I have loved Emma Barry’s writing since I first read the Fly Me to the Moon series she wrote with Genevieve Turner starting back in 2015. I just vibe with her writing. All of her characters are complex, fabulously messy and complicated, but her female characters have tended to be a little more emotionally mature than their love interest. With Bold Moves she has given us Scarlett, who is unapologetically and strategically difficult. I love Scarlett so much. So. Much! And so does Jaime, but before he can be with her, he needs to dig his hole so deep that he finally realizes that he is the source of his own problems. This second chance romance is so good we get a third chance romance too.
The first thing we learn about Scarlett is that the doorman at her building thinks she’s, “one of those femme fatales.” Scarlett grew up poor, moving around a lot with a mother who was more focused on herself than Scarlett. Chess became Scarlett’s way out and she is mad about it. She is mad that she has to be extraordinary just to get a foot in the door and even then, the chess elite don’t want her to succeed. Scarlett has made herself into a legendary wrecking ball and very few people see that her chaos is actually strategically aimed at destroying the systems that keep people out. She wrote a bestselling book about her life in chess, which has not endeared her to the people in power.
Jamie Croft is one of the rare people who see her. They were in a complicated situationship in high school, made messier when Scarlett turned Jamie’s father in for, essentially, dealing opioids. After holding his family together, he made a docuseries exploring the opioid crisis in Appalachia, and his father’s role in it. Now he wants to adapt Scarlett’s memoir. She agrees with conditions, conditions that force them to work together closely. Jamie thinks he’s so mature and in control now. He gets his ass handed to him and watching him realize he did it to himself was chef’s kiss.
All the things that drew them together as teen flare to life in a messy and passionate glory. It was such a joy to read, I loved the ways they came together and drove each other away. They work through a lot of their messy past and learn each other as adults. As with many romance main characters, Scarlett and Jamie have to figure out how to get out of their own way. Sometimes this can be frustrating, but here I delighted every time they made their own lives harder. Both of them, but especially Jaime, kept digging holes to avoid confronting themselves. And good for them, because they hit the bottom and realized that the good isn’t in being flawless and limitless, the good is in being flawed and limited together.
Scarlett, in true Emma Barry fashion, is still a touch more together than Jaime, even though she’s an agent of chaos. I really loved Bold Moves.
I received this as an advance reader copy from Montlake and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.