Author: Penny Reid
Length: 390 pgs.
I picked this book up as a freebie after seeing it all over Goodreads getting rave reviews. The price dropped to zero, and you can’t beat that, so I downloaded a copy to my kindle and read it as a BOTM with my favorite Freebie group. No one is more surprised than I am at how much I loved this book! I am honestly not one to enjoy contemporary romances. I went through a definite chick-lit phase when I was younger and I loved authors like Marian Keyes, Jennifer Weiner and Jane Green. Since then I’ve moved on to different genres, and I usually pass by modern romance when I’m looking for my next book. I’m not a fan of insta-love, I hate when there’s a “big misunderstanding” between the two main characters and they somehow never talk to each other to clear it up, and I just have a hard time connecting with the characters in this genre.
I was excited to discover that that was not the case for me here. I immediately fell in like with the female main character Jessica James, when she shows up to a Halloween party dressed up as a sexy Gandalf. Yes, sexy Gandalf, complete with beard and the you-shall-not-pass stick and errthang! Her internal monologue cracked me up right away.
”I was halfway across the lot, lost in delighted mental preparation for my father and brother’s scowls of disapproval…
A sinister giggle escaped my lips. I’m not much of a giggler unless I’ve done something sinister.”
Jessica immediately notices her longtime crush, Beau Winston, at the party-but the twist is that after an unexpected, steamy make-out session, she finds out that it isn’t Beau after all. It’s his twin Duane – and she and Duane have never gotten along. Jessica then becomes very confused, because the make-out slash fondling session is causing her to second guess her lifelong feelings in a way she’s not comfortable with at all.
”It was all Duane’s fault. His words and lips, and hands, and eyes, and his penis’ fault.”
I truly enjoyed the camaraderie between Jessica and Duane. Duane’s status as the not-as-nice-as-Beau twin makes him way more enjoyable a character in my opinion. I liked how he tried to put on an unaffected face but couldn’t help the way that his feelings for Jessica make him completely vulnerable. Despite my previous disinclinations towards this genre, I fell fast and hard for Duane Winston (right alongside Jessica James).
I laughed out loud throughout this entire book, and I cried several times as well. The writing prompts some real emotion which is apparently the magic appeal of Penny Reid. She doesn’t just give us two relatable characters to root for, but also three dimensional family members and friends as well whose personalities and banter add to the richness of the story.
And those steamy scenes! Wowza. Those were pull-at-your-shirt-collar-and-fan-your-face hot. Made all the better because these are two people you really, really like.
I could take or leave the extra storyline involving the Winston bros. and the Wraiths, a motorcycle gang, but it served its purpose towards the end of the book so I didn’t really mind it and I appreciated that it was quickly wrapped up. And I loved that a different complication-something that could have warped into the “big misunderstanding”-was quickly squashed by Jessica because she’s, well, a smart girl with a brain and she knows better than that. And I feel like Reid gives us credit as readers as well, for not indulging that as a serious issue.
So I’m officially a Penny Reid convert and can’t wait to read the next book in the series!
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