Review: Sweet Thing by Renee Carlino

“You have to teach your heart and mind how to sing together... then you'll hear the sound of your soul” 
― Renée Carlino, Sweet Thing

Sweet Thing is a story following Mia Kelly, a 27 year old who grew up with her Mother and step Father in Ann Arbor, occasionally seeing her musical Father in New York. When her Father passes away from a heart attack, Mia travels to New York to pick up the pieces of his life. Despite amazing schooling in business, Mia has always been attached to music, despite believing it leads you no where and would rather it just be a hobby.
On her plane ride over to New York she meets Will Ryan, and is immediately attracted to him, but her brain only sees the guitar and "starving artist" persona. In her search for a roomate in her fathers apartment Will asks if he could be it. She agrees, and it all seems to spiral out of control. Constantly being flirty with Will yet dating the hot shot banker divorcee. After breaking it off with him, she holds back from telling Will until she finds out he's dating someone.
All their friends are trying to get them together, and after their best friends get married, Mia walks in on Will's girlfriend and one of his friends together. After that things start to heat up between Mia and Will, but with a potential music career for Will, Mia is afraid to commit just to be left behind.
While Will is in LA working things out with his new manager and opening for some pop princess, Mia's dog Jackson dies :(
Will comes back to New York the second he finds out, and they end up sleeping together. They both travel to LA for Will to sign or not sign his recording contract. Spoiler alert, he doesn't sign it. When he comes back to the Hotel to meet up with Mia she's curious as to what happened but he just keeps talking about marriage and Babies.....Mia freaks out, and then finds out he didn't sign the contract. Seeing her Mothers life flashing before he eyes, they break things off after a terrible fight. Mia falls apart, losing her Father, Dog, and boyfriend/bestfriends (as well as most of her friends) has damaged her severely. She stops eating, starts drinking, and is sleeping all day, her friends finally stage a sort of intervention.
Now with her life back on track (sort of) she continues her attempts at contacted Will, but he is determined to stay away from her.
After accepting that life does go on, Mia gets closure by scattering both her Father's and Jackson's ashes, she starts playing music again, little does she know that this is what Will and her friends have been waiting for. She needed to find herself and accept the life she has now. And most importantly - to be Happy with this life. When Will is told that she is moving forward and after receiving recordings of her music, he comes back to her.
Now back together, she realizes that's all he's been waiting for, as he shows her their new home and a recording studio for them to use, as well as the diamond rings he has for her.

I'm disappointed to say that I did not enjoy this book as much as I had hoped. It had so much potential, the cover was beautiful, and it seemed like my kind of book. But truthfully I found Mia's character kind of irritating and selfish. I realize she was going through a lot, but she just needed to get her head out of her ass and realize that he loved her, and she loved him, and that's all that matters.

Thanks for reading!