5 Smooches!
Synopsis
From the New York Times Bestselling author of MISTER O and BIG ROCK, comes a hot & hilarious new standalone romantic comedy…
I’ve been told I have quite a gift.
Hey, I don’t just mean in my pants. I’ve got a big brain too, and a huge heart of gold. And I like to use all my gifts to the fullest, the package included. Life is smooth sailing….
Until I find myself stuck between a rock and a sexy roommate, which makes for one very hard…place.
Because scoring an apartment in this city is harder than finding true love. So even if I have to shack up with my buddy’s smoking hot and incredibly amazing little sister, a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.
I can resist Josie. I’m disciplined, I’m focused, and I keep my hands to myself, even in the mere five-hundred square feet we share. Until the one night she insists on sliding under the covers with me. It’ll help her sleep after what happened that day, she says.
Spoiler—neither one of us sleeps.
Did I mention she’s also one of my best friends? That she’s brilliant, beautiful and a total firecracker? Guess that makes her the full package too.
What’s a man stuck in a hard place to do?
REVIEW
“My God. This woman. This amazing woman.”
A lump in my throat and tears–of utter happiness–in my eyes, I’ve just finished this book, and my god, this book! If the friends-to-lovers thing is your thing, then Full Package is necessary, required, essential reading. Truly, this is not one to be missed. I’m pretty sure that I haven’t hidden, like at all, my fandom for Lauren Blakely. I’ve been like Pacman chomping on those little dots with the way I’ve been devouring her work this year. I’ve loved every single book, each one, unbelievably, more than the last.
“This feels like something else entirely. Something I haven’t felt in a long time.”
But this book, this fabulous book, struck such a personal chord with me. It did something that generally doesn’t happen to me when I read romcoms—it moved me, it touched me, and it made me so very happy. You see, there are some parallels in this story to my life, and in the day-to-day living of it, I’d forgotten. But boy, let me tell you, while reading this book was I ever reminded of that long ago sweet time. That’s one of the things that reading is all about to me. It’s either to serve as an escape or, as in this case, a reminder.
“…something is happening. Something wild, and crazy, and undoubtedly incredibly foolish. But right now, it feels… like sailing, like flying, like soaring.”
Blakely has put out several male point-of-view romcoms within the last year, Full Package being the fifth. If you haven’t experienced the sheer talent of Lauren Blakely in one of her male POV books, what are you waiting for?! The woman is a genius when it comes to getting into these guys’ minds and conveying what’s going through them as they fall in love. She delivers these stories in such an authentic, realistic and unique voice, and it is unlike anything that I have ever read in any other book or by any other author. These books are magnificent, honest-to-goodness romcom magic. Honestly, I have no idea how she does it and, frankly, I’m not going to ask. I’m just going to enjoy the fact that she can do it, that she does it well and that she does it often.
“…it’s euphoric, it’s electric, the rush I get from smelling her, from moving against her, from kissing her.”
Being inside of Chase’s head as he worked through his thoughts, feelings and emotions about Josie was a delight. I had a perma-grin plastered on my face from cover-to-cover. Everything about this relationship’s build-up – from the incredibly ill-advised ‘friends with benefits’ stage to the brief but still slightly angsty and awkward period – made me happy. The friends-to-lovers thing is so totally my thing, especially, as it was in Chase and Josie’s case, when it’s patently obvious to everyone – except, of course, the hero and heroine – that they love each other, that they’re perfect for each other, that they’re meant to be. Chase and Josie were all of those things. Heart-racing, sometimes even aching, I read this book in sweet anticipation of that axis-tilting, world-shifting moment of realization and, oh boy, did Blakely ever give it to me.
“…the chance to be with the one you want—the one who wants you the same d*mn way—is worth the risk.”
This book was absolutely the full package—it was everything that my romance reading, happily-ever-after-seeking heart wanted this book to be. I loved it so very much. Lauren Blakely’s Full Package gets five smooches from me!
~ Danielle Palumbo
