Sips & Strokes (Unlikely Pairings Book 1)

Product Information

While in the hospital after a stroke, you are screened to determine your ability to swallow safely. If you have a problem with swallowing safely, you may not be allowed to eat until a speech-language pathologist evaluates how well:

Aspiration is a common problem for people with dysphagia. It occurs when something you’ve swallowed enters the airway and lungs. Normally, aspiration causes a violent cough, but a stroke can reduce sensation. In this case, you may not know you’re aspirating (silent aspiration).We will also have virtual classes on our calendar coming soon, which will allow you to paint at home while still interacting with like-minded people! We will continue to offer paint kits for you to gather at home since many of you have told us how much you enjoy that option. Adequate nutrition is essential. So if it’s not safe for you to swallow, a feeding tube may be suggested to help meet your nutritional needs. Treatment Plans

Lily Maldonado is an art teacher with overbearing parents who are far too preoccupied with appearance than with reality. They want Lily to attend the pre-marital celebrations for her middle school bully and the man who broke her heart, all because it would 'look good.' Loathe to disobey (for fear of dealing with more parental wrath), she agrees. She also manages to set herself up with the model from the art class she teaches, Calder Ross. Calder needs to look like he's 'settled down' for his dream job, Lily needs to have a date to try and stave off the absolute shame and frustration of the wedding celebrations. That being said, prepare yourselves for kilt porn, whiskey-drinking (that sort of makes me want to give whiskey another shot), naked figure drawing, and a shy heroine trying to find her inner sex vixen. What's not to love about that? Firstly, i was a bit weary of getting into Lily's character because she's almost thirty years old and let's her parents guilt trip her into doing something that would make her uncomfortable and bring about traumatic memories. But i did warm up to her character eventually. It’s time to bring out the fake relationship trope. Calder would be the perfect guy to help Lily get through all the awkward wedding events and Lily is the perfect woman to revamp Calder’s image.

Creative sip and painting session with a twist... Unleash your creativity, cocktail in one hand, paintbrush in the other, Hip Hop + R&B in the loudspeakers.

Like magic, we have a fake dating situation. They agree to be each other's plus one and make it look convincing. Except it doesn't stay a fake situation for long.

I absolutely fell for Calder Ross... hook, line, and sinker. As far as I'm concerned, this Scottish bootylicious bro might just be the perfect man! *Sigh* 💕 I've always wondered about romance novel cover models, so it was an absolute delight to get a sneak peek inside the lifestyle. Sips and Strokes is a very sweet, fake dating romance that follows college art teacher, Lily, and Scottish model, Calder. They both find themselves in a social events predicament and come to an agreement that they will help each through it, by faking a relationship. Calder, i was incredibly happy with from the start. He was sweet, caring and determined - and his compliments and praises towards Lily was admirable. I didn’t get why the characters liked each other. Apart from finding the other hot and appreciating the other's talents, there didn't seem to be much depth. This is totally fine if you're into the surface level stuff, but I need more substance to a relationship to win me over in a romance novel.

Reviews

Lily’s one saving grace is her love of art. Lily teaches a figure drawing class and meets her new model- Calder Ross. An oh so SEXY Scottish model who is on the cover of every romance book and a major influencer on the ‘gram. Calder wants to change his image and be the face of Sonce Whisky. This is a dream job for him, the only catch is that they want more someone with a more wholesome image to represent their brand. This book made my heart flutter from the goosebump-worthy meet-cute to the swoony happy ending. They learned from each other, overcame fears and vanquished a couple of demons on the road to falling deeply in love. It’s no secret how much I’ve always loved Sarah’s and Skye’s books, so I knew this was going to be absolutely wonderful, and believe me it went above and beyond my expectations. Lily and Calder’s story was deep as it was super fun, it has everything: the laughs, the sweetness, the flirting, the tease and —goodness gracious— all the steam and the heart warming moments. The complications they had were based on misunderstandings that wouldn’t have happened if they communicated properly in the moment (poor communication as a complication in a narrative featuring mid20/mid30-somethings just doesn’t cut it for me - grow up and talk to each other). The speech-language pathologist develops a treatment plan to meet your specific needs, which includes exercises to improve coordination of muscle movements in the mouth and throat. To help compensate for lost function, the plan may also call for you to: