Juniper Smoke is the debut novel of Author Sadia Ash. From her website, Sadia loves volunteering, fundraising, and has worked for the film/ TV industry. As an art lover, her protagonist Juniper Mills also shares the same passion. For me, Juniper was a big dork I really liked. A strong headed and independent 26 year old virgin, her life is thrown upside down when Kyle Paxton, CEO of a successful company, crosses her path. Having said that, Kyle's life also pauses because time never stops with him. I mean it literally and you will understand better what I mean when you read the book.

Now, to be honest, both leading characters were a bit reminiscent of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey. However, the plot is different, not graphic at all, yet very arousing to the standards of pure romance reads. And Juniper Smoke has a steady pace. Thus, I slowly savored this 600 page + book contrarily to my past reads where I all but devoured my reading list.

For the setting of the story which revolves around history, medieval elements, pop culture, museums, and Celtic arts in particular, I believe the writing style-the name dropping- is befitting. I've always believed that this type of writing will be valuable in the future as it consolidates and reflects the age in which the writer lived. These things still date the story to some extent in my opinion. Now, it's true that technology is evolving but if no one is including the age of texting, emojis, the pop culture, etc. in their writing, there is a big chance that future generations won't have any ideas of what our lives entailed if the virtual world collapses or crushes for instance. There is a need for a paper trail as back up and I think this is the accountant part in me kicking in. To end this part, I was familiar with many references and name dropping and that made me smile because I felt like I was still culturally aware of this age I live in. That said, I had to look up a few references and I feel no shame. Just pure enlightenment.

Above all, Juniper Smoke is a very hot romance read I really enjoyed. I felt the feelings and emotions in my CORE because the narration and romance were on point. What else can I say? I'm a sucker for good romance stories. I'm looking forward to read book 3 since this version includes book 1 and book 2.

My Rating: 4.5/5 .

**I received a free ARC file in exchange for my honest review**