Darcy Barrett has been in love with her twin brother’s best friend, Tom Valeska, since she was eight years old. Over the years, Darcy has run away from her feelings, but now they are thrown together while they renovate her grandmother’s house. Then she discovers he’s just broken up with his fiancé.
It is hard not to immediately fall in love with Darcy. She is a self-effacing, no nonsense kind of girl, and I found her in-your-face attitude really likeable. Not to mention her relatable attitude to life. Her twin brother, Jamie, I found less likeable, and he seems to be the attention seeking star of the family. Darcy sees herself as the problem child. Her family feel they need to wrap in cotton wool because she was born with a heart condition, but she’s not whiny about it. She just accepts people as they are, which is what makes her so likeable.
I would go as far to say that she’s a total ball buster and she admits:
“Maybe the reason I can deal with the guys in the bar is because I was dealing with an alpha male in the womb.”
Her brother’s friend, Tom, is described by Darcy as the perfect male. He’s handsome, as well as having a heart of gold, especially where she is concerned. The three of them are a support triangle, each one giving something to hold them all together. Tom is Darcy’s knight in shiny armour, always there when she needs him the most.
I like the way she thinks about him, like he’s an addiction she can’t beat, no matter how hard she tries.
“Get it together, Darcy. It’s not his fault he was born with your favourite kind of bones. He’s a sweet shy solid-gold human. Someone’s fiancé. You’re a teenage dirtbag. Leave him alone.”
The style is very informal and uses a lot of short, choppy phrases. It’s in first person POV and I personally struggled with some of the phrasing due to missing words. I had to re-read sections occasionally.
It’s also told from Darcy’s POV and she makes a lot of comments about how others are feeling as though she can read minds. Her grandmother was a fortune teller, so whose to say?
This is an easy read rom-com. The ongoing tension made it a true page turner. It’s not the steamiest romance I’ve read, but it was not lacking in the heat department. The sultry stares and possessive jealousy of both characters were enough to keep the heat levels high.
Plot: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Feels: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Heat level: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️and a half
