Author: Laura Hankin
Year published: 2024
Category: Adult fiction (romance)
Pages: 304 pages
Rating: 4 out of 5
Location: (my 2024 Google Reading map): USA (NY, CA, AZ)
Summary: Natalie and Rob couldn’t have less in common. Nat’s a messy artist, and Rob’s a rigid academic. The only thing they share is their devotion to their respective best friends—who just got engaged. Still, unexpected chemistry has Natalie cautiously optimistic about being maid of honor to Rob’s best man.
Until, minutes before the ceremony, Nat learns that Rob wrote a one-star review of her new novel, which has them both reeling: Nat from imposter syndrome, and Rob over the reason he needed to write it.
When the reception ends, these two opposites hope they’ll never meet again. But, as they slip from their twenties into their thirties, they’re forced together whenever their fast-track best friends celebrate another milestone. Through housewarmings and christenings, life-changing triumphs and failures, Natalie and Rob grapple with their own choices—and how your harshest critic can become your perfectly imperfect match.
After all, even the truest love stories sometimes need a bit of rewriting.
Review: Enemies to lovers? Of course. And you know that I am all for it. Bring on the romance trope, give me a happy ending, and I am all in.
This novel has less than a 4 average on Goodreads and I can see why. Not a ton happens until the second half (that is fairly common these days, it seems) when the book really picks up. Natalie is a character many can identify with. Her life just doesn't seem to be going anywhere as her friends get real jobs, meet their life partners, have children, etc. She feels pressured to be "successful" in love and work but it isn't happening. Life isn't bad, just stalled. And through it all is Rob. Rob is seemingly successful, but the reader knows he isn't really happy.
I did like Natalie and Rob's encounters. I could feel the sexual/romantic tension, knew they would end up together and looked forward to seeing how that would play out. Their best friends are good characters as well, showing plutonic/friend love in a wonderful way. And the twist near the end totally got me! Thank goodness romances always have happy endings.
Challenges for which this counts:
- Bookish Books--the main characters is a struggling author writing novels and TV shows
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