Do fantasies serve a purpose or are they just random thoughts that happen when we are aroused? When Genna, a PhD grad student is researching women's sexual fantasies, she meets a woman who wants to join the study, Rowan. Rowan is both desirous of sharing her innermost thoughts in the study, as well as scared to voice them out loud for fear of what they might indicate about her. The two come face-to-face with their own personal histories and what will unite them, as well as try to divide them. Both women have seriously challenging family histories and haven’t learned to trust either themselves or others in a healthy way, and neither is good at communication. They have both created coping skills (as we all do) to face the things that have occurred in their lives and both must learn how to allow someone else into their coping mechanisms to truly decide what works and what might be time to let go. A serious and spicy look at relationships when you are not a kid and have baggage that is brought to the union.
A fun romp through the possible psychology of their fantasies and how sometimes fantasies are just that, things that help them cope and live day to day and not indicators of anything bad, as Rowan feared. A really good book that balances the sex with the development of their trust and relationship. A fun look at two characters who work hard to establish themselves and move past their family roles and drama. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book..

Unfortunately this book didn't win me over. The concept and description of the book had me intrigued and while I feel it could have been a great book, I just couldn't connect with the characters or the storyline.

The description initially sparked my interest as it seemed like something a little different. You’d think it was a spicy story, and it was, just not to the extent the description makes it sound. I enjoyed the overall storyline and the MCs were great, I just felt like it bounced around a bit and the pov would switch so quickly sometimes I’d have to reread it. Would’ve also liked to have read about what happened with the study but that kind of left the story and didn’t come back up.

You might find Sandy Lowe’s “The Naked Truth" is a mixed bag in certain ways. On the one hand, her prose and phrasing are both strong; on the other, you might feel a little distracted by a structural quirk, the oft-occurring POV shifts mid-scene.

Still, I came to the book for the really intriguing setup. And that’s there. You should fully enjoy the beginning, which is certainly engaging. By the middle, I felt the story was dragging a little, perhaps because there is a lot of internal dialogue to form the narrative, a lot of which goes round and round more than it might. Keep at it, though, as the story firmly finds its footing by the final quarter.

Both MCs are enjoyable, with their individual issues and how those both fail to dampen and/or add to the mutual attraction! The author has created for a setup and story progression that you’ll need to understand delays the central romance from taking flight early on. As long as you’re ready for that, like I say, the book rocks later on.

The novel explores vulnerability and healing within a burgeoning sapphic romance between 2 MCs, featuring a lot of pent-up chemistry between them. Its minor flaws are inherent (story setup) and relatively minor (the POV shifting), if you’re forewarned; otherwise, enjoy the story's interesting premise, its emotional depth and passionate core.

Thank you to the author, the publisher—the amazing Bold Strokes Books—and to NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

Ok read. A bit confusing at times. I was able to read through to the end, but it was kind of a struggle. Not sure if I liked either main character, but at times there relationship seemed a bit out of tune. I would probably not recommend this book, but I will read more from this author, I think this book was just a one off.

Rowan Marks is hoping she can learn to stop having sexual fantasies by signing up to participate in a study about them. Genevieve Fielding is working on her PhD and the study is her project. Genna is quick to point out that she isn’t qualified to deal with that and she must focus on finding clinical uses for her research to land a prestigious grant. Even though there is a lot of discussion about the study it turns out that really is a way for the two MCs to meet and get acquainted. Their attraction to each other makes Rowan not a good candidate. I honestly was disappointed that the study all but disappeared from the storyline as I was interested in where it was going after the build-up.

Turns out both women have some complex issues from their past that make them how they are today (like most people). I wasn’t a fan of Genna at first. Her lusty inner thoughts made me feel she was unprofessional. But where the two shine is in their communication skills. They are honest with each other about their past and present lives. Once they began really talking I began to care about a relationship between the two. There was a lot of information thrown in about sexual fantasies which I am going to assume is true and that the author did her research.

