This is our review for Swallow Your Pride by Sarah Blue – the first book in the Carlson Brothers series.
At the time of publishing this review, this story was available on Kindle Unlimited.
If you’ll be reading this story for a book club, you can find our free printable book club discussion guide here.
Star rating
Pepper rating (find our Pepper scale here)
Book Review: Swallow Your Pride
Swallow Your Pride, while the first in the Carlson Brothers series by Sarah Blue, was the second one I read in the series. I enjoyed this dual POV story and it was a good starter book for increasingly taboo relationships in the second and third books in the series. I picked up book #2 (Forget Your Morals) knowing it was second but ran concurrently with Swallow Your Pride. I was therefore aware it might contain mild spoilers but it was just the palate cleanser I was looking for after 15 holiday rom-coms in a row, so I went back to read this one before finishing with book #3 (Double Your Standards).
With that in mind, I’ll do my best to tease out my feelings for each book individually and in order, starting with Swallow Your Pride. It’s an age-gap romance between Aiden Carlson and his (deceased) best friend’s estranged daughter, Jessa Peters; and if that’s not complicated enough, she also works for him. There’s the usual sexual tension and build up that comes with forbidden relationships and, of course, the obligatory guilt on Aiden’s part for his interest in his best friend’s daughter.
What I loved about this book was the communication between the characters. There wasn’t even a sniff of a miscommunication trope in this book because they were both complicated, but overall healthy, adults in a consensual relationship even with their kinks and talked about it openly and honestly. I mean, it was almost too much communication if that’s even possible.
While a Daddy kink isn’t for me (not that I yuck anyone else’s yum in that area), it was played out without the DDLG (Daddy Dom Little Girl – implying age regression/age play) in this story and I didn’t mind it. There are other dynamics in their relationship, both in the healthy communication outside the club as well as inside where they explore other kinks too. One of the finest moments was when Jessa really stands up for her own boundaries at the club; it was both hot and empowering.
Although the age gap and daddy tropes aren’t my thing, I did really like this book. Overall, I found a really sex-positive and healthy story portrayed on the page and recommend it to anyone who’s new to smut or loves an age gap romance with a few extra twists and turns in it.
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