When Jessie’s BFF and roommate Talia goes to London for the summer, finding someone else to sublet their apartment in Brooklyn proves to be stressful, especially since Jessie is starting her new job as an assistant editor at a prestigious fantasy publisher soon. Luckily, Talia’s brother, Shawn, has just transferred to the Brooklyn branch of the brewery he works for, and he needs someplace to stay. Perfect, right? Well, back in high school, Jessie had a crush on Shawn, but after watching his date-em-and-dump-em antics break apart their friend circle, she knows he’s bad news. Unfortunately – or fortunately – that attraction is still there, and it’s obvious that Shawn returns it. Can Jessie and Shawn keep to their strictly platonic roommates deal, or will they both risk their relationship with Talia for a chance at a relationship with each other?
“She’d always taken it for granted that Shawn thought he was amazing—God’s gift to baseball, and girls, and their small-town school. But that was then. It sounded like Shawn wanted other things now.
It left her wondering what those things were.”
I liked Jessie a lot. She’s a girl after my own heart, who’s got her life all planned out and prefers to spend evenings in under a comfy blanket with a book. She’s landed her dream job and knows that she’ll have to work hard to impress her boss, but unfortunately work is all she thinks she has time for. In that regard, Shawn couldn’t be more her opposite. He’s aimless and, in the past, he hasn’t been willing to put the work in – for either his jobs or his relationships. He’s determined to turn over a new leaf with his move to NYC and his job as assistant brewer. You wouldn’t think that Jessie and Shawn were that similar, but as they interact, they find out they have more in common – they both are trying to prove themselves to bosses who think they can do it all, and they both need the balance in their life that the other provides.
It was all too familiar. If she substituted pages for barrels, it would be the same thing.
She raised her glass. “To being highly successful, competent, trustworthy, invaluable employees that our bosses don’t yet realize they can’t live without.”
He laughed and clinked glasses with her. “And to not setting anything on fire.” He paused. “Yet.”
It was so much fun watching them try to fight their initial attraction for each other, even as they slowly realized how much they had in common. They both have a great sense of humor, and their interactions were frequently hilarious. Normally, I’d say I’m not much of a fan of playboy heroes who are reformed by the love of that one special woman. But, Ms. Brooks did an amazing job with Shawn that I truly felt for him. He fully acknowledges his past selfishness as well, without placing the blame on his past girlfriends, and is just plain tired of drifting through life with no purpose or direction, irresponsible and not worth anything more than a temporary good time. While I love the “best friend’s brother/sister” trope, sometimes the backstory of why the couple shouldn’t be together is, well, weak. Not the case for this book! Even Shawn, in all his fuckboy glory, realizes he messed up by dating and dumping two of his sister’s best friends in high school, completely decimating her friend circle. The only friend who stuck with her was Jessie. It really upped the stakes for why the relationship was such a bad idea – not only does Jessie have evidence that Shawn’s a love-em-and-leave-em guy, and therefore likely nothing more than a distraction from her work, but it will also seriously hurt Talia to see her best friend follow their footsteps. So, you can probably guess exactly what happens, and while I was initially upset with what I saw as Talia’s overreaction, I think she more than made up for it.
Overall, I very much enjoyed this book, and I’m hoping it’ll be the first in the series. I definitely want to read Talia’s book!
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.