“Cream and Punishment” From Susannah Nix

Guyssss…. This is a sequel but I read the first book first for once! Be proud of me in this accomplishment, okay? I know, I am ridiculous. I’m not sure why I didn’t write a review of My Cone and Only, but here we are, jumping into book two like y’all know I do.

The second book in Susannah Nix’s King family series is called Cream and Punishment, and follows Tanner and Lucy’s story. We got to meet both characters in the first book. Tanner is Wyatt’s brother, but I won’t go into the King family tree. It’s a whole dang mess, to the point that my buddy read group asked the author for a chart. (Yes, we’re nerds. Whatever.)

Anyways, the King family runs an ice cream empire in a small Texas town. Tanner’s dad is the CEO, but they have a rough relationship. So rough, that when we start this book, Tanner’s dad and brother Nate fire him from his sales job, and force him to work as the mascot at the ice cream amusement park. There’s a pretty funny scene on how that all goes down, but I’ll let you read it for yourself.

That scene leads to Tanner’s sister Josie hiring him to work in marketing. The only problem is, Tanner’s ex-girlfriend Lucy also works in marketing. Of course, he gets put on her team and she has to train him. Figures.

Lucy has her own issues to work through. She bailed on Tanner before because he got too serious, and she wasn’t ready to give up her time for that level of commitment. Lucy is taking care of her mentally unstable and manipulative mother, as well as her bum of a brother. She’s doing all the work at home and is the only one with a full-time job, so she dreams of escaping to a home of her own with no clutter. But, the job doesn’t pay enough for that.

Tanner and Lucy have a lot of family issues to work through on their road to finding each other. It’s not always pretty, and some of the conversations in the book can be triggering, so take care of yourself.

Overall, Cream and Punishment is a cute second chance romance, despite the annoyances of certain family members. There’s also a cliffhanger ending, so I’m looking forward to part three, Pint of Contention.

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