This is my first novel by Sandy Lowe, although I have seen and heard her before when I have turned into zoom presentations from her publisher. The book is listed as erotica but I’m not sure I would go that far. The couple together are fairly typical and some of the fantasy’s described add a bit more. I like the couple and their family relationships. But a slow start almost had me losing interest before I got into the story. (3.5 Stars)

This book had so much potential to be great, but it came across as underwhelming and extremely confusing. There was so much information dumped on you, and while it may have seemed necessary, I think for a book that seems to be advertised as exploring these overwhelming sexual fantasies, the info dump was just too much.
The best part of the book was not having a 3rd act break up. The pace of the books was good, I just thought that there should have been more to draw you in. The “sexual fantasies” that seemed to be portrayed weren’t really all that outlandish or out there and I think didn’t really make the story very original.
It was really difficult to finish this book and I almost didn’t, I think readers need to prepare themselves for the technical aspects of the book if they’re looking to read this one because they’re not going to get a fluffy fast read from here.

A good book overall but I'm still trying to wrap my head around how a truly feel. Once I figure this out I will adjust my review. I recommend 3.5 stars


Thank you Bold Strokes Books and NetGalley.

A PhD sex researcher and a student with uncomfortable fantasies fall for each other. Some good parts but ultimately a miss.
I liked the character descriptions. I wanted to know more about Gemma’s thesis and practical applications, especially the grant application. But then that never really got explained. Nor did the author go into Rowan’s social work studies. (Mom, stop reading here).
They seemed just window dressing for the sex scenes, which were hot but not enough. Sure I like sex, but it wasn’t long enough to make up for the lack of character development, and I wanted more story. I loved the character of Terry and wanted more about McGinty’s. This could have been a really interesting book but it just wasn’t at all believable.

I received a free electronic advance reader’s copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc!! I really did love the concept of this book. I’m in between a 3.75 and a 4 ⭐️ rating on it though. These two women have some serious trauma to work through before they really get together.. I’m not sure how I feel about switching the POV in the middle of a chapter let alone in the middle of a paragraph.

Some of the conversations went around and around and I feel like I was missing a lot of the details the characters had and it left me asking questions about why they ended up where they did. I had a difficult time following the characters reasonings behind why they did something or didn’t.

My biggest issue was the COMPLETE LACK OF ACTUAL FANTASIES OR EROTICA!! If you’re going to advertise a book in this genre please spice it up more. I would have loved some seriously filthy fantasies wrote out.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

ohhh man this could be a trigger for some people....

rowan has fantasy type sex dreams that are so disturbing to her that she seeks help

PhD candidate and head researcher Genevieve Fielding is doing research for her phd on sexual fantasy she signs rowan up to the study but has misgivings about the reasons and really doesnt think she can help rowan

what follows next is certainly an education on sexual fantasies..... there are some serious issues and some very spicy scenes.....

it wont be for everyone but man those spicy scenes are hot

Well, this was a journey, one where i truly did not know where we were going and sometimes that can be good but in this case, I wasn't so sure.

Rowan is struggling with her sex fantasies and wants Genna, a researcher who is currently investigating the topic to help her get to the bottom of it.

I was really taken with the premise of it and felt it had so much potential with rowan participating in Genna's study and finding out why Rowan's sex fantasies are so disturbing.

However, while the attraction was definitely there along with the angst and sexual tension, it all felt a bit wishy washy for me and the middle part fell flat. I wished all the interesting subplots was fleshed out a little more, instead the issues brought up was sort of brushed away to not be spoken about again.

Thankfully the book did end on a high which I'm glad for. :)

I didn't connect with the story and the characters.

This book was so confusing for me. At the beginning I felt it could have been a great book, but as I was going more into the book I felt completely disappointed. Sometimes the specific vocabulary can be overwhelming; it is not what you expect when you're going to read a romance book.

