastry chef Cherisse aka Sugar Queen and music producer Keiran King in a playful enemies-lovers romance.

When Cherisse finds out that Keiran is the best man to her maid of honour for her sister’s (Ava) wedding to his best friend (Eric), she is not happy. She’s even less pleased when her sister tells her she wants them to plan a joint bachelor/bachelorette party.
Cherisse and Keiran have to put aside their petty rivalry and navigate the 4 months lead up to the wedding without killing each other with plenty of missteps and chemistry on the way.

I appreciated how authentic the descriptions of Trinidad and its culture were. The author wanted us to meet on her level as she described the island she and these characters call home.
I do wish that she had dove even deeper into fleshing out the landscape as at times, it felt a little generic when I would have wanted more culture.

The dual POV allowed us to get a deep dive into both Cherisse and Keiran as their feelings shift from hating each other to ultimately falling in love.
I loved the fact that we go to really understand the characters in their own words as they thought through their relationship. We got to genuinely see Cherisse and Keiran’s impressions of each other change and see their hopes and fears when it came to love and ultimately to commit to each other. 

While the dual pov offered this perfect insight into their minds at times, it felt like they were over explaining thoughts for the benefit of the reader.

When it comes to the characters, the supporting cast, including Jello, was definitely well developed. There was just the right amount of detail to leave me wanting more from future books without overshadowing our leads. 

When it comes to Keiran and Cherisse as characters, I have to admit that they both annoyed me at times with the conflict.
Of course, with enemies-to-lovers, you expect there to be some drama but I felt that if they had better communication, it would not have detracted from the story and instead enhanced it.

Keiran comes across like a whiny schoolboy with a crush for the first part of the book with his comments and antics then Cherisse becomes very icy and withdrawn in the latter part while Keiran is being vulnerable and open.

This push and pull is frustrating at times but did not completely make them unlikeable.

The LGBTQ+ rep in this book was on point from the supporting characters to our male lead. Keiran being bi was a wonder as you rarely find depictions of bisexual men in romance novels, especially Black Caribbean men. I loved that he was comfortable with himself and that Cherisse and his friends loved and supported him. The ONLY point I would make about this ties back into the inner monologue doing more for the reader than the character’s actual thoughts, as the crush on Scott was very much over-explained in his head before the words even came out of his mouth to Cherisse.

All in all, it was a solid debut and I cannot wait to see what N.G. Peltier does next.

Jhen

Content Creator & Sensitivity Reader
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