Enemies 2 Lovers | 3.31.23
It never gets old! Yes, hate each other! And then....
There’s always more enemies to lovers, friends, and I aim to read them all!!
Walk of Shame by Lauren Layne. Lauren Layne’s heroines are frequently high society, high femme, and with any other author I would have zero patience for them. However. This is not just any author, this is Lauren Layne, and I’ve read more of her books than any other author in the last year and a half, and I trust her.
This book follows two neighbors in a fancy NYC apartment complex who frequently pass each other at 5am in the lobby for opposite reasons: she’s just getting in, he’s leaving for work. On one side, we have spoiled socialite and party girl Georgianna Watkins with an overly romantic idea of love and no idea how to get it for her own. On the other, buttoned up celebrity divorce lawyer Andrew Mulroney who, due to his profession and his working class upbringing, has no patience for celebrities, love, or heiresses. It’s no wonder their early morning meet ups are so hostile! And yet. It turns out being spoiled isn’t the same as being selfish (and Georgie’s got a heart of gold and an easy rapport with pretty much everyone but Andrew), and maybe Andrew isn’t as unfeeling as he tries to project. The sex in this book is downright scorching due to their warring personalities, his initial disdain of her is crushing and therefore so satisfying when he has to grovel his way back into her good graces, and overall I just really enjoyed this romp of a book through a world that I will never ever be a part of.
There’s also this very interesting formatting thing Lauren Layne does for this book (while she doesn’t stray from structure as wildly as, say, Sally Thorne or Beth O’Leary, she has a decent amount of variety). It’s mostly told from Georgie’s first person POV, but eeeevery once in a while, we get an Andrew chapter, and it’s written in third person. Fascinating! My biggest complaint is that by the end of the book we don’t get a first person POV chapter from Andrew showcasing that he’re more in touch with his emotions via narrative shift.
Rating: 4.5/5
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Shipped by Angie Hockman. Workaholic marketing manager (and current MBA student) Henley is up for a huge promotion at her day job working for a cruise company, and part of her audition for the role is getting to go on one of her company’s cruises to the Galápagos! She just needs to come up with a way to boost bookings. Unfortunately, her rival for the job is her long-time remote work rival Graeme, a social media manager, who will be joining her on the cruise. Though she’s built him up in her head as her arch nemesis, always getting the better gigs, getting treated like a king by their sexist boss, etc, when they meet, she’s surprised to discover he doesn’t share her animosity at all, at least not until she makes her stance on him clear.
This book does a pretty great job showcasing the complicated office gender politics, when no matter what you do great you’ll always be worse off than your male counterparts, no matter how good or bad they are at what they do. And I love a book that ends in a business coup (spoiler alert, I guess?).
Rating: 4/5
How hot? 🔥 (closed door)
Mr. Wrong Number by Lynn Painter. A case of mistaken identity turned extremely fucking complicated. Olivia is kind of a mess. After her apartment burns down (her fault), she moves in with her big brother and his best friend Colin, the latter of whom, of course, finds her very annoying from their shared childhood of her pestering the boys as well as her current status as The Family Hot Mess. So when she reappears and is sleeping on their office floor for the foreseeable future, color him surprised that she’s grown up to really emphasize the hot in hot mess.
Things get even more complicated when Olivia gets a “what are you wearing” text from an unknown number and they begin a flirtatious and funny back and forth at the awkwardness of that opener. It’s strictly platonic since they have no idea who the other person is, but boy, it’s nice to talk. Then Colin realizes it’s Olivia (but she doesn’t realize it’s him) and things get even messier.
This book is funny, sexy, full of shenanigans, and a lovely tale of finding yourself later than your family would like but right on time for you to be ready for what needs found.
Rating: 4/5
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥
Next week, I’ll be recommending books with neurodivergent leads!
What should I be reading next? Let me know in the comments!