Hayley has never really gotten over her childhood crush on Corey, her older brother’s best friend, but since he lives in California and she lives in Seattle, she doesn’t really have to deal with it… at least until her life implodes around her and she has to stay with her brother for a bit. Old feelings are rekindled, but nothing can come of it. Hayley’s brother Jonathan is just too overprotective and Corey would never risk their friendship for a girl… or would he?
I loved Whitney G’s Sincerely, Carter series when I read it years ago. I have a bunch of her other books on my Kindle and haven’t read any of them, but of course, when I saw that she was releasing a brother’s best friend romance, one of my ultimate favorite tropes, I had to pre-order it. Unfortunately, it was really one issue after another to get this book. First, the pre-order date was pushed back, and then Amazon had some kind of problem with the file and so pre-orders didn’t go out, and then it was like a week after the release date and I still didn’t have it so I emailed Whitney and she graciously emailed me a copy of the book without question. She was really awesome about it so I have to give a big shout out to her for that!
Anyway. It looks like a lot of people had a problem with the heroine in this book. And, yeah, Hayley is immature and a lying liar and honestly kind of awful, but she didn’t really bother me that much. I could usually see where she was coming from and why she’d done the things that she chose to do. I really had more of a problem with Corey, who was so hot-and-cold that I could hardly keep his feelings straight. Like, come on, buddy. Do you like her or don’t you? Do you want to be with her or don’t you? Are you really that afraid of your best friend? What’s he going to do to do? Do you really honestly think he’d kill you for touching his sister? And that’s another thing that I didn’t like – everybody was terrified of Jonathan. Is he really that bad? I have his books on my TBR and now I’m kind of terrified to read them!
I loved the sexual tension, the email banter, and the flashbacks, but overall, the book kind of fell flat for me. I guess I just wished for a little bit more swoons and a little bit less drama. I still love Whitney G, but this book just didn’t do it for me.
Final rating: ★★★☆☆
The Bibliophagist 