Source: Received an egalley in exchange for an honest review.
Publisher: Rennie Road Books
Release Date: February 12, 2018
Number of Pages: 452 (ebook)
DESCRIPTION
A sexy new standalone from USA Today bestseller Sarina Bowen.
You’d think a billion dollars, a professional hockey team and a six-bedroom mansion on the Promenade would satisfy a guy. You’d be wrong.
For seven years Rebecca has brightened my office with her wit and her smile. She manages both my hockey team and my sanity. I don’t know when I started waking in the night, craving her. All I know is that one whiff of her perfume ruins my concentration. And her laugh makes me hard.When Rebecca gets hurt, I step in to help. It’s what friends do. But what friends don’t do is rip off each others’ clothes for a single, wild night together.Now she’s avoiding me. She says we’re too different, and it can never happen again. So why can’t we keep our hands off each other?G E T Y O U R C O P Y N O W !
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SARINA BOWEN is a USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romance. She lives in Vermont's Green Mountains with her family, six chickens and too much ski gear and hockey equipment.
In 2016, Sarina became a Rita Award winner! The Romance Writers of America honored HIM by Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy with Best Contemporary Romance, Mid-Length.
Connect to Sarina:
EXCERPT
I grab a towel off a waiting stack of them and toss it onto the edge. “You can sit and put your feet in.”
She’s wearing a short little knit dress that’s been making me crazy all evening, so it would be easy enough for her to strip off those stockings, sit on the towel, and drop both feet in.
And that’s what she does. She eases one stocking down over a smooth knee and tugs it off.
I don’t want to stand there staring like a middle-school boy. Okay, I do want to. But I don’t want to make her uncomfortable. So I go over to the sound system instead, and I set my phone on the speaker and cue up a really old playlist. One she’ll recognize.
When I turn around again, she’s seated on the towel, both legs hanging down into the churning water. “Ah. Wow.” She looks up at me, her eyes sparkling. “Nice place you got here.”
“Isn’t it?” I toe off my shoes and kick them to the side.
The first song comes on, and it’s a Macklemore tune that we used to play far too often in our first office. Rebecca laughs immediately. “You didn’t! I haven’t heard this playlist in forever. But I’ll bet I still know every transition. Lady Gaga is next.”
“She sure is.”
Rebecca kicks her feet, making a splash. “I have a little confession to make.”
“What’s that?” I loosen my tie and slide the knot out.
“Well…” She grins up at me. “I used to have a crush on you. Back in the early days.”
My hands freeze on the tie silk. “Get out of town. You did not.”
“No, I really did.” Her cheeks are pink. “That first year especially. But you were taken, and you were my boss. Those two things made it pretty easy to tamp down, when you’re a practical girl like me.”
I walk over and drop down beside her, my back to the water, though, because I’m still wearing trousers and socks. “So how does that work, exactly?”
“What?” She gives me a sidelong glance, but then looks away again and won’t meet my eyes.
“How do you stop wanting someone? I’m a practical person, but I don’t see how that makes it any easier. Nothing seems to mute the raging attraction I have for you.”
Her chin turns quickly toward me, and I seize the opportunity to kiss her. And it only takes one kiss—one slide of my lips over hers, and I’m on fire again.
We’re facing opposite directions, so it’s awkward as hell. But I don’t even care. I take greedy sip after greedy sip of her mouth, until she pulls back to stare at me. Her color is high and her eyes are bright and happy. “This is like Twister.”
“It’s better,” I correct. Lady Gaga comes on, just as Becca said she would. “Are we getting into this pool or what?”
Becca kicks a foot in the water. “I’m tempted. But I don’t have a bathing suit.”
“Oh, snap.”
She smiles and shakes her head. “Are you really getting in?”
“We don’t have to.” I’m never going to pressure her.
Her fingers trail across the surface of the bubbling water. “But this is an adventure, right?”
“Right.” I stand up and remove my socks. She’s watching me. And I can’t read her expression. “What?”
“Just wondering what else you’re going to take off.” She smiles.
“Come here.” The order rolls off my tongue.
But Rebecca doesn’t blink. She gets up and turns toward me, curiosity in her eyes
“You tell me. What am I taking off?”
She puts two hands tentatively on my chest, and I make myself be patient. Everything I ever wanted is on the other side of this moment. I just need us to break through this awkwardness—the “will we or won’t we” tension.
Her fingers find the top button of my shirt. “I’m not getting in the water unless you are.”
That’s a compromise I can live with. I find my lower shirt buttons and work upwards, until we meet in the middle. She pushes the two halves of my shirt apart and runs a hand down my bare chest.
My inner caveman stands up and cheers.
REVIEW
It may be only be the beginning of the year, but I'm calling it...this is going to be one of my top books of 2018!
Holllllllyyy cow! As soon as I started reading BROOKLYNAIRE I couldn't put it down. I stayed up reading it way later on a work-night than I should have and had to physically put my kindle in another room so that I could get at least a little bit of sleep. I absolutely LOVED Nate and Becca, and I thought that their romance was AMAZING! This was seriously everything that I could've possibly hoped for in this book, and after I finished it, I immediately wanted to read it again! I could seriously get stuck in an infinite loop just reading this book over...and over, and I'd love every single moment!
The reason that I'd already had hopes for this book was because I'd already met Becca and Nate in Sarina Bowen's Brooklyn Bruisers series and I shipped them from the very start! As soon as I heard that Sarina was writing their story I was ecstatic, and I couldn't wait to read it...then I saw the cover and my excitement level got even higher! I'm still super smitten with this cover, and it makes me love Nate for far more than just his personality. ;P
Once I actually started reading BROOKLYNAIRE, I loved Becca and Nate even more! I loved that Becca was so fierce, confident, and extremely sure of who she was. I respected her so much, and I absolutely loved getting to see inside of her head...and Nate. I loved EVERYTHING about Nate. I thought he was sweet in a seriously adorably, dorky way, and