Reviewed by Berls on
I loved Annie. She's ridiculously successful but she hasn't outgrown the sense of not belonging and lack of confidence her upbringing as the janitor's daughter on scholarship gave her. She doesn't see herself clearly. So when it's time for a high school reunion she doesn't exactly feel confident about going, even though she has what everyone dreams of when the show up at one of these things - she's famously wealthy and genius. So, thanks to her friend, she decides to hire an escort. Named Robin. And surprisingly female. (which is hilarious, considering that her friend who convinced to her do this was also female and lesbian and BTW name Fred. You'd think they'd have considered Robin could be either or lol).
So it's a great meet cute with the mistaken identity thing. I also really like Robin and her self-confidence is easy to see as intoxicating. So I liked the way Annie, who is SURE she's straight, gets confused about her. I think that's one of the other things I loved about this book - the way it handled LGTBQ+ identity. It recognized sexuality as a spectrum and there's this great line from Fred about how Annie wouldn't fall / not fall for someone just because they were tall, short, Hispanic, etc. so why should sex be that big of deal? Don't you fall for a person, not their sex? (I do think they use the world gender, but I prefer sex because of the loaded construct of gender).
Anyway what follows is a fake romance turned real turned heartbreak and incredible character growth for both Annie and Robin. I laughed and I fell in love right along with them. Nothing mind blowing, plenty of predictable tropes done really well, for a really satisfying romance.
I probably got through it so fast because I was listening and the narration was top notch. Melissa Merand delivered a solid performance and at 2x speed I enjoyed every minute.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 31 January, 2021: Finished reading
- 31 January, 2021: Reviewed