And so, my journey through the sapphic romances of Katia Rose comes to an end. Originally this review of Just Might Work was going to be “Oh hey so this one has the best smut of the lot” but then I read Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner and frankly that blew everyone out of the water in the smut department, so with all due respect to the smut, I will be forced to talk about the way in which I liked the characters, very much enjoyed their chemistry and normal things like that (though shoutouts to the conversations about consent and boundaries and ways to minimise dysphoria during the act of sex that was thoughtful and as someone who has had my far share of the latter, touching to see written down in a romance novel, plus this is a book with a nuanced description of Non-Binary gender identities, I’m pretty sure that it’s the first time I’ve seen the word “demi-girl” written in a place like this).
Dane and Evangeline are roommates, sharing the cheap rent of living in the house of Dane’s weird aunt whilst they try and make ends meet. When they find themselves looking at possible eviction, the concoct a scheme to get the aunt to reconsider – knowing that she loves nothing more than soulmates, they decide to pretend to fall in love. The catch? They haven’t previously been particularly close, and have not entirely endeared themselves to each other with their way of being roommates. The other catch? They might not actually be faking it (I know, I know, spoilers).
As usual, and as I’ve come to love from Rose’s writing, the delightful chemistry that ensues between the two leads had me dying to get to the good shit (kissing) and the other good shit (smut) and Just Might Work did not disappoint. I recently saw someone say that one of the allures of an “enemies to lovers” style romance (though in fairness “enemies” is a bit strong a term for the leads here) is that it’s about someone who sees you at your worst and loves you anyway and that feels like it applies here. A relationship is about dealing with the rought times as well as the good and the joy of Just Might Work is that they see each other’s worst tendancies, their insecurities before they even fall for each other, and then they still find that the person they are with is worth falling in love with anyway.