There is so much information that is not needed in the story that makes the reader focus on details and lost the important part of the story.

The main characters were more focused in the study than on the relationship and the investment they had to do to have a fulfilling and healthy love story. Most of the interactions felt forced, and there was no chemistry between them. Sometimes the change of POV made me feel confused, it was unnatural.

I feel the book had a lot of potential at the beginning, but it made me feel disappointed me very fast.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for gifting me with a free copy. Opinions are my own and are freely given.

When Rowan Marks signs up to be a research participant in a study on sexual fantasies, she’s not looking forward to baring her soul to PhD candidate and head researcher Genevieve Fielding. But she’s running out of choices. Her fantasies are as unsettling as they are arousing, and she has to make them stop. Who better to help than the quietly gorgeous, future Dr. Sex-Fantasies-Are-My-Specialty?

Genna isn’t what you’d call a people person. Breaking the rules and compromising her objectivity by helping a participant with real-life problems? Hard no. She’s not capable and not qualified. But Rowan won’t be deterred, and Genna has to learn to apply her findings in a clinical setting or risk losing a prestigious grant.

Rowan and Genna are fun to read. This book starts out a little clunky and slow, but picks up quite a bit around the midpoint. I enjoyed watching their relationship evolve, but I wish the "unsettling fantasies" were a little more risqué. That part fell a bit flat for me. But overall, not a bad read! 3.5⭐

I received an advanced complimentary digital copy of this book from Netgalley. Opinions expressed are my own.

This book was okay.

I found it a bit difficult to fully immerse myself in the story.

Both main characters were enjoyable and interesting, and I particularly liked the supporting characters, especially Travis. The writing style and pacing were decent, but I wish I could have connected with the main relationship much earlier. It only started to resonate with me around the 60% mark.

The biggest issue for me was the amount of information dumping. While I understand its purpose and the meaning behind it, it made the reading experience more complicated than necessary at times.

Overall, this is a good book that improves as you go along. However, be prepared for a lot of technical details, which might be overwhelming if you’re looking for an easy read. That said, I’d still recommend it!

"The Naked Truth" by Sandy Lowe is a steamy read with a gripping premise. The book grabbed me, but then could not keep me engaged. I read over half of the book before I could not push through any further. This was a DNF for me. I liked the writing, but the pace of the story was uneven. It was not the book for me. Thank you to netgalley and the Publisher for giving me the opportunity to try this book.

The Naked Truth is probably sweeter than you expect it to be, given what it is about: Rowan, experiencing sexual fantasies that she finds distressing (minor spoiler, they are perhaps a bit unusual but not disturbing), signs up to participate in a study with sex researcher Genna. Nothing terribly illicit happens here, I’m pleased to report, and if you’re looking for a book with a power imbalance trope this ain’t it.

The Naked Truth is actually just a couple of very normal people dealing with their baggage, when it comes right down to it. They both had difficult, if not horrific, formative years, the experience of which left lasting impressions as they grew to adulthood. Neither of them are fully aware of how those experiences shaped them, and part of the story is their burgeoning awareness and how they both take steps to begin to heal as their relationship develops.

These are two flawed humans who have no expectations that anyone else will save them. They don’t expect a relationship to be their cure-all, and in fact one of the reasons the two protagonists work to address their issues is so that they can be better partners to one another. Author Sandy Lowe portrays the underlying issues each of the characters faces in realistic but empathetic ways, and while there is some angst most of it is external to their relationship.

The Naked Truth was not what I expected it to be, that’s not necessarily a drawback, and the fact that the protagonists were portrayed as doing their best to communicate even when it was scary was refreshing.

Disclosure: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher and am leaving a voluntary review.

4.3⭐️

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for allowing me to read and review this book.

I very much enjoyed this book. The writing was great and the characters were well developed. I hope to read more from this author in the future.

I had a hard time with this novel, in a few ways. I had a hard time finishing it (never a good sign), and now im having a hard time determining my final thoughts on it and a rating.

I liked the writing; the way that the author puts words together and the phrases that they use. I can tell that this author knows how to write and is great at turning a phrase. At the same time, I also disliked the writing; the way that the novel is formatted and structured. I hated how the POV switched constantly, sometimes in the middle of a paragraph without warning. A lot of the conversations were….off somehow. I found some of them (including big important ones) hard to follow and kept wondering if I was missing some details somewhere as I couldn’t follow the conclusions the characters had when the conversations ended. None of the characters fights made any sense to me. I feel like the positive things to say about the writing are all addressing more important aspects, however the negative bits had a big impact on my reading experience.

I am not sure what this novel was trying to be, or what it was trying to say. I had a lot of trouble following the characters motivations and their though processes. There was a lot happening, and it didn’t quite flow together as one narrative. I could ramble on about this for a few pages, but I think those first sentences summarized my thoughts nicely.

The beginning of this novel was fine; it grabbed my attention and teased details that I wanted to know, although I didn’t really connect with the story.
The middle was a slog; I nearly DNF’d it and honestly didn’t like the novel very much.
The last quarter-ish of the novel was the best; there were finally some important details that made the rest make a bit more sense and there was some payoff. I am very glad that I stuck around to get to the last parts.

If I have one big complaint, which influenced me an unfortunate amount, it is this. SPOILERS AHEAD (kind of, ill try and keep it vague). This novel sells itself in the blurb with one of the characters having deeply unsettling and disturbing sexual fantasies that they NEED to figure out how to stop. This led me to go into this novel expecting something wild/unhinged/unsettling, or at least out-of-the-mainstream, and/or particularly erotic and spicy. This is not what the novel delivered. I picked this up because I wanted to know “what these crazy fantasies are”, and in the end it turned out to be some fairly standard stuff, that wasn’t described in particularly deep detail. Maybe this disappointment was my fault, maybe it was the blurb, but regardless it happened.

My Rating: “C-“
GoodReads: 2-Stars (rounded down)

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a free ARC. This honest review was left voluntarily.

a sex researcher and her subject fall in lurve!

Genna (or Dr. Sex by Rowan) is researching feminism's impact on women's sexual fantasies (woah omg tell me the results). Rowan desperately needs help getting rid of the fantasies she finds twisted but keeps coming back to night after night. They meet, there's insta-lust that quickly becomes romance, and bam that's the story. EXCEPT IT ISN'T. Both women also struggle with hecka deep trauma from their childhoods and mommy daddy issues that they can't get past. Genna is also very anti-romance sex is all there is for me while Rowan believes in soul-mates and monogamy even very early on when they were still in a situationship. Genna and Rowan gotta work to compromise and communicate to make their relationship work.

I gotta say I loved Genna early on. Growing up with an agoraphobic mom and needing to take care of her younger siblings, Genna develops crazy mommy issues that show up in her adult life as never being able to rely on anyone. Rowan on the other hand only ever wants to be able to take care of someone, stemming from a sense of failure of not being able to save her family's deli and keep her sister out of jail. The book explores trauma well and how it shows up in our everyday lives in ways we don't even know.

BUT. Despite their deliciously in-depth backgrounds, the characters weren't all that in-depth. They're inconsistent in behavior, super steadfast about something one moment and switching up the next. I found they were both massive hypocrites! I don't think it's enough to not read this book, but it did make it hard to push through at some points. And I really didn't like Rowan's incessant pushing that Genna give up her favorite go-to bar for sex when they weren't even dating yet. Let's just say they both had flaws but whatever at least they like each other. I'm also kinda sad we didn't get to see more of Genna's sex study. Pretty early on it becomes nonexistent and the main issue transitions to their clashing beliefs. But hell I'm interested too why didn't the epilogue contain her study results???? Whatever I can google it on my own.

Anyway solid read about two mature adults trying to love each other while dealing with their separate traumas. 3.5/5