Tropes: Enemies-to-Lovers, Coworkers to Lovers, Sibling's Ex-Girlfriend

Can you even call it a miscommunication story when

the communication is SO intentional? Andrew, Max's brother, texts him and thanks him for convincing him not to marry Lina, and it turns out that Max never actually did such a thing? And Andrew lets his younger brother believe this for years? What a garbage man.

Don't go into this book expecting a slow-burn romance. That's what I was told and it's definitely not true. They're clearly into each other (and are pretty expressive of their mutual attraction) pretty early on. It doesn't even feel like a spoiler to say

they hook up by the halfway point of the book

(but I'll tag the spoiler just in case).

This book has supporting characters that feel fully thought out with great personalities, shenanigans galore, and it doesn't feel like heterosexual nonsense like so many straight romances are [To clarify: there's PLENTY of nonsense, it's just not because they're straight lmao].

This book was really annoying.

It was such a simple concept! Girl who runs a sex positive podcast is asked to do some work on accessible rope play. Girl finds guy. Sexy feelings ensue. And those things absolutely did happen! But unfortunately the writing just fell flat for me. Frankie's whole personality seemed to be her wheelchair + her pink hair? And Jay's interest in her seemed to be more about how colorful she is than anything else.

Also, as every romance book has their moment toward the end where the couple breaks up because of something stupid, this one is no different....but it felt even dumber than usual? Under the spoiler is going to be the ENTIRE thing:

For some reason Jay is surrounded by podcasters and the first woman who got him interested in kink runs a podcast and has an episode about her "First fuck boy" and it ended up being all about him. This dude was apparently planning to propose? And she was like "ah no you will ALWAYS be a fuck boy" and was cheating on him because she never took him seriously. Which feels super flawed in itself. Like...he was super loyal to this woman and yet her whole thing was that he's a fuck boy? I think the author of this book and I have different definitions of that term.

So Jay's upset and he dumps Frankie because "she's right that's all I'll ever be" and that's just....it. Because this podcast woman saw him and reminded him. Then like the next day he was like "wait that's dumb" and fixes it? WILDLY BORING.

Add onto this the fact that these two characters are the LEAST annoying in the book. Frankie and Jay both have obnoxious friends that spend most of their time complaining about people of the opposite gender. There's an inaccurate definition of introversion. I had to set the book down a few times out of secondhand embarrassment and not in a this-is-great-writing sort of way.

Two stars because there are definitely some charming moments, but I will not be reading beyond this book.

I really loved the way that Alexis Hall made sure to validate Rosaline's queerness even with a love triangle that involves two men. Also,

Alain is an absolute garbage man and the entire threesome scene was super upsetting

but I do think that it was written and handled well.

Okay so I didn't even realize this was a Pride & Prejudice retelling (or inspired by it? Idk) and that was perfectly fine. You do not need to know the story that inspired this to love the characters because let me tell you right now: I WOULD DIE FOR DARCY AND ELLE.

Bellefleur does such an incredible job of telling the story of two women who are SO unsure of one another and themselves, two lives that doesn't seem to line up one bit based on their personal goals and lifestyles, and somehow make them a seamless pair.

And look, every romcom falls into the miscommunication trope near the end, it's basically impossible to avoid, but I do think the way it happens in this book keeps it from feeling stale and overdone since it channels into both of their personal fears regarding vulnerability in relationships.

This book was enough for me to know that I will be reading everything this author writes.

Tropes: Grumpy/Sunshine, Fake Dating, Enemies(???)-to-Lovers, Guaranteed HEA

Will likely come back to this at some point. Just not in the mood for this style of book and have other things I care about more.