A quite pleasing book to open the year on, although I am a bit sad it wasn’t five stars, since this was one of my five-star predictions from a several months ago. OH WELL.
The sex lessons trope can be so good when done well, and it was done very very well here. Our main character is Chandler—a ghostwriter and former journalist who is still trying to find herself in her early thirties. She takes a ghostwriting job for an actor who is famous for starring in a college werewolf drama for four years but who wants to retrack his career with a memoir. The only problem is he’s a terrible writer. Enter Chandler. Another problem is that Finn turns out to be the man Chandler knew as ‘Drew’, who she had a one-night stand with, and the “worst sex of her life.” After some awkwardness, they agree to work together on the book, but soon it comes out that what Finn thought was “mindblowing” was the opposite of that, and after contacting his old girlfriends (loved this bit) confirms this is a pattern for him. Because they are strongly attracted to each other (physically AND emotionally, which is why this worked for me) they somehow arrange for Chandler to show him how to have sex so that his partners will actually enjoy themselves. And of course they fall in love along the way.
I’ve read Rachel Lynn Solomon before—her adult debut—and it wasn’t a perfect read for me. I had issues with some of the ethics, of all things, which were interfering with my enjoyment. There were no such issues here! In fact, mostly this is just a taste thing. I can’t really point to anything in specific that made this one not five stars for me. The most I can say critically is that I could feel the author structuring the book towards the end; the third-act conflict felt a little overwritten in a way that pulled me out of the story.
And there is a lot to love here! I loved both Chandler and Finn. Solomon does a great job with not only their characterization, but she constructs their relationship from minute one to feel incredibly authentic. It makes sense for them to love each other, and I enjoyed watching it happen very much. The book also has some funny gags, including some Rachel Hollis shade that I very much appreciated. The bad sex was also very bad, but in a realistic way, and I cringe laughed several times. Made it all the more fun to see how he learned the error of his ways later. I also loved that Finn was an uber LOTR nerd. He owns Glamdring!!!
But anyways! This was great and I should probably go back now and read the books from her I missed in between her debut and this one.