REVIEW: Shut Up and Kiss Me by Lauren Blakely
5 SMOOCHES!
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SYNOPSIS:
When that toe-curling, knee-weakening, sizzling sleepover between best friends definitely shouldn’t happen again…
How to resist sleeping with your best friend when you’re stuck in a hotel room in Vegas with the charming, glasses-wearing hottie.
1. Slather your face in a grapefruit mask
2. Wear a big, fluffy robe
3. Make him do the same
Oops.
Didn’t work. Turns out our libidos had other plans.
But, no biggie. After epic, soul-shattering banging, I’ll just put the genie back in the bottle the next morning. Only, that’s easier said than done. After years of scraping by, Nolan and I just landed the big break of a lifetime for our scrappy online restaurant review show. We’re going to New York for a month.
Just the two of us. TOGETHER ALL THE TIME.
But I’ve already lost my best friend once, so I’ll do whatever it takes to resist thoroughly delicious Nolan again.
Until I learn whatever it takes might cost me everything.
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REVIEW:
I love the friends-to-lovers trope, and it is something that Lauren Blakely just does so incredibly well. She has perfected the art of setting friendships on fire and capturing all those feels on the page. I don’t know if it’s because I’m living my own best-friends-to-lovers relationship or not, but these romances just pull at my heart in special ways. Lauren’s sexy and sweet contemporaries or romantic comedies always entertain me. The way that she blends her charming plots with a steamy romance between two characters I can’t help but root for never fails to produce the kind of story that I fall into with ease. Blakely’s romances are light-hearted pleasures to read, and I’m always happy to read or listen to her latest one. I listened to the audiobook of Shut Up and Kiss Me narrated by Jason Clarke and Julia Whelan, who both knocked their portrayals of these characters out of the park.
Nolan and Emerson’s easy-going, comfortable friendship was genuine and real, and whether it was as friends or a couple, I loved them together. Between years as best friends and co-stars of their own YouTube food show, these two were very much in-sync and knew each other well. It was obvious how much they cared for one another, but somewhere along the way, their feelings started to change. Once they each realized their feelings for the other had shifted, the chemistry between them exploded and the flood gates of emotion opened wide—but neither of them was willing to sacrifice all that they worked for and dreamed about. Love and chemistry like theirs aren’t things easily denied or ignored, and Blakely took us through all those competing emotions, those will-they or won’t they moments and the push and pull of love in captivating detail. It wasn’t all smooth sailing, though, and Lauren interjected just enough conflict to keep things interesting without drowning this budding romance in drama.
Shut Up and Kiss Me was a charming friends-to-lovers romance that kept a smile on my face as I devoured it in a single sitting. I was fully invested in this flirty, fiery romance, and it’s exactly these kinds of fun, sexy, easy-reading stories that I love most from Blakely. Shut Up and Kiss Me by Lauren Blakely gets 5 smooches from me!
~Danielle Palumbo
BUY IT NOW!
