Hsinju Chen's Reviews > The Awkward Truth

genre   : sapphic romance intrigue
pairing : ice queen (f, white) + soft butch (f, white)
POV     : single 3rd-person limited
location: New York City (Manhattan & South Bronx), USA
indie?  : yes

4.25 – 4.5-ish rounded up.

This is my fifth book by Winter. My first one was The Brutal Truth that I read last year, and I love that Felicity got her own story in The Awkward Truth. We also got to see some more of Elena and Maddie.

Soon to be acting COO of the Bartell Corp, Felicity Simmons (36, bi) received one last assignment: investigate in the financial situations of Living Ruff, a charity helping homeless people’s pets. Felicity wants to get everything done as soon as possible so that she can go back to advancing her career and being surrounded by corporate people like her. But then there is Dr. Sandy Cooper, the strong soft butch head vet of Living Ruff that Felicity can’t seem to get enough of (nor does Cooper’s dog, Brittany, seem to get enough of Felicity). Not that she’d admit it, of course.

Can we take a moment to appreciate Living Ruff (I suppose it’s a play on words of “living rough”)? The staff, their passion, how they made do under the society’s unfriendliness toward homeless people and them having pets, and their clients and pets. I love that we can see the journalist in Winter where a lot of the fictional setting and situations are backed by real-world information and data. They’re one of the most thrilling parts to read.

At first, I was skeptical about whether Felicity and Cooper’s relationship would last. Felicity seemed to need a lot of work, and while she was open to learning—which is something, I guess—she still felt too... judgy for Cooper. I wondered if Cooper’s affection for Felicity was going to last for only a short moment. But then we see Felicity’s character arc, which honestly also really hit home and helped me analyze my career, and suddenly, I could see that she really is trying. She probably wasn’t really ready for a relationship, but I understood that it could work between Felicity and Cooper since they’ve picked apart Felicity’s insecurities and her ways of dealing with emotions. Felicity is on her way to free herself.

What’s beautiful is that not only Felicity’s character progressed into a better place, so did Living Ruff. I love the programs they’re running and the pure-hearted characters. It is very difficult to mention anything about the story since there were a few plot twists throughout, but Living Ruff does get even better by the end of the book. I also like that Felicity gradually didn’t think about her interactions with Living Ruff’s clients as an act of “saving” them. I think Winter handled the topic of homelessness and their pets sensibly, too.

And gosh, for someone who is so good at finding evidence and legal loopholes, Felicity is just so clueless sometimes! It’s kind of endearing though. Elena and Cooper melting Felicity’s brain is also one of the best things in the story.

The Awkward Truth made me laugh out loud countless times and also sobbed for an hour. Reading it has been an emotional and satisfying experience. Winter has done it again!

And isn’t Brittany awesome on the cover?

content warnings: homelessness (including LGBTQ youth), alcohol (recreational), pet abuse/murder (past), graphic sex, scam, fatphobia (later apologized), racial microaggression (called out), classism (called out), accidental pet negligence, disowning (minor character), f slur, parental death (past)

I received a digital review copy from Ylva Publishing and am voluntarily leaving a review.