A Selfish Kind of Love (Four Letter Word, Book #3) by Bella Jay: Urban Romane Done Right

A Selfish Kind of Love (Four Letter Word #3) by Bella Jay


Add to Your Goodreads

Buy it on Amazon

When Tessah Jones turned 18, she learned to put her charming ways to use and get whatever she wanted from men. At 21, she was living her best life on someone else’s dime, with someone else’s husband, and had no qualms about it! But when her sponsor wants more than she’s willing to give, she wants out and it lands her in the arms of the last person she’d ever expect or want it to — Kyree.

Kyree Warwick has a high tolerance for a lot of things but women like Tessah weren’t one of them. Their dislike for one another was no secret but when an unfortunate turn of events has him seeing her in a new light —he does the complete opposite of what his gut says and follows his heart down a path neither him nor Tessah thought possible.

As Tessah finds herself caught up in the rapture that is Kyree, she has to come to terms with who she is as the love she was never looking for is put to the test because of her selfish ways. Follow Tessah on her journey as she finds the true meaning of love.

Tessah is a "man-eater." She gets what she wants from men, by any means necessary—and she has no plans to change. Her best friend, Landon is a street pharmacist for the judgemental Kyree Warwick. He's always judging her with those accessing eyes, and his hate, it's reciprocal. They can't stand each other. But when her life's threatened, Kyree steps in to save the day. And because of it, they see each other differently. 

Urban Romance is not among my favorite of genres, mostly because I'm at the point in my life where street life no longer seems exciting. It was always scary but when I was younger; it was less frightful and more thrilling. But, I digress.

Jay does a thing with this Urban Romance where it's less street and more love. While the heroes are drug dealers, that part of their lives was left off the page. She hints at their illegal doings stronger in the beginning, but she walks away from it to focus on romance and character development. And she did well with both.

As most of you know, I am an enemy-to-lovers trope stan. Kyree and Tessah are enemies-to-lovers through and through. Though the change from hate to love is swift—and I will admit I was worried about that, it turned around and slowed down when and where it really mattered.

The author brought about the change from love to hate quickly, but the story doesn't suffer from its quickness. Their love was real, but it maintained this light playfulness that I really appreciated. They worked through conflicts like adults, and it still had a bit of emotion and angst that I enjoy. It's light for those of you who don't like angst or prefer low-angst. 

I enjoyed seeing the characters grow. Character growth is essential when you're dealing with characters that are not normally used to being in a relationship and in love. The dual POV helped with seeing the characters growth process, which for me upped the story's quality.

The secondary characters were not unlike relatives you may or may not know. That's the thing with Black Romance you get the black experience and you feel you know the person or some version of them. That's one thing I'll always enjoy and appreciate black authors for. Again, I digress.

The book is funny, hood romantic, and pretty well put together. It was paced well and all the important parts were spread out and not rushed. Thank goodness for it.

I'm pleased with this read and I really enjoyed the ending. I was worried after reading book two, but this one more than makes up for it. I would recommend it.