Book Review: Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Flirting Lessons
Author: Jasmine Guillory
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: April 8, 2025
Length: 416 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

The exciting new contemporary romance—and her first to feature a queer romance—by New York Times bestselling author Jasmine Guillory

Avery Jensen is almost thirty, fresh off a breakup, and she’s tired of always being so uptight and well-behaved. She wants to get a hobby, date around (especially other women), flirt with everyone she sees, all the fun stuff normal people do in their twenties. One Avery doesn’t know how to do any of that. She doesn’t have a lot of dating experience, with men or women, and despite being self-assured at work, she doesn’t have a lot of confidence when it comes to romance.

Enter Taylor Cameron, Napa Valley’s biggest flirt and champion heartbreaker. Taylor just broke up with her most recent girlfriend, and her best friend bet her that she can’t make it until Labor Day without sleeping with someone. (Two whole months? Without sex? Taylor?!?!) So, she offers to give Avery flirting lessons. It will keep her busy, stop her from texting people she shouldn’t. And it might distract her from how inadequate she feels compared to her friends, who all seem much more settled and adult than Taylor.

At first, Avery is stiff and nervous, but Taylor is patient and encouraging, and soon, Avery looks forward to their weekly lessons. With Taylor’s help, Avery finally has the life she always wanted. The only issue is: now she wants Taylor. Their attraction becomes impossible to ignore, despite them both insisting to themselves and everyone else that it isn’t serious. When Taylor is forced to confront her feelings for Avery, she doesn’t know what to do—and most importantly, if she’s already ruined the best thing she’s ever had.

Mega-popular author Jasmine Guillory returns to Napa Valley, setting of her previous novel, Drunk on Love, for her newest romance. As the blurb tells us, this is the author’s first foray into queer romance, with a love story featuring two women who start as friends and become much more.

Taylor is the woman everyone loves to be around, and she’s dated practically every woman in wine country at one point or another. She’s famous (or infamous) for not doing relationships — everyone knows that she’s great for a fling, but not someone to get serious with.

At an event at the winery where she works, Taylor runs into Avery, the best friend of a former coworker. Avery is gorgeous and a bit reserved. She’s excellent at her event planning business, but comes across as shy and self-conscious in social settings. After a couple of glasses of wine, she admits to Taylor that she’s tired of being seen as reliable and predictable — in other words, boring. She wishes she knew how to to have fun, flirt, and grab onto life.

Meanwhile, Taylor’s best friend Erica has just bet Taylor that she can’t stay celibate for the entire summer, and Taylor never can resist a dare. Since sleeping with anyone new is off the table, she needs a distraction, and offers to be Avery’s dating guru. She’ll give her flirting lessons! Avery has never dated women before, but wants to, and Taylor offers to take her out, put her in high-potential flirting situations, and teach her how to flirt like a champ.

What follows is a series of very fun lessons, where Avery is given challenges such as talking to five new people or trying something outside her comfort zone. The goal isn’t going to bed — it’s empowering Avery to feel more confident with new people, and to stop the self- talk that holds her back.

Of course, Taylor and Avery end up catching feelings for one another, and their flirting lessons turn into much, much more…

Flirting Lessons is at its best when it’s focused on the social settings and activities that Taylor orchestrates for Avery’s lessons. An author event at a bookstore, queer salsa dancing, trivia night at a bar, community gardening — all are terrific venues for seeing the two women interact with each other and with new people, and provide different ways for Avery to spread her wings and try something new.

I appreciated that honesty was an important part of what both women needed to learn — how to accept a compliment without deflection, how to express what they actually feel rather than what they think the other person wants, how to stop undermining themselves by wondering if they’re interesting enough or match what others want to see. It’s also nice to see that they have other friends. Their relationship is not their sole focus, and for each, paying attention to the other people in their lives is yet another element that helps them grow and acknowledge their own strengths and blindspots.

Despite the positives, I can’t say this was more than just a so-so read for me, and here’s why:

I’m not sure that I entirely bought Avery and Taylor’s chemistry. Avery is just too tentative and walled off to make true sense as a partner for Taylor, or to hold Taylor’s attention long enough for her growth to give them a more equal footing. Further, the plot as a whole is a bit dull. Sure, the various dates and events are fun, and the ups and downs of Taylor and Avery’s relationship are nice to see unfolding, but it’s entirely predictable. Even the potential breakup is easy to see coming, as is its solution.

