This was a freebie, but I would have happily paid for it. Kicked off at a frenetic pace, and never let up.
Brynn is newly divorced and has lost her teaching job – her douchebag ex’s dad is the Dean and she’s now suspiciously redundant. Her besties take her to a party, and to take her mind off a sudden appearance by The Ex, dare her to run into the crowd and kiss the first guy who makes eye contact.
This happens to be Tom, who is quietly weeding his garden bed when accosted by Brynn. One thing leads to a magnificent one night stand in the boathouse (I kept expecting this to be comedically derailed somehow, but it was not). Unfortunately, it was filmed (actually, I read another two books in this series and still don’t know how that happened).
The video immediately goes viral – Tom is Chip-and-Joanna levels of DIY famous – and they fake an engagement until the heat dies down.
The book subverted the formula at every level – Brynn was allowed to own her desire, no slut shaming for the one night stand, and oh, best of all, the end-of-second-act misunderstanding that separates our lovers and results in a big reunion scene… didn’t. Brynn was too smart for any of that shit.
Oh, well played.