Truth and Measure: The Carlisle Series, Book 1

4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars | 1,457 ratings

Price: 21.49

Last update: 02-01-2025


About this item

What happens when the world's fiercest fashion editor learns she's pregnant—and her distracting assistant is the only one she can turn to? This wildly popular age-gap lesbian romance mixes humor and chaos with self-discovery.

Jules Moretti is newly single, an aspiring writer, and the hyper-competent assistant to the most powerful woman in fashion. It's a tough job, but her ice queen boss won't settle for less than perfection.

Vivian Carlisle helms the internationally revered fashion publication Du Jour. She might be smack in the middle of a messy divorce, but you have to make sacrifices to be the best. That's what she tells herself, anyway.

When the unthinkable happens, Vivian's regimented world is turned upside-down. Her life is about power, success, and dominance—not a baby!

This single, shocking moment throws boss and assistant together into an intimacy neither could have imagined. With their lives in chaos, every day brings a new challenge bigger than the last. But everything will work out . . . just so long as they don't do anything totally ridiculous.

Like fall in love.

Contains mature themes.


Top reviews from the United States

  • Judith Rodda
    5.0 out of 5 stars A must read.
    Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2023
    This book took my breath away. I loved Vivian from the beginning. The epitome of ice queen was maddening and charming. This straight woman, who insisted she was never attracted to women, met her match. Jules's persistence is endearing and refreshing. She slowly chips away at that ice and refuses to give up.
    The banter between the two is hilarious at times and had me laughing out loud. I can still hear the conversation in my head when Vivian tries to explain to Jules how she wants companionship from Jules without the sex...say what? Even Jules is dumb struck. Not attracted to Jules, yeah, right.
    The author has done a fantastic job of character development. Even the secondary characters are well thought out and play important parts in the plot without being too distracting. The dialogue is witty and thought provoking. Even though the story is told from Jules's point of view, you get a true sense of Vivian's side from the dialogue. The author definitely knows how to do dialogue. The background on the fashion industry seems well researched. There is some reference to the movie "The Devil Wears Prada" as a basis for the characters, I never saw the movie so I cannot attest to that. The author has written an excellent book and I have already downloaded book 2.
  • Kindle Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Perfection
    Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2025
    I read this every week. It's that great. I absolutely love the relationship between the 2 MC's. This is my favourite series.
  • tera rudloff
    4.0 out of 5 stars Takes a bit to get there
    Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2023
    For the most part, I loved the characters. More than halfway through the book and they still had not acted on their feelings. A bit slow and I wish Vivian would’ve let her guard down more than in the bedroom and the few times outside of it.
  • Sydney
    5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Ice Queen story
    Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2024
    Oh, this was as good a story the second time as it was the first. It is one of the best ice queen romances I've read. Jules and Vivian are pure dynamite and hard not to love. Mostly. I mean, Vivian is the epitome of an ice queen. She is cold, above it all, ambitious, aloof, and sometimes cruel...but we love her for it at the same time we want to see her melt and soften.

    This is a slowburn romance. Which with an ice queen character seems extra important. Can't truly melt an ice queen quickly. They must be thawed and warmed slowly over time. And it was wonderful to see the little ways that Vivian softened around Jules. It was also fun walking with Jules while her feelings transitioned from scared/intimidated to lustful and pining. Oh, the pining and angst was beautifully done as well. It was also cool to see at least an attempt at an approximation of a queer platonic partnerships (QPP) done. Jules did kind of push the boundaries of the platonic part even from the get go, but there was obvious lusting on Vivian's part so it doesn't feel coercive or icky. It would have been nice to see a QPP actually develop and then evolve into a more romantic partnership though.

    Unlike many ice queen stories, Vivian does not actively push Jules away at all. So, there is no third act breakup. There is of course lots of drama, and in fact we are left in a bit of a cliffhanger situation at the end of the book. Thankfully the second book is out and easily acquired. We leave the couple not even really in a HFN situation. It is very much in the midst of flux. But it does all get resolved in the sequel.
  • ga9
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous
    Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2022
    I've never seen The Devil Wears Prada and therefore never got to read this as a fanfic, but wow is Sinclair a great author. I would have hung around for years to read installments of this book and am so happy that I got to read both all in one go. I think the only draw back to the book is knowing that Vivian is supposed to be Meryl Streep, which made it a bit hard for me to picture her doing a lot of these things. However, it didn't stop me from reading both books more than once and eventually letting that piece of knowledge go, instead focusing on just the characterization. The storyline is believable and works well. It holds my interest (enough to read it multiple times) and the sex is hot if a little hard to believe at times (there's a lot of orgasming without being touched). It's also my favorite style of slow burn romance. The secondary characters are actual characters which is something frequently overlooked in these types of stories. Is this a story that will change your perspective on life and broaden your horizons? Nope. I don't read lesfic for that. This is just an all around fantastic love story.
  • orchidblue
    5.0 out of 5 stars From Twists to Turns to Drama to Heat Pt I: Highly Recommend
    Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2023
    I waited until reading both books in the series before commenting:

    Roslyn gives drama, sensual heat, and resolution to a great 2-book series. This first of 2 books provides the setup of all of the context needed to build up suspense, character development, uncertainty, and drama. Roslyn uses book 2 to resolve all of it. I recommend you read them in order vs as a stand-alone. The May-Dec romance (age gap) is tastefully done, esp when handling the perceptions of others.

    Overall, this book series will give you age gap romance, erotic love scenes, twists and turns on how the situations will resolve, thawing of the ice queen, terrific character development, and corporate politics. Roslyn mastered all of these at each stage. Highly recommend.
  • The old one!
    5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect ice queen, age/gap.
    Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2022
    I loved how Jules loved Vivian. I loved how Vivian couldn't come to grips about her feelings for Jules. Everyone was so in awe of Vivian including Jules. The only difference was that Jules knew there was someone more hiding in the ice queen's persona. Oh my, but this book captured me from the first page and never let me have a moment's rest until I finished it. I say "finished" but in reality it's not over yet. ARGGG!!!!! I have to wait for the second book! But wait I will--- albeit very impatiently. Yes, I loved this book. In fact, I loved, loved, loved this book. Very well written and edited. The banter between the two women was fun. The innermost thoughts of Jules were real and added so much to the story. Highly recommend this one.

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