On the whole, Flirting Lessons is a bit longer than it needs to be, and doesn’t cover much new ground or provide a ton of surprises. I enjoyed the book enough to want to keep going, but now that I’m done, it’s not likely to stick with me in any meaningful way.

Still, Flirting Lessons could be a good choice for a light summer read — and the Wine Country setting provides a nice sense of a sun-filled getaway.

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

13Jul2024

Audiobook quick takes: Unicorns, ghosts, robots… and pastry!

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

This was another of those weeks where quiet time was hard to find — so rather than trying to get through a full novel, I kept my audiobook listening limited to short stories and novellas. The results were mostly positive! Here’s a quick round-up of what I listened to and what I thought:

Renowned author Peter S. Beagle returns to the world of The Last Unicorn in this resonant and moving two-novella collection, featuring the award-winning “Two Hearts” and the brand-new “Sooz.”

The Last Unicorn is one of fantasy’s most revered classics, beloved by generations of readers and with millions of copies in print. Revisiting the world of that novel, Beagle’s long-awaited Hugo and Nebula-Awards-winning “Two Hearts” introduced the irrepressible Sooz on a quest to save her village from a griffin, and explored the bonds she formed with unforgettable characters like the wise and wonderful Molly Grue and Schmendrick the Magician.

In the never-before-published “Sooz,” the events of “Two Hearts” are years behind its narrator, but a perilous journey lies ahead of her, in a story that is at once a tender meditation on love and loss, and a lesson in finding your true self.

The Way Home is suffused with Beagle’s wisdom, profound lyricism, and sly wit; and collects two timeless works of fantasy.

I read Peter S. Beagle’s classic fantasy tale The Last Unicorn about a year ago, and loved the characters, the setting, and the storytelling. There’s also a lovely graphic novel version — out of print and hard to find at a reasonable price, but fortunately, my library had a copy.

The Way Home, published in 2023, is a bind-up of two novellas. Two Hearts was originally published in 2006 (and won both the Nebula and Hugo awards); Sooz is a new work published for this edition.

Two Hearts is lovely. It’s the story of nine-year-old Sooz, who’s brokenhearted by the losses inflicted on her village by a marauding griffin — and with perfectly reasonable nine-year-old logic, decides that the only solution is to go find the king herself and ask him to come save the day. Sooz’s journey takes her to King Lir, introduced in The Last Unicorn as a young prince. Here, he’s an old, old man who spends most of his time dozing on his throne… but dons his armor one last time because a brave girl asks him to. Two other familiar characters, Schmendrick and Molly Grue, add warmth and comfort to the story. It’s all quite wonderful.

Sooz works less well. In this novella, Sooz is 17-years-old, and discovers on her birthday that her parents had another daughter before she was born — a beautiful little girls named Jenia who went off to live with the faeries (or “Dreamies” as she calls them) and never came back. Sooz knows in her heart that it’s her destiny to find Jenia and bring her home. What follows is a quest into a land of magic and terrors, in which Sooz finds a true ally, loses parts of herself, and comes to terms with who she herself truly is.

To be honest, Sooz drags quite a bit. The audio narrator does a very nice job with the tone and the characters, and creates a dreamlike experience for the listener, but the story itself is very drawn out, and I struggled to pay attention on and off throughout the story.

[SPOILER]: There’s a rape scene (more implied than graphic, but it’s clear what’s happened) that in my opinion is completely unnecessary and very out of place in a fantasy tale. The story can hold darkness without adding in sexual assault. I was disturbed that the author felt this was something that needed to be included — surely, some other sort of bad experience could have befallen the character to shake her up and make her realize the danger she was in.

Overall, I’d say that Two Hearts is absolutely worth a listen, especially for anyone who’s read and loved The Last Unicorn. I’m on the fence about Sooz. There are some interesting elements, but it just didn’t hold my interest as a whole, and that one scene makes it difficult to say that this is a story I’d recommend.

