This book found its way to me via an ARC program, and I chose it because I needed a romantic comedy, after some heavy reads! This surely fit the bill.

The Premise

Romance author and average-looking 30-something Sydney falls hard and fast for the gorgeous cover model Travis at a book signing. She thinks he’s way out of his league, as he’s a bit younger and drop dead gorgeous. While she can pull herself together into a basic “pretty” if needed, she’s nothing like what she believes his typical type would be. As a model and a personal trainer, Travis’ hot body is a given… cue Sydney’s frequent lust sessions and cyber-stalking. She finally decides to purchase one of his photos to put on her book cover, which then leads to them embarking on a weekend getaway to promote her book. The event leads to a hilarious scenario with too-close-for-comfort proximity, and then she falls into bed with her hot-model crush. On the other hand, Travis is genuinely attracted to Sydney. His ex was a nightmare of pretty-on-the-outside but ugly-on-the-inside. Her possessive, jealous, overbearing nature left him wary of women. He’s still reeling from recovering from this toxic relationship, and Sydney’s down-to-earth demeanour is a breath of fresh air. Just as they’re going full steam ahead, Sydney ruins her own happily-ever-after by falling into the trap of insecurity, and Travis’ past damage crops up to impede his capacity for forgiveness.

The Pros

This was a fast-paced read that I sped through in just two days, and the humour interlaced throughout kept me reading and laughing out loud as the story developed. I absolutely loved the budding relationship between the two main characters, and the sexy moments were SO well done — and filled with humour — that I was swooning on almost every page. I thoroughly enjoyed the dialogue, even with the side characters like her best friend Harper. Sydney’s character was full of life, and I felt every emotion from awkward to supernova sexy. While there was a lot of repetition of Sydney’s “averageness” (to the point where I figured she must look like a troll!), the overall writing for this character was absolutely excellent and took me right through the novel from start to finish.

The Cons

My only real hiccup was that while “Sydney” was well developed, the “Travis” viewpoints left me wanting. For one thing, they were fewer and further between, and it’s always unsettling when we’re in one character’s head more than the other. Even when we were in Travis’ head, he didn’t seem to have a lot going on in there. Sydney’s entire life, friendships, family and livelihood bubbled through, and Travis’ were just a blip on the radar by comparison. Many times he regurgitated what had just happened, rather than moving the plot forward, and even at the culminating point, his life-altering decision was just a few lines of a “recap” rather than allowing the reader to feel all the emotion in that pivotal moment. It seemed like the authors had just painted an outline of “dream guy” — the hot guy that likes the average girl — without really committing fully. Thankfully, the awesomeness of the book permeated through Sydney, but the “Travis” hole was definitely felt… and such a shame!

Conclusion

This novel was a bit “on the nose” with the intertextuality — romance authors, writing about romance authors! They do say “write what you know” but this was quite precise. I’m pretty sure the inspiration for the book came after the writer duo were at a book signing, ogling some hot cover models! That aside, this book was thoroughly enjoyable and absolutely hilarious. The protagonist’s voice is clear and loud, especially in her insecure moments, and I loved it. I do wish we got more into the male character, but as this book does have a heavy hand with the “wish-fulfillment” in terms of inspiration, I’m guessing it was much easier to write for Sydney than for Travis. I would recommend this book to absolutely anybody above the age of 18, if they want a raunchy romp of a romantic comedy, and I can’t wait to scour the universe for more books by this writer duo!

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