The Love Coupon (Stubborn Hearts, #2)

by Ainslie Paton

• ISBN10: 1488081166
• ISBN13: 9781488081163
• Publish Date: 2018
• Publish Status: Unknown
• Format: eBook
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

A few of my fellow bloggers put Paton on my radar, and am I glad they did, because The Love Coupon was such a fun and sexy read, which I am filing this under "books that made my face hurt", because that ending left with smiling from ear to ear.

Who?
• Tom, a super disciplined PR man, who likes his life nice and tidy.
• Flick, a lobbyist, who was ambitious, and ascribed to a "no-holds-barred, anything-goes approach".

What?
His roommate recently relocated for a job, and Tom was unable to afford his mortgage on his own as he awaited his promotion. Flick was looking for short-term housing as she finished out her current employment contract and prepared for her move to Washington DC to begin her dream job. It seemed like they were each other's perfect solution, but would Tom be able to handle Flick turning his world upside down?

Why?
I was such a fan of this couple. Tom was this outwardly grumpy guy with a secret heart of gold, and Flick was a total spitfire. I loved watching hurricane Flick knock Tom off his rails. The chemistry between Flick and Tom was off the charts! Flick described it like this, and I sort of agree:

"Oh, the chemistry was every letter in the alphabet, and the alphabet was freezing, melting, burning, giving off vapor, reducing, expanding and fusing."

Yes to awesome chemistry, and also to the fun, sassy, sexy banter. Tom and Flick had an interesting rapport. This was a hate-to-love sort of thing, where Tom was not Flick's biggest fan in the beginning, but she was relentless, and eventually won him over.

"You're a rodeo, Flick Delgetty. Always trying to throw me off."

I, for one, was grateful that Flick was so persistent, because these two were something special together. They made each other see the world in a new way and rethink the things they believed. They made each other world bigger and better.

And let's give it up for epically beautiful endings! My heart exploded at the end of this book. My sappy sap self was beyond happy with the way Paton wrapped up Flick and Tom's story, and I couldn't think of a better way to end it.

Overall
A steamy hate-to-love-roommate romance, which left me brimming with joy.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

[llamareads]

Trigger warnings: manipulative family, death of a parent (as a child), cancer

A grumpy hero and an insanely energetic heroine? Yay! While this looks like a fluffy rom-com, it actually isn’t – that’s not necessarily a bad thing. While it’s still pretty darn funny, it’s also very feels-laden. This is the second book in a series, but works perfectly well as a standalone.

“He could no sooner live with Flick Dalgetty than he could become a man who believed whims, distractions and impulsiveness were good notions to live by. Tom’s ambitions were better contained in goal setting, scheduling, discipline. He’d get what he wanted in life methodically, by staying the course, not zigzagging all over the shop. That’s the way it had worked so far, and he had no reason to believe that strategy wouldn’t deliver him everything he wanted.”

Tom is a big grumpy bear, solid as a mountain and about as fixed in his ways. He’s laser-focused on his career, and the big promotion is within his sights. Like Tom, Flick is also very career-focused, but that’s where the similarities end. Tom thinks Flick falls somewhere between an entire circus and an amusement park ride – effective at her job but in a loud, showy, Energizer bunny way. Flick is heading off for her dream job in another state in a few month’s time but is desperate for some place to stay. Luckily enough, Tom has a room to rent at his place. Surely this odd couple can put up with each other for three months?

Well, I think we know how that turns out! To be honest, while I love grumpy heroes or heroines, I’m not a big fan of people with Flick’s “electronic-shockagram, disco-light-strobe, tip-you-upside-down-and-shake-you-while-laughing-like-a-horror-show” personality, and there’s a scene with glitter that I certainly would not have reacted well to! But Flick really grew on me, and she had very good reasons for being who she is – the youngest child, who needed to be loud and over the top to get attention and get out of the poverty her family accepts as normal. Like Flick herself, her and Tom’s relationship is a bit of a roller coaster, from industry acquaintances to friends to lovers back to friends and THEN back to lovers. The coupons the book is named for don’t come in to play until they already have a roommates with benefits relationship, as a way to count down the last thirty days before Flick leaves. Their relationship was delightfully fun to follow. Each character has baggage that makes them the way they are, and makes their chances of a relationship with anyone pretty low, let alone two such different people. I almost put the book down around the halfway mark, because I just could not deal with all the feels. Luckily, while the second half of the book is still feels-laden, it’s much happier feels. Even the sex scenes – of which there are plenty – were intense, emotional and character-driven, including some ridiculously hot phone sex.

“’I want a happy ending and I’m not going to get one, am I?’
‘Does anyone?’ he said.
Was he serious? She sat up and thumped the seat. ‘Yes.’
‘You’re sure?’
‘They exist. They have to.’ Otherwise life was guilt and fear and loneliness and too damn hard.
‘Where’s the evidence? Not from my parents, or yours, or your sisters. Wren is still pining after Josh, which is a kind of complicated I can’t begin to understand. What’s a happy ending anyway, except a manipulation sponsored by Hollywood and Mills & Boon?’”

As for cons, I had some issues with the way Flick’s family was portrayed as only interested in her for what she could buy them. Some of this really hit home for me, as I’ve had some experience being the family ATM. All it showed, though, was the one-note experience of her family using and using and using her, none of the regular family interactions with her nieces or sister or mom that draw the person back in. The family members were rather blatant about using her, where in my experience, it was more passive-aggressive guilting than outright demands for stuff. Also, I found the resolution to this part of Flick’s story unsatisfactory, since after several “on-page” scenes with the family, the actual boundary setting happened off-page.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed this book. Steamy sex, all-the-feels conversations, and all the best bits of two very opposite people becoming better people because of the other. Highly recommended!

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

[Rowena]

What a cute romance this turned out to be. I really enjoyed the chemistry between Flick and Tom and their story was just super sweet. I can't wait to jump into more books by this new to me author. Her writing style worked for me and I connected with both Tom and Flick.