Penguin Audio: 5 hours, 22 minutes
Rating:

Sally has recently left an unfulfilling job to volunteer at a living history museum, where she is assigned to the Death House. Every day, she dons Victorian mourning garb and describes traditional funeral services to tourists. It sounds depressing as hell, but for Sally, it’s less depressing than her tepid marriage to her childhood sweetheart.

This becomes all too clear when she accidentally travels through time and space to a liminal world where the ghosts of the living history museum haunt its grounds. There, she meets and falls hard for Victorian-era pretty boy Nathaniel. Their heady, romantic encounters douse Sally in the sad reality that her marriage is anything but and leave her tempted to join Nathaniel permanently in his realm.

Is Sally’s marriage literally a fate worse than death, or is there another way altogether?

When I stumbled across an audiobook short story by Rachel Harrison — author of such fantastic books as Black Sheep, Sharp Teeth, and Cackle — I knew I had to give it a listen. What fun! In this quick, tightly drawn tale, a disaffected young woman dresses up in Victorian mourning clothes to give living history museum tours, then accidentally finds herself in a ghost-filled limbo on the same grounds. Sally and Nathaniel fall instantly in love, and he proposes to her on the spot, but there really is only one way for Sally to stay with him forever. Is it worth it?

This ghostly story is eerie and has some great supernatural elements, but is also terrific in the way it shows a young woman recognizing the stagnation of her married life and the need to take control of her own destiny. Definitely worth checking out!

Audible Original; 47 minutes
Rating:

An android who knows nothing besides his work in a factory is given one final week to explore the world before he is forced to undergo mandatory reprogramming in this bittersweet precursor to TJ Klune’s In the Lives of Puppets.

This was a funny choice for me, because I didn’t love In the Lives of Puppets as much as I expected to (given that I’ve been head over heels for everything else I’ve read by TJ Klune). And if I didn’t love the novel, why would I expect a better outcome with its prequel?

But all’s well that ends well: I’m so happy I decided to give Reduce! Reuse! Recycle! a try.

The story is fairly straightforward: Douglas is an android who’s faithfully carried out his factory work and followed all the rules for the ten years of his existence. For his final week before being rebooted, he’s granted a pass that gives him the freedom to leave the factory and explore life in the world of humans. As he spends time in parks and streets and markets and more, he sees birds and colors and people, hears music and starts to dance, and reads countless books — including a hidden book of philosophy by René Descartes, which gets him thinking about who and what he is.

This story is sheer joy — it has plenty of sadness too, but the writing is gorgeous, and it’s exhilarating to see the world from Douglas’s point of view. The audiobook narrator rocks. A highly recommended listening experience.

Macmillan Audio: 1 hours, 27 minutes
Rating:

It takes nothing less than a fateful natural disaster to throw two opposites together in a ground-shakingly charming short story by the New York Times bestselling author of Drunk on Love.

This Valentine’s Day, Daisy Murray has her heart set on binge-watching rom-coms. Instead, an earthquake traps her inside a bakery with its impossibly rude and insufferably handsome owner and head baker. They already have a history: she’s always smiled, he’s always scowled. Where better to finally get to know each other than amid the disaster? Then again, they have no choice. Besides, it could have its sweet, undeniable, and unpredictable perks.

Jasmine Guillory’s Drop, Cover, and Hold On is part of The Improbable Meet-Cute, irresistibly romantic stories about finding love when and where you least expect it. They can be read or listened to in one sitting. Let’s make a date of it.

I don’t know that I have much to say about this short story. The synopsis says it all! Main character Daisy gets trapped inside her favorite bakery — alongside the very hot bakery owner — when an earthquake hits. She thinks he hates her… but maybe his scowly face has distracted her from realizing that he always has her favorite pastries available on the days she usually stops in?

This story is sweet (ha!), flirty, and fun. It won’t rock your world (earthquake pun time!!), but the description of the baked goods hooked me almost as much as the chemistry between the characters. It’s a fun, quick listen.

Audible Original: 1 hours, 5 minutes
Rating:

Not too bad for a week when I didn’t think I’d have time for audiobooks! I don’t usually gravitate toward short stories, but this week, this selection was just what I needed.

2Oct2022

Travel reading wrap-up (fall 2022): A batch of mini-reviews — all sorts of love!

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

I’m back from a one-week trip, which was fabulous… and while I read quite a bit, I don’t have energy just yet to write full-length reviews. So… here’s a quick look at what I read while I was away. Lots of love stories — some dramatic, one that’s utterly silly, and one charmer that includes love, friendship, and pure delight. Read on if you want to know more!

Drunk on Love by Jasmine Guillory: A steamy story of workplace romance, set amidst the wineries of Napa Valley. Margot Noble, co-owner of a family winery, has a one-night stand with a hot guy she meets at a bar, only to discover the next day that he’s her new employee. The book explores the intense connection and chemistry between Margot and Luke, but also delves into family dynamics, career frustrations and expectations, and issues around honesty and self-awareness. The romance is steamy but also sweet, and I loved the dynamics between Margot and Luke.

Rating:

Heading Over the Hill by Judy Leigh: I’ve been seeing other bloggers’ rave reviews for Judy Leigh’s books for quite a while now, and finally had the chance to experience one for myself! Pure delight — this is the story of Dawnie and Billy, a married couple in their early seventies, who decide to move to a new town and focus on starting over again, just the two of them. Between his Harley and her colorful wigs, they’re a shock to their conservative neighbors, but soon end up making a huge, positive impact on everyone they encounter. The story is engaging, funny, but also quite heartfelt — there are elements that explores the characters’ sorrows as well as joys, and at one point, it even brought me to tears. Overall, I loved it — and I just wish I had a Dawnie in my life!!

Rating:

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto: After having this paperback on my shelf for about a year, I finally picked it up — and I have to say, this is quintessential vacation reading! Super silly, not at all intellectually challenging, and just oodles of fun. When Meddy and her meddlesome aunties get involved in an over-the-top Chinese-Indonesian wedding, they also find themselves dealing with an inconvenient corpse, stolen jewels, and the reappearance of Meddy’s college boyfriend — her one true love and the one who got away. The escapades here are preposterous and outrageously unbelievable… but so much fun to read and laugh over! I will definitely be picking up the next book in the series, Four Aunties and a Wedding.

Rating:

Where We End & Begin by Jane Igharo: This is the most dramatic and serious of my batch of vacation books — the story of Dunni and Obinna, high school sweethearts with an intense bond who were cruelly separated by their families, as they reunite at a friends’ wedding in Nigeria twelve years later. With alternating timelines showing their present reconnection and the traumatic events of their past, the book gives us a deep understanding of how these two characters ended up where they are. I loved the exploration of the class differences in their society and how their families’ histories influenced how they were treated, as well as the insights into their individual decision-making and struggles. There are some truly painful revelations, as well as lovely moments of connection and understanding. This is a beautiful, sad, complicated story, well worth checking out.

Rating:

What a week! I enjoyed every book I read… now comes the hard part — deciding what to read next!

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21Sep2022

New Release Spotlight: Drunk on Love by Jasmine Guillory

Posted in Books & Authors by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Introducing… an exciting new release from bestselling author Jasmine Guillory!

Drunk on Love by Jasmine Guillory
Release date: September 20, 2022
Length: 400 pages
Publisher: Berkley

Synopsis:

An intoxicating and sparkling new romance by New York Times bestselling author Jasmine Guillory.

Margot Noble needs some relief from the stress of running the family winery with her brother. Enter Luke: sexy, charming, and best of all in the too-small world of Napa, a stranger. The chemistry between them is undeniable, and Margot is delighted that she lucked into the perfect one-night stand she’ll never have to see again. That is, until the winery’s newest hire, Luke, walks in the next morning. Margot is determined to keep things purely professional, but when their every interaction reminds her of the attraction still bubbling between them, it proves to be much more challenging than she expects.

Luke Williams had it all, but when he quits his high-salary tech job in Silicon Valley in a blaze of burnout and moves back to Napa to help a friend, he realizes he doesn’t want to tell the world–or his mom–why he’s now working at a winery. His mom loves bragging about her successful son–how can he admit that the job she’s so proud of broke him? Luke has no idea what is next for him, but one thing is certain: he wants more from the incredibly smart and sexy woman he hooked up with–even after he learns she’s his new boss. But even if they can find a way to be together that wouldn’t be an ethical nightmare, would such a successful woman really want a tech-world dropout?

Set against a lush backdrop of Napa Valley wine country, nothing goes to your head as fast as a taste of love–even if it means changing all your plans.

I’ve loved the books in Jasmine Guillory’s The Wedding Date series, and I’m so excited to see what she does in this stand-alone new novel!

Sounds terrific, doesn’t it? Who else is planning to read Drunk on Love?

Stay tuned… I’ll be back with a review!

About the author:

Having set the standard for the modern day rom-com and continuing to hit the bestseller lists with each new novel, Jasmine Guillory is not just a publishing phenom, but also a cultural tastemaker. Beloved by the media, Jasmine has been praised by outlets including NPR, The Washington Post, Elle, and Entertainment Weekly. She is a frequent guest on NBC’s Today Show recommending books, has a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick under her belt, and has written eight novels in just four years.

Check out Jasmine Guillory’s book recommendations at Bookshop.org!

5Jul2022

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing In the Second Half of 2022

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Most Anticipated Books Releasing In the Second Half of 2022.

Where do I even start? I want to read ALL the books… but here are ten I’m really excited about.. while also trying not to repeat books I’ve highlighted in other TBR posts already!

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (7/19)
The Bodyguard by Katherine Center (7/19)
Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid (8/30)
Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn (9/6)
Be the Serpent (October Daye, #16) by Seanan McGuire (9/6)
Fairy Tale by Stephen King (9/6)
Drunk on Love by Jasmine Guillory (9/20)
The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal (10/11)
Scattered Showers by Rainbow Rowell (11/8)
Well Traveled by Jen DeLuca (12/6)

What new releases are you most looking forward to? Please share your links!

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14May2022

Audiobook Review: By the Book by Jasmine Guillory

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: By the Book
Series: Meant to Be, #2
Author: Jasmine Guillory
Narrator: Sarah Hollis
Publisher: Hyperion Avenue (Disney)
Publication date: May 3, 2022
Print length: 320 pages
Audio length: 9 hours, 42 minute
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

A tale as old as time—for a new generation…
Isabelle is completely lost. When she first began her career in publishing right out of college, she did not expect to be twenty-five, living at home, still an editorial assistant, and the only Black employee at her publishing house. Overworked and underpaid, constantly torn between speaking up or stifling herself, Izzy thinks there must be more to this publishing life. So when she overhears her boss complaining about a beastly high-profile author who has failed to deliver his long-awaited manuscript, Isabelle sees an opportunity to finally get the promotion she deserves.
All she has to do is go to the author’s Santa Barbara mansion and give him a quick pep talk or three. How hard could it be?
But Izzy quickly finds out she is in over her head. Beau Towers is not some celebrity lightweight writing a tell-all memoir. He is jaded and withdrawn and—it turns out—just as lost as Izzy. But despite his standoffishness, Izzy needs Beau to deliver, and with her encouragement, his story begins to spill onto the page. They soon discover they have more in common than either of them expected, and as their deadline nears, Izzy and Beau begin to realize there may be something there that wasn’t there before.
Best-selling author Jasmine Guillory’s reimagining of a beloved fairy tale is a romantic triumph of love and acceptance and learning that sometimes to truly know a person you have to read between the lines.

Everybody, sing along!

There’s something sweet and almost kind
But he was mean and he was coarse and unrefined
And now he’s dear and so unsure
I wonder why I didn’t see it there before

In By the Book, Disney publishing comes through with another endearing fairy tale adaptation, thanks to the clever imaginings of Jasmine Guillory. It’s Beauty and the Beast with a modern, grown-up spin, set in the world of publishing, and it’s all very, very charming.

For Izzy, every day is like the one before…

When she first landed her job at TAOAT Publishing (that’s Tale As Old As Time, of course), she was starry-eyed and thrilled to finally be entering the world of books. But a couple of years on, she’s stuck as an editorial assistant, with a boss who doesn’t take the time to give feedback, and a coworker who slyly undermines Izzy’s confidence under the guise of sympathy.

While attending an industry conference in LA, Izzy gets her moment to do something bold: Her boss is frustrated by celebrity Beau Towers, who has yet to deliver even a word of his memoir under contract. He refuses to even respond to emails. Izzy boldly offers to knock on the door of his Santa Barbara mansion and offer her assistance in person.

Once she arrives, she’s wowed by Beau’s gorgeous home — so beautiful it’s practically enchanted! — but less impressed by his surly demeanor. Still, by the time their initial confrontation takes place, it’s too late for her to make her flight back to New York, so she’s stuck as a guest for the night. Her room is gorgeous, and she falls so deeply in love with the luxurious bathtub that she feels like it’s talking to her.

I talk to inanimate objects like my teacup and the candlestick because Beau Towers doesn’t talk to me, and I feel like at any moment the teacup and candlestick will start, like singing and dancing for me.

By the next day, Beau grudgingly agrees to let Izzy stay and offer him writing pep talks, and they soon settle into a routine of writing together in his vast and breathtaking library.

This library was all her library dreams come true. […] Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lined every wall, with those rolling ladders so you could reach each and every book.

Beau’s assistant cooks up amazing food for them, and Izzy even grudgingly tries the gray stuff — an energy drink — and it’s delicious!

Are you singing along yet? Don’t worry, I found myself breaking into song throughout this adorable book…

Of course, there are ups and downs, disagreements and misunderstandings, but Izzy comes to realize that underneath his beastly behavior, Beau actually is quite a prince. Izzy’s warmth and kindness melt his heart, and by the time she comes swooping down the main staircase in a long yellow dress, he’s completely smitten.

The romance is sweet, but maybe because of the fairy tale element, it’s also completely predictable. Of course it’s all going to work out! Of course they’ll find happiness despite their differences! Izzy’s career challenges are neatly resolved by the end as well, and every aspect of the story gets tied up with a pretty HEA bow.

I enjoyed the flirtation, the California scenery, and the glimpse into the world of publishing. I did find the stakes fairly low throughout the book, and the revelation of the bad guy’s deviousness is completely predictable (although this Gaston stand-in does not brag about his chest hair, spitting abilities, or use of antlers for his interior décor, and no one’s actual life is on the line, so he’s not quite as despicable as the Disney version).

In terms of the audiobook narration, it’s most well-done and breezy, although the narrator’s habit of laughing whenever the lines in the books say “she laughed” got on my nerves after a while. Ignoring that, though, it was a really fun listen, and didn’t require a huge amount of focus or concentration in order to follow the story.

There are a ton of cute little nods to the Disney movie — from someone commenting that they feel like they should be wearing a tea cozy to Beau telling Izzy to “be my guest” to the flight attendant named Angela offering tea and cookies– and these all made for sweet giggle-inducing interludes throughout the book.

I mean, in the end, what’s not to enjoy about a Beauty and the Beast retelling? After all, it is…

… a tale as old as time.

As for what’s next in this series…

Nothing has been announced yet, but I can’t wait to find out which adaptation is in store for us!

10Jul2021

Book Review: While We Were Dating by Jasmine Guillory

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: While We Were Dating (The Wedding Date, #6)
Author: Jasmine Guillory
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: July 13, 2021
Length: 336 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via Netgalley
Rating:

Two people realize that it’s no longer an act when they veer off-script in this sizzling romantic comedy by New York Times bestselling author Jasmine Guillory.
Ben Stephens has never bothered with serious relationships. He has plenty of casual dates to keep him busy, family drama he’s trying to ignore and his advertising job to focus on. When Ben lands a huge ad campaign featuring movie star Anna Gardiner, however, it’s hard to keep it purely professional. Anna is not just gorgeous and sexy, she’s also down to earth and considerate, and he can’t help flirting a little…
Anna Gardiner is on a mission: to make herself a household name, and this ad campaign will be a great distraction while she waits to hear if she’s booked her next movie. However, she didn’t expect Ben Stephens to be her biggest distraction. She knows mixing business with pleasure never works out, but why not indulge in a harmless flirtation?
But their lighthearted banter takes a turn for the serious when Ben helps Anna in a family emergency, and they reveal truths about themselves to each other, truths they’ve barely shared with those closest to them.
When the opportunity comes to turn their real-life fling into something more for the Hollywood spotlight, will Ben be content to play the background role in Anna’s life and leave when the cameras stop rolling? Or could he be the leading man she needs to craft their own Hollywood ending?

Jasmine Guillory’s books are reliably romantic, intimate, and full of unusual characters, and While We Were Dating is no exception.

Our two main characters are Ben, an up-and-coming advertising executive (who, BTW, used to be a backup dancer — hot!), and Anna, an Oscar-nominated actress who needs her next movie to be the big breakthrough that will take her back to the Oscars and send her home with the prize.

When Anna agrees to star in the ad campaign Ben is leading, they’re immediately drawn to one another and develop an easy rapport. But it’s not until Ben offers to drive her all night to reach her family at a Southern California emergency room that they truly connect, spending the long car ride sharing secrets and dreams. Their intimacy becomes physical, and they’re both wildly attracted to one another — but neither imagines that this can be anything but a fling.

Later, Anna’s manager comes up with a plan: In order for the studios to see Anna as a big enough box-office draw to land that next crucial movie contract, she needs to be more in the public eye. He convinces her to go public in a fake relationship with Ben, making sure the paparazzi are on hand to capture their every private-but-public flirtation. Soon, they’re featured in People magazine and are walking the red carpet together, but Ben knows that once the premieres have ended, so will this relationship.

I enjoyed a lot about While We Were Dating. Anna and Ben are both well-developed, flawed people. Sure, they’re super hot, but they’re also vulnerable, each dealing with his or her memories and past painful experiences, cautious about who they trust and who they allow into their lives. They have an easy chemistry together, and their banter is adorable and flirtatious and very down-to-earth.

This author also tends to go outside the societal norms of beauty when it comes to her heroines, and Anna is depicted as both stunningly gorgeous and plus-sized. And honestly, I love that about her.

I’m not a huge fan of “Stars! They’re Just Like Us!” kind of stories, so the Hollywood magic is, if anything, a minus for me when it comes to books featuring glamorous stars and their love lives. Here, though, we see Anna’s family and her roots, her struggle to adjust to her new reality, the invasiveness of the paparazzi, the need to always be “on”, and it makes her feel relatable, even if the day-to-day of her life — with stylists and gowns and borrowed jewels — feels like something from another world.

The books in The Wedding Date series are all loosely connected, but don’t worry if you haven’t read the others. Familiar characters show up, and you’ll be happy to see them if you know who they are, but it’s not at all crucial to know their backstories in order to enjoy While We Were Dating (or any of the other book in the series.) Each book focuses on a new romantic pairing and can stand on its own just fine.

If you’re a fan of Jasmine Guillory’s books, you’ll definitely want to read this one as well. Even if you’re new to this author, this would make a great pick for beach or poolside reading.

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15Jun2021

Top Ten Tuesday: Books On My Summer 2021 TBR

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Books On My Summer 2021 TBR.

This is really just scratching the surface — so many books to read! Here are 10 of my upcoming reads, all being released in June, July or August. Six out of ten are sequels or continuations of series, and four are new stand-alones. They all sound amazing!

Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon
The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison (set in the world of The Goblin Emperor)
The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig
While We Were Dating by Jasmine Guillory
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell (the 3rd Simon Snow book)
Incense and Sensibility by Sonali Dev (fun series of Jane Austen retellings)
Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Feral Creatures by Kira Jane Buxton (sequel to Hollow Kingdom)
Sunrise By the Sea by Jenny Colgan (another book in the Little Beach Street Bakery series!)

What are you planning to read this summer? Please share your links!

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27Jun2020

Book Review: Party of Two by Jasmine Guillory

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Party of Two
Author: Jasmine Guillory
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: June 23, 2020
Print length: 320 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

A chance meeting with a handsome stranger turns into a whirlwind affair that gets everyone talking.
Dating is the last thing on Olivia Monroe’s mind when she moves to LA to start her own law firm. But when she meets a gorgeous man at a hotel bar and they spend the entire night flirting, she discovers too late that he is none other than hotshot junior senator Max Powell. Olivia has zero interest in dating a politician, but when a cake arrives at her office with the cutest message, she can’t resist–it is chocolate cake, after all.
Olivia is surprised to find that Max is sweet, funny, and noble–not just some privileged white politician she assumed him to be. Because of Max’s high-profile job, they start seeing each other secretly, which leads to clandestine dates and silly disguises. But when they finally go public, the intense media scrutiny means people are now digging up her rocky past and criticizing her job, even her suitability as a trophy girlfriend. Olivia knows what she has with Max is something special, but is it strong enough to survive the heat of the spotlight?

Jasmine Guillory has quickly become one of my go-to authors for when I want a light, upbeat romance, for so many reasons. Her women are strong, determined, and professional; the relationships are relationships among equals; her cast of characters is always diverse and well grounded; and hey, the books are just fun!

Party of Two takes place in the author’s established world, first introduced in The Wedding Date. This is the 5th book in the series, although I use the term “series” loosely. Yes, characters from earlier books show up, and the characters are all connected — but on the other hand, the books absolutely work as stand-alones. You can read Party of Two on its own and enjoy it fully.

So… Party of Two.

This is the story of Olivia Monroe, a super-smart lawyer who’s left the corporate law environment to strike out on her own, opening a boutique law firm in LA with her friend and colleague Ellie. In her first week in LA, Olivia meets an attractive guy in her hotel’s bar, where they share a good conversation about cake, among other things — but this is LA, and Olivia assumes a guy this good-looking must be an actor, and she just isn’t interested in dating actors, thank you very much.

Imagine Olivia’s surprise when she later turns on the news and realizes the hot guy from the bar is actually an up-and-coming United States Senator, Max Powell. Obviously not for her. Can’t trust a politician, after all, and Olivia has no desire for a public spotlight.

Still, when they run into each other at a fundraising event a few weeks later, their connection is still there — and Max finds that he’s just as smitten with Olivia as he was when they first met. After courtship via baked goods, the two cautiously begin a cross-country romance, which soon blossoms into much more than the fling that Olivia was expecting.

The writing in Party of Two is funny, emotional, and on point. Olivia has some scathing views of the men she typically meets:

“I was in too many relationships in my late twenties and early thirties with men who got mad at me for how much I was working, or required so much of my time to, I don’t know, sympathize with them about their mean lady boss or tuck them into bed when they had a man cold or whatever.”

Man cold. Snicker.

She’s a very self-aware, determined woman who doesn’t compromise her integrity and doesn’t give in easily to big gestures, and yet…

“… I still get that fucking gooey look on my face when he texts me! I can tell I get it! I try not to get it! But the goo just spreads over my face and I can’t make it stop!”

One of the things I love about these characters (besides their chemistry and adorableness together) is that they’re socially aware and committed individuals who want to do good in the world. Max’s key goal in the Senate is to push through a justice reform bill, and he spends time learning and listening to people who’ve suffered from a broken system. Likewise, Olivia devotes herself to volunteer work in a food pantry, and is passionate about food insecurity and offering hope and resources to underprivileged and disenfranchised youth.

One of the key stumbling blocks between Max and Olivia is his tendency to rush forward without full consideration of risks. As a wealthy white man who has never truly known adversity, Max expects the world to work out for him. But as Olivia points out:

“… you just leap in to something without thinking about the implications, say the first thing comes to your mind, and smile and charm your way out of every hole you dig yourself in. I can’t do things like that. I’m a black woman, I don’t ever get the benefit of the doubt in the way someone like you does. I can’t afford to make split-second decisions and assume they’ll work out.”

Not that this is a heavy book in any way. The romance is sweet and sexy, and clearly, these two crazy kids are meant for each other. It’s totally engaging to see how they handle heavy-duty professional lives (which in Max’s case, comes with a lack of privacy and an ever-present spotlight) and balance these with their need for intimacy and space, and the ability to carve out time alone together to nurture and grow their relationship.

Party of Two is delightful, romantic summer reading, but with a grounding in the real world that makes it feel relevant. It delivers a message without pounding readers over the head, but consistently enough to keep the social justice theme prominent throughout the love story aspects of the plot.

As I mentioned, this book absolutely works on its own, but if you want to place it within the context of Jasmine Guillory’s other books, Olivia is the older sister of Alexa, the lead character in The Wedding Date.

Highly recommended!