Please note that this review contains spoilers! 

After reading about Lily, Dahlia’s twin, in the first three books of the Gilded Flower Series, I was always curious as to who Dahlia was and what she had been through. There are small glimpses and allusions to something that happened in her past but as the reader, you never really know what happened to her. Well in the first installment of Dahlia’s story, Blue Dahlia, you get exactly that. Dahlia is living life and loving Rodrigo, her sexy Latin man, and starting to plan a life with him, to establish a future and move to Miami. Dahlia is all in, or so she thinks, and has just one loose end to tie up. She heads to sunny California where she meets with her past, a haunting past in the form of one sexy surfer boy named Shane. We come to find out that Dahlia and Shane shared a life together, a blissful few years in which the beautiful artist and sexy surfer lived, loved and planned to start a long and happy life together. But tragedy struck and Dahlia ran away, leaving a confused and heart broken Shane. She left her family to clean up the mess and determined to move on in her life. Yet revisiting her old life and seeing Shane again opens old wounds but brings a deeper love of life and understanding than she has been able to find in years. As they rehash the past and tentatively step into the future, we see a couple so in love and lust that they cannot help but be together forever.

This book was a surprise to me. I was not expecting this turn of events in the story. In the previous stories from the Gilded Flower series, Dahlia and Rodrigo are so in love and lust that I could not see them anywhere but together. Yet as she interacts with Shane and begins to heal from past wounds, I firmly believe that her place is with him till the end. Her character was so much more vibrant and alive with Shane. Their connection was deep and their lust was off the charts. It made me happy that this couple was able to have their happily ever after and I hope it stays that way! Vivian has a knack for throwing curves balls at you so I am a little hesitant at the moment but I am excited to see how life unfolds for Dahlia and Shane, and what is in store for Rodrigo, sweet lonely man.

This book is short, sweet and sexy. I feel like Dahlia may be my favorite twin, even though she annoyed me in Lily’s trilogy. Ha! I am interested to see more of who she is and what her life has in store for her. I am ready for the next two books in Dahlia’s story!