Book Review
Title: Peep Show by Isabella Starling
Genre: Erotic, Romance
Rating: 4 Stars
I have had Peep Show on my kindle for a long time before I decided to pick it up. The only reason I picked it up was because it matches the summer vibes at the moment. We are introduced to Bebe Hall, a classic party girl with a traumatic past as her friend, Posy, died potentially due to a drug overdose but we don’t know. One night after coming home she witnesses her neighbouring have sex with a girl against the window and gets herself off watching them.
The man is Miles, an agoraphobic with OCD from his past and he uses the women he has sex with for his photography but he has a rule about only seeing them once. Bebe watching him sparks a game between them where they dare each other do things like watch each other have sex with other people and send pics but this is escalating. Bebe sees Miles as hers and wants to be with him but he won’t let her because of his issues. Both are really fucked up in their own way and I can’t wait to see what happens when they finally get together, no doubt it will be explosive.
As Miles and Bebe develop a bond between them, we can see their differing mindsets. Bebe desperately wants to love people but she is afraid of being hurting them, while Miles doesn’t want to get attached to people because they hurt him. From the outside this doesn’t look like a good relationship but it seems to be working as when Bebe is out of it on drugs, Miles comes running to her rescue into the nightclub which is a massive thing for someone who doesn’t leave his apartment. Bebe also brings out the best parts of Miles and now he has been close to her, he wants to change for her so he can be with her properly and it seems to give Miles the drive he didn’t have before. Even when his therapist comes to check up on him because he never deviates from his routine, she knows that this girl whoever she is, is good for Miles and she can already see the changes in him.
Bebe really appreciates what Miles did for her that night but she has some issues of her own that need to be dealt with. Firstly, the lingering guilt and hatred she has towards Posy for getting her into this party lifestyle and then dying but also the lingering self-image and self-confidence issues that are very apparent. We see both Miles and Bebe go through some horrific moments from Bebe almost overdosing, to Miles’ backdowns and panic attacks but they aren’t the only ones as Arden, Bebe’s best friend suffers with an eating disorder that leaves her hospitalised at one point. Together they support each other through their issues, Bebe helps Miles clean out his trash room and turn it into something positive, Miles satisfies Bebe’s desire to hurt and suffer in a way that doesn’t actually hurt her and both support Arden on her journey to recovery. The hospital scene where Bebe is reunited with her parents and learns that they never blamed her for anything and wanted to be there for her but she made it clear she didn’t want her so they gave her space. While it doesn’t fix them it does put them on the road to recovery even though there are going to be issues along the way.
The ending where we get to see Bebe better than ever and her supporting Miles as he attends one of his exhibitions for the first time and speaks publicly was amazing. Seeing Mile’s pride in showing off his work especially the picture of himself and Bebe almost brought me to tears especially when Miles proposed at the end. Overall, Peep Show was a really interesting read and tackled some serious topic like anxiety disorders, eating disorders, OCD, trauma and much more but it also retained that smutty goodness that I love in these kinds of books. While normally, I am not a fan of slow burn romances, the eventual smut between Bebe and Miles was worth waiting for over half of the book for and I will definitely be checking more of Starling’s work out in the future.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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