[I received an electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Avon in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]
Summary
Rhiannon has worked her tail off building her dating app, Crush, into one of the top apps in the country. As a woman, she had a long list of bad dating experiences she wanted to screen out for herself and other women looking for someone with her app. And people responded. Now she has a chance to buy out the older style Matchmaker. It would give her a huge market share and help her serve folks who wanted to go with the personality profile style of dating AND the app-swiping folks who used Crush.
Samson Lima was a football player for awhile. And when that fell apart, he took care of his sick uncle for many years. Now, his aunt needs him. She’s the sole owner of Matchmaker now that her sister has passed away. The company needs an infusion of something fresh – and that’s Samson. He’s agreed to be a spokesperson for Matchmaker and also let them find him a match publicly to get some good publicity and show people what the process looks like.
Samson and Rhiannon are at an industry event when they run into each other. Again. Awhile ago, they matched up on Crush and spent a steamy evening together. Rhiannon broke her own rules for hook ups and agreed to a second date. When Samson didn’t show, she deleted the profile she had on the app. He was dead to her. She didn’t know his uncle’s health took a turn. When Samson got his feet under him again and remembered the broken date, he couldn’t find “Claire” on Crush anymore and had no way of apologizing for ghosting her. But judging from the daggers she glares at him, forgiveness is not going to come from Rhiannon any time soon.
Review
This was delightful! Samson and Rhi are fantastic characters. She has a history that keeps her wary and always on the offensive. He has been burned by people he thought of as family. They are both terrified to be vulnerable and trust others, which makes trying to build a relationship tricky.
Which is fine because Rhi doesn’t want a “relationship.” A physical connection is all she wants from Samson – and she tells herself she doesn’t even want that. But the chemistry between them is unavoidable. Their trust issues keep cropping up, though, and put a wedge between them again and again.
This is another football-adjacent story that addresses concussion issues. I enjoyed how the author worked the issue in without using active players. It felt different and worked in some additional dynamics that I enjoyed. It never felt like it was tacked on to be timely or “relevant.”
The secondary characters were as delightful as Rhi and Samson. I would love for this to be a series like the Reluctant Royals series by Alyssa Cole or the Bluff Point series by Jenn McKinlay. In those series, a secondary character in one story becomes the protagonist in another. There are several secondary characters in this I would love to see star in their own book! *
I have been on a romantic comedy (rom-com) kick lately, and I’m loving it. This is a terrific entry in that genre. Don’t miss this one! (Language, sex)
*[I discovered this IS going to be a series!! This is book one in the Modern Love series. Book 2 – currently titled Girl Gone Viral – is scheduled to release in Spring 2020]