Sex, Lies and Sensibility -- Nikki Payne, Paperback

"Nikki Payne skillfully spins the tale of a well-known Jane Austen classic and makes it entirely her own. Thoughtful, hilarious, and smolderingly steamy."--Kristina Forest, author of The Partner Plot

Two sisters roll up their sleeves to run a dilapidated inn but must learn to work with the locals in this deliciously spicy novel inspired by Sense and Sensibility.

There's never a good time to learn you are your father's secret child--especially not at the reading of his will. With their father's affairs laid bare and Nora's sensible reputation in tatters due to a viral video scandal, she and her free-spirited sister have nothing left but a rustic inn in the middle of nowhere and each other. What's more, they need to revamp the inn before Labor Day or they lose it all. Nora hasn't even knocked the traveling dust off last season's designer boots when she's confronted with three problems:

1. She really should have watched more HGTV.
2. She hasn't seen another Black person for miles.
3. A tall, dark stranger has already staked a claim on their property.

Native Abenaki eco-tour guide Ennis "Bear" Freeman has seen hapless tourists come and go. When he spots two pampered city girls at his unofficial headquarters, he expects them to catch a flight out of the inhospitable coastal Maine backwoods within a week's time. But Nora, turns out, is made of sterner stuff. And as she rolls up her sleeves to breathe new life into the inn, she unwittingly reignites a flood of emotions inside of Bear that he had very intentionally suppressed.

Their connection is electric, their desire palpable. But Bear's silence about his mysterious past might turn out to be the one thing that sends Nora packing.

Author: Nikki Payne
Publisher: Berkley Books
Published: 02/13/2024
Pages: 432
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 7.91h x 5.30w x 0.68d
ISBN: 9780593440964

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 11/01/2023 pg. 50
Kirkus Reviews 11/15/2023
Publishers Weekly 12/18/2023
Booklist 01/01/2024 pg. 43

About the Author
By day, Nikki Payne is a curious tech anthropologist asking the right questions to deliver better digital services. By night, she dreams of ways to subvert canon literature. She's a member of Smut U, a premium feminist writing collective, and a cat lady with no cats.