Brit Robbins knows that dating in New York City is hard—she just hoped to have it mastered by age thirty. But after yet another promising suitor says they have no sparks, Brit decides it’s time to torch her dating game and try a new plan. And who better to coach Brit through the art of seduction than the guy who first gave her the “let’s be friends” card?
Hunter Cross has always figured there’s nothing his best friend Brit can do to surprise him. But Brit’s request is a surprise he doesn’t see coming—and one he’s definitely not prepared for. Hunter and Brit have always been careful to keep things perfectly platonic, but the fake dates and faux flirting are starting to feel like the real deal. And soon Hunter realizes he has taught Brit too well. Not only has she become an expert at seduction, the man becoming thoroughly seduced is him.
This book is the last of the Stiletto and Oxford series and, for just a minute, I need to be sad.
Not that the book was bad, as it definitely wasn't...but at the end, I felt like I was saying goodbye to friends who had been with me in my reading world for a long time. And, well, I am just a little sad. The ending was happy, and I was crying. How does that work? Why am I crying at the happy scene? I think it's because I feel like I know these people, and I was invested in the magazine and the people who worked there, luckily without any fraternization policies.
Lauren Layne is a go to author for me. She has been since I read my very first title by her, After the Kiss and The Trouble With Love is one of the 23 titles I have listed as all time favorite books. So, letting go of this series is...difficult. There's a lot of my reading history in this, and these books are also those I have shared with friends, with my mom, and recommended to other readers as a series you will just plain love.
But, as she says in the notes at the end, the beauty of a book is that it can be read again and again, and like the song says, it will be there for you, even when it hasn't been your day, week, month, or year.
That helped. A little.
It also helped that Brit and Hunter's story was darn good..perfection, really. It was compelling, and it also felt like there was some movement in the Oxford and Stiletto world, with Hunter making a decision at the end, one that you see coming, that changed the dynamic of the office and not just the dynamic of his relationship with Brit.
I could say so much about this book. About how well it is written, about how much I connected with the characters, about how much I loved it. But, really, I think the fact that I was so connected that I was crying at the happy parts...well, that says it all about how good this book is, and how strong my connection was to the characters.
I recommend this book, and this series.
