I’ve discovered that I have a sweet spot for a very specific plot: an uptight, super smart/educated guy gets just swept away by a joyfully enthusiastic not-so-bright sweetheart.
Beckett is an uptight very smart and highly educated professor who went through a hell of a breakup and is still quite tender. Zane is a wrecking ball of good cheer and optimism, a golden retriever of a guy who likely has a learning disability on top of just not being that smart, you know? He’s certainly heard it enough in his life. But he has a lot of gifts, and a lot to recommend him, if only one cares to look.
Zane, a Kiwi traveling on a visa, finds himself unexpectedly homeless and through a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend, he ends up staying with Beckett. Zane is delighted by the situation, by Beckett, and by his certainty that they are destined to be best friends. And he just wins Beckett over. I won’t spoil anymore other than to say one of the reasons I love slow burn is getting to see the characters realize that they really LIKE each other. These guys really, really like each other. Watching that evolution into falling for each other, and that delicious tension and buildup to finally getting together…it’s so good.