5 SMOOCHES!
SYNOPSIS:
A brand new sinfully sexy standalone romantic comedy from bestselling authors Lauren Blakely and Lili Valente!
When you think about how easy it is to lose keys, phones, sunglasses and your dignity on social media, you might figure it’d be a cinch for me to ditch my V Card.
You’d be wrong.
At 25, I run a successful business, live in a fantastic apartment, and have fabulous friends to go out with any night of the week. And yet I’m still a card-carrying member of a club I don’t want to belong to anymore. Good thing I know just the man for the deflowering job—my brother’s business partner and best friend.
Graham Campbell is charming, smart, and, I’m told, oh-so-skilled in the sack. As long as I keep my eyes on the prize, there’s no way this pluck-the-flower project could possibly complicate matters.
***
Work and pleasure. As the CEO of a fast-growing company, I’ve been enjoying both to the fullest. What do I do when the board throws me for an unexpected loop so I can keep my business in my hands? I enlist the help of my best friend’s little sister since she holds a big stake in the company. But then I learn there’s another big stake she wants.
The one between my legs.
I can do this. Seven nights to teach her everything I know in the bedroom. There’s no way I’ll fall for her, even though she’s earning top grades in every single sinfully sexy lesson. And turns out I’m learning something too. The trouble is I don’t have the answer key to what to do when I fall hard for her.
And that throws a whole new hitch in my plans.
REVIEW:
I’m a huge fan of both Lauren Blakely and Lili Valente, so when I first heard they were writing a book together, I was thrilled! Both of these authors have individually penned some of my favorite written romantic comedies, so I knew that this pairing would be magic, and I was not wrong. Blakely and Valente were completely in sync in their first collaboration, seamlessly blending their writing styles and transitioning imperceptibly between the two of them to craft a fantastically well written story. The V Card was entertaining, passionate, romantic and everything that I hoped for from a writing duo like Lili and Lauren.
I love the whole big brother’s best friend trope, so when I read the blurb and learned that was the direction that Blakely and Valente were heading with the story, I was eager to get my hands on it. Right out of the gate, they spun it on its head with a strong, smart and successful—albeit inexperienced—heroine. While she did have an adolescent crush on the hero in her teens, she wasn’t still sitting at home pining after him in her twenties. They were friends who had bonded over shared history and tragedy which made their relationship unique and special. So, when CJ concocted this tutorial plan, Graham was the natural choice, and she was comfortable enough to approach him with her proposal.
I loved Graham, especially the way he handled CJ and her surprise request. He was kind and gentle and handled her with so much care and respect. While it was CJ who may have asked Graham to be her teacher, it turned out that she had a thing or two to teach him as well. This was a couple I was rooting for from the start—they were perfect together. Their tutoring sessions may have begun with a no-strings-attached understanding and a deadline looming, it didn’t take long for either of them to fall fast and hard. I absolutely loved being inside Graham’s head, privy to his thoughts as he was experiencing feelings he never had before and then as realization dawned on what it was that he felt. For the reader, those reactions, emotions and contemplations felt very genuine and realistic, and that insight into Graham’s character was one of the things I loved most about this book.
When I crack open a romcom, I’m hoping for endearing characters and a tender yet passionate love story rich with romance and humor. The writing partnership of Lauren Blakely and Lili Valente delivered exactly that with a story that I consumed voraciously and made my heart soar happily as I smiled my way from cover-to-cover. This may have been their first collaboration, but I am praying to the romance novel gods that it is not their last. Sweet, swoony and so very sexy, The V Card by Lauren Blakely and Lili Valente gets five smooches from me!
~ Danielle Palumbo
