Treasure Review (Rebekah Weatherspoon)

Updated on October 9, 2026

Verdict: A sweet, sexy new-adult novella about two young Black women, a shy college freshman and the stripper she cannot stop thinking about, with warm sex-positive representation and explicit heat, held back by a length that leaves most readers wanting more and writing that a minority finds choppy.

Best for: Readers who want a short, low-drama sapphic romance with Black leads, positive sex-work representation and open-door heat, and who are happy with a novella’s worth of story.

Heat level: ★★★★☆ (4/5 — romance.io: explicit open door)

Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.5/5 — a 3.60 Goodreads average across 1,457 ratings, with “too short” the complaint even its fans make)

Tropes: New adult, college romance, opposites attract, shy heroine, butch/femme, sex worker heroine, class difference, family disapproval, dual POV, novella.

Treasure is a standalone contemporary sapphic romance novella by Rebekah Weatherspoon, published by Bold Strokes Books in October 2014, in which Alexis Chambers, an eighteen-year-old college freshman coming off the worst year of her life, finds herself in the same class as Trisha Hamilton, the dancer who performed at her sister’s bachelorette party, and neither of them can quite pretend that night did not happen.

It is a modest book that has found a loyal readership. Goodreads shows a 3.60 average across 1,457 ratings, with a third of them at three stars, and Amazon carries 4.1 stars from 350 ratings. The reviews are warmer than the average suggests: nearly every reader likes the couple, and the most common complaint is not that the book is bad but that it ends too soon. Both halves of that are worth understanding before you start.

What Is Treasure About?

This is new-adult college romance in its shortest form: a novella of about 100 pages, told from both women’s points of view, set around a California campus and the club where Trisha works. The format shapes everything. There is room for one relationship, one family conflict and a handful of scenes, and Weatherspoon spends most of that room on how the two women talk to each other. At least two readers single out the communication as unusually mature for characters this young.

Alexis is the shy one: a once-popular athlete and violinist who has become a loner, an out lesbian whose family, and her father in particular, has not accepted her, and a survivor of a suicide attempt who is starting college carefully. Trisha is the confident one, a stripper who has saved and studied her way to a four-year university and has no time for anything that is not school or work, until the nervous young woman from the bachelorette party turns up in her class. romance.io’s readers tag them as a shy, virgin heroine and a competent, working-class one, and the book draws a gentle butch/femme line between them.

What Makes This New-Adult Sapphic Romance Work

The couple: Sweetness is the most common note. Fifteen of the 30 most-read Goodreads reviews call the book or the pair sweet, cute or tender, and almost no reader dislikes either heroine.
Black sapphic love on the page: Eleven of those 30 reviews talk about representation, and at least two readers picked it up specifically for a romance between two young Black women.
Sex-work representation: Readers praise Trisha’s job as written without shame or tragedy, and both of the three-star reviews that discuss it credit the book’s positive portrayal of sex work.
Communication: One reader calls the maturity of the dialogue a breath of fresh air for characters in their late teens and says the angst never becomes annoying; another praises the real, beautiful communication.
The heat: Sixteen of the 30 reviews mention it, and readers who do say the scenes are well written and grow out of the relationship rather than interrupting it.

Book Synopsis

Alexis Chambers has had a terrible year. The popular athlete and violinist she used to be has become a loner, and she has come out to a family that has not taken it well. Her sister’s bachelorette party is the one bright spot on her calendar, and even that becomes awkward when the group ends the night at a strip club and Alexis spends it trying not to stare at the dancer who calls herself Treasure.

Trisha Hamilton, the woman behind the stage name, has worked hard to get where she is. She has finally saved enough and earned enough credits to transfer to a four-year university, and between classes, studying and shifts at the club she has no time for a social life. Then the shy young woman from the bachelorette party walks into one of her classes, and Trisha finds that she would like to make the time.

What follows is a cautious, funny, increasingly heated courtship between two women at very different points in their lives: one still learning who she is allowed to be, the other entirely sure of herself and of her work. The question the book sets up is whether Alexis can trust herself enough to want something openly, and whether the people around her, her family above all, will let her keep it.

My Review

The couple is the best thing here, and readers agree almost without exception. Weatherspoon writes two young women who talk to each other honestly, admit what they want and treat each other with care, which is rarer in new-adult romance than it should be. Even the reviewers who rate it three stars or lower say they liked both heroines.

The second strength is what the book chooses to normalise. Trisha’s job is treated as a job, not a wound or a secret, and readers who mention it are grateful for that. Alexis’s mental health history is handled with the same matter-of-factness: present, taken seriously, but not the whole of who she is. For a 2014 novella, that combination of Black leads, a sex worker heroine and a neurodivergent survivor heroine, all written without tragedy, is the reason it keeps being recommended.

Where it struggles is consistent enough to call the main complaint rather than a personal gripe, and it comes from fans as much as critics: the book is too short. Sixteen of the 30 most-read reviews talk about its length, and several five-star reviews still end by wishing for more pages. That shortness has costs beyond appetite. One reader who rated it two and a half stars found the writing choppy and felt the book tried to fit too many things into a short story, and the family conflict in particular has little space to develop. A smaller note comes from one three-star reader who liked the relationship but flags several acephobic and ableist comments in the text.

The expectation to reset is the format. This is a novella, and at least one reader who expected a full Weatherspoon novel says so. If you want a complete romance in an evening, that is a feature. If you want a slow, layered college romance, calibrate: the relationship moves quickly because it has to.

It is also worth knowing that the book’s warmth is the point. There is conflict, mostly with Alexis’s family, but one reader notes the angst is never overused, and the happy ending is never really in doubt.

My honest note: A four-star couple in a three-star length, carried by tenderness, heat and representation that still feels rare. If you want a sweet, sexy sapphic novella with Black leads, it is easy to recommend; if you want depth, you will finish wishing there were twice as many pages.

Element	In Treasure
Central relationship	Alexis Chambers & Trisha “Treasure” Hamilton — a shy eighteen-year-old college freshman and the confident dancer from her sister’s bachelorette party
Core tropes	New adult, college romance, opposites attract, shy heroine, sex worker heroine, butch/femme, family disapproval
Setting	A California university campus and the strip club where Trisha works
Heat level	4/5 — romance.io: explicit open door
Series	Standalone novella — complete, with a happy ending
Content notes	Explicit sexual content, past suicide attempt and self-harm, family rejection over sexuality, a few acephobic and ableist remarks flagged by one reader

How Spicy Is Treasure?

A 4 out of 5. romance.io places it in its “explicit open door” band, from 20 reader ratings, and the Goodreads reviews agree: heat comes up in 16 of the 30 most-read reviews, and readers who mention it describe the scenes as sexy and well written. For a book this short, a fair share of the page count goes to them.

The element worth knowing in advance is the inexperience. romance.io’s readers tag Alexis as a virgin heroine, and the scenes are as much about her discovering what she wants as about heat for its own sake, with Trisha the more experienced partner. No reviewer flags a consent problem. For comparisons at the same band, Outdrawn is another explicit, open-door romance that romance.io lists as similar, and The Clinch runs a little hotter.

Who Should Read This Book?

You’ll likely love it if: you want a sweet romance between two young Black women, you value positive sex-work representation, you like explicit heat in a short read, and low angst suits you.

You may want to skip it if: you want a full-length romance with room to breathe, you are sensitive to a past suicide attempt in a heroine’s backstory, choppy prose pulls you out of a story, or you want an older couple.

In short: a warm, sexy, important little novella, at the cost of the depth a longer book would have had.

What Readers Are Actually Saying (October 2026)

Treasure is a backlist book that keeps being rediscovered rather than a current release. It came out in October 2014 and has built to 1,457 Goodreads ratings and 315 written reviews as of October 2026, and at least one of the most-read reviews found it through a reading challenge built around Black authors. I could not check Reddit or TikTok for this one, and Amazon’s editorial block carries no trade reviews. The book got a second life in audio: Bold Strokes released an unabridged edition narrated by Keira Grace in July 2023, running 3 hours 39 minutes, which makes it a single-afternoon listen.

Why readers love it (according to the discourse): The couple, above everything. “Sweet” is the recurring word, and it appears at every star level. The second theme is representation, both of two Black women in love and of sex work without shame, which at least two reviewers name as the reason they sought the book out. The third is the heat, which readers find both sexy and tender. A smaller but telling thread is the dialogue: one reader singles out how maturely these very young characters communicate.

What readers argue about and complain about: First, the length, above everything. It is the complaint fans make most, and it comes in two forms: fans who simply wanted more pages, and at least one critic who thinks the novella format squeezed out depth. Second, the writing, which one two-and-a-half-star reader calls choppy and overloaded for a story this short. Third, and from a single reader, a handful of acephobic and ableist comments that sit awkwardly beside the book’s otherwise inclusive instincts. There is no real split over the heroines themselves; readers who rate it low still like them.

The standalone question worth asking first: Treasure is a complete standalone with a happy ending and no required reading. Weatherspoon has written widely since, most of it male/female romance, so if you want more in this exact register, our sapphic college romance list is a better next step than her backlist.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Treasure by Rebekah Weatherspoon a standalone?

Yes. It is a complete standalone novella with a happy ending, and you do not need to read anything else first.

How spicy is Treasure?

A 4 out of 5. romance.io places it in its “explicit open door” band, and Goodreads reviewers describe the scenes as sexy and well written.

How long is Treasure?

It is a novella of about 100 pages, and the audiobook runs 3 hours 39 minutes. “Too short” is the most common complaint, even from readers who loved it.

How old are the characters in Treasure?

Alexis is eighteen and a college freshman, and Trisha is a few years older and transferring to a four-year university. It is a new-adult romance.

Are there content warnings for Treasure?

Yes. Alexis is a survivor of a suicide attempt, and romance.io’s readers flag suicide and ideation. The book also deals with family rejection over her sexuality.

If You Loved Treasure, Read These Next

For more explicit, open-door sapphic romance that romance.io’s readers pair with this one, try Outdrawn. For a hotter, sports-world pairing, go to The Clinch. For another young Black lesbian heroine working out who she wants to be, Honey Girl is the natural next read. For more like this, browse our sapphic college romance list and the rest of our book reviews.

The Bottom Line

Treasure sets out to tell a short, sweet, sexy love story between a shy freshman and a confident dancer, and it does. The couple is lovely, the representation of Black queer women and of sex work is warm and unashamed, and the heat is well handled. The length leaves readers wanting more, the writing is uneven in places, and the family conflict has little room. If you want a tender, explicit sapphic novella you can finish in an evening, it is well worth it. Check Treasure on Amazon →

The Eikna Overall Ranking

On the Eikna scale, Treasure ranks as a warm backlist sapphic new-adult novella — sweet, sexy and quietly groundbreaking in who it centres, held back by its length, and best approached as an evening read rather than as a full college romance.