I just don’t like romance novels and that’s the long and short of it. Secondhand embarrassment and awkwardness makes me cringe so hard I turtle right into my t-shirt and these kind of horrifying miscommunications are a feature, not a bug, when it comes to romance novels. It’s the “wait, no, I mean, if you just, c’mon, PLEASE” that makes me want to die. Granted, I haven’t read many romance novels, but between Alisha Rai and Helen Hoang, this kind of scenario seems to be their life’s blood and I cannot handle it.
To her credit, Rai (much like Hoang) creates characters for whom this kind of miscommunication seems natural. In this case, they’ve both been traumatized by past events leaving one refusing to trust and the other assuming everyone will leave so of course they don’t communicate. But still.
So now that I’ve explained why I didn’t like it, let’s get to what this book is actually about. Our main character, Rhiannon, has invented a dating app called Crush (Tindr, but empowering!) She is looking to expand her very solid company by acquiring Matchmaker (eHarmony/Match) but hasn’t been able to reach its remaining, notoriously eccentric founder. A ghost from her fairly recent past resurfaces as the new face of Matchmaker and she has to decide just how strictly she is going to abide by her own set of dating rules (spoiler – not very). Steaminess ensues.
The good news is, this is a very sex-positive and consent-centered book and I so appreciated that. Samson, the love interest, is very keyed in to what she is and is not okay with and is graciously accepting of boundaries. It’s wonderful. The bad news is, I just don’t like romance novels.