First and most importantly, this was a five star read for me. I'm a sucker for anything with funny, snarky dialogue, and Red Hot Rebel has plenty of snappy one-liners and delightful banter, as well as more serious and thoughtful themes. I like the writing style because it flows well, and the mental stream of thought and the dialogue sound like real things that real people might say. It's a dual point of view so we hear from both the heroine and the hero.
Ivy is a model, Rhys is a photographer, and they get hired to do a travel shoot that involves several different locations around the world. Their relationship is a bit tense from the prejudices stemming from their initial meeting, but there is a strong attraction, and working so closely together, they soon get up close and personal. The topics of sex and family come up. They explore Ivy's sexual hang-ups while on the road, and after returning to New York, it's time to confront family relationships that are fraught with tension for Rhys. The title confused me for a while. I mean, the hot part was obvious, but who was the rebel and why? This comes out in the latter half of the book.
In both cases, one of the issues is expectations. Ivy is wary of sex because she doesn't like the expectations men often have about beautiful models, and Rhys is wary of his father because his father is the sort of person who had a lot of expectations for his children, and Rhys had wanted to rebel against them.
They meet at a Hampton party for the first time. I am an Austen addict, and although this book is not Austenian in any way, I'm not gonna lie to you, I got severe Meryton Assembly vibes off this scene. You know, that gathering in the beginning of Pride and Prejudice in which Darcy attempts to shut ever-cheerful Bingley up by insulting Elizabeth. "She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me..." In Red Hot Rebel, Ivy and her model friends are at the party on display, trying to showcase their clothes for rich people, while Ivy overhears some men objectifying them. One of them says grinningly, "They're obviously nothing that'd ever tempt you," and Rhys tries to shut him up talking about airheaded models and his immunity to beautiful women in Ivy's hearing. Later she teases him about not finding her intolerable and lets him know that from the first moment she met him, she wasn't impressed by his arrogance. Later on, we also find out that akin to Darcy, Rhys likes people who read books and wear sensible shoes because they're better walkers, and deception is his abhorrence, although not in those words. But unlike the Austen characters, both Rhys and Ivy have the opportunity to also impress the other with their heroics at the party, when another model needs rescuing. So they agree to work together despite their initial differences and they both notice the other improves on closer acquaintance. After they're back in the United States after their trip, a friend from the party causes some conflict with his thoughtless words, and I liked how the couple dealt with the issues. By talking, imagine.
I read an ARC copy I got from Booksirens. It's well edited overall, I noticed only a few minor errors like missing commas and one misplaced apostrophe. In Italian, I think it's Buon appetito, not Bon appetito. This is a voluntary and free honest review.
This was my first book by this author but I would definitely read more from her.