Synopsis
Salana Livingston did everything right, from taking her multi-vitamin to kneeling before bed to say her prayers every night. She followed the path her parents had planned before she was born, never questioned the role until the day a bus-load of sweaty kids from the Bronx got dropped at her parents’ horse farm.
Tiago Alcazar knew a life of hard knocks. An incarcerated father, a missing and strung-out mother who left him to rely on his aged grandmother for most of his life.
Tiago runs the mean streets of the neighborhood that raised him, living hand-to-mouth, everyday a gift, if he can just make it.
Burdened by a world that only wants to see her as perfect, Salana finds her greatest confidant in a boy society has labeled as worthless. Their paths cross too many times for their stubborn hearts to deny the connection, but can the delinquent and the debutant defy the odds and overcome the social constructs that condemn them?
My Review:
“I’ll never be good enough. Smart enough. Have enough money. Your parents would hate me and it’d make them hate you too. I’d ruin your fucking life, Salt. Whatever picture you always had, it’d be fucking different with me, and probably not in a good way,” he confessed into her neck, her sweaty hairline, but not to her face.
Sexy, gritty and emotional – trademark Mara White style. Loved it!
I have always loved Mara White’s books. Her Heightsbound series made me a fan for life. Her stories explore class differences, modern urban landscapes and difficult social issues. ‘Salt’ is no different. The wealthy and privileged Salana could not be more different from street-wise Tiago. From two very different worlds, their lives collide over and over again.
“But there was no way of getting around who they were—she was born into a life of elite privilege and he, into the cold, hard fist of poverty.”
Salana was born into wealth but she also has a strong sense of social responsibility. A physician, she only wants to hep others less fortunate. That doesn’t go over very well with her family or her current boyfriend. But she feels likes she can be herself with Tiago, even though he is from the rough streets of the city.
“She felt conflicted by all the warning bells going off in her head. He wasn’t dangerous, at least not in the way that her friends thought him to be. He posed a threat to Salana only by being so desirable. She’d never met a guy who made all of her baby hairs stand on end. A boy who was so hard, but so vulnerable that he made her loins ache. Somehow she wanted to both fuck him and mother him.”
This is forbidden romance at its best. Sensual, emotional and very, very sexy, Mara White writes about two characters that do not seem to stand a chance at happiness together. But Tiago never gives up and stands his ground with Salana and her family and friends. These two have a deep connection that withstands time and distance and class differences.
“That boy was the kind who would make your mother sob and your father open up the door with a shotgun. She didn’t want to disappoint Tiago with her naiveté. She didn’t want him to know how much his kiss meant. How it would be marked down in her diary as, by far, the most erotic moment of her sixteen-year-old life. But dating a guy like Tiago was something her parents would never accept. Santiago was the epitome of bad in all the ways that a boy can be bad. He will grow from bad into wild into uncontrollable and then he will be a bad, bad man. Her parents wanted perfection from her and he certainly wasn’t it.”
If you love a gritty, urban romance that is about very real characters fighting very real battles, then you will love ‘Salt.’ The love scenes between Salana and Tiago are beautifully sensual and very steamy. And the Epilogue was fabulous. I look forward to more books like this from Mara White!
“Be kind, Tiago. Do the work. The salt of the earth will be the light of the world.”
About the Author:
Mara White is a contemporary romance and erotica writer who laces forbidden love stories with hard issues, such as race, gender and inequality. She holds an Ivy League degree but has also worked in more strip clubs than even she can remember. She is not a former Mexican telenovela star contrary to what the tabloids might say, but she is a former ballerina and will always remain one in her heart. She lives in NYC with her husband and two children and yes, when she’s not writing you can find her on the playground.
