Dani had little hair, zero bees and no established habit of public nudity; nor did she devote any attention to romantic love, empirical evidence having proven it was a drain of energy that would distract from her professional goals. [p. 10]
Dani Brown is bisexual, beautiful, intellectual, and assertively non-romantic. Friends with benefits has always worked out pretty well for her (though some of her exes, such as Jo, might differ). She beseeches the goddess Oshun for a regular source of orgasms. What could possibly go wrong?
Dani is friends with Zafir, the ex-rugby player (and secret romance-novel fan) who works security at the university. Dani brings Zaf coffee, Zaf brings her protein bars, they snark and flirt, and they both know it could never work between them. Until one day they end up on social media tagged #couplegoals, and Zaf is offered free, positive publicity for his boys' mental health charity ... if he and Dani can pretend to be a couple for a few weeks.
What could possibly go wrong, eh?
Zaf and Dani are both very likeable, and the slow burn of their not-a-relationship-honest is paced very nicely: they both have mental health issues, in terms of being adversely affected by painful events in their pasts: the supporting cast of friends and family are all rather lovely... But: this was not the cheering read I had hoped, perhaps because I relate to some aspects of the Dani-before-Zaf mindset. Zaf tells Dani at one point why he loves romances ("book after book about people facing their issues head on, and handling it, and never, ever failing — at least, not for good..." [p. 208]) and I found this resonant, but also perhaps an indication that I shouldn't be reading romances when I'm in a cynical, misanthropic frame of mind. Take a Hint is charming, funny, sweet, well-written: and not for me, not right now. Right book, wrong time.
No comments:
Post a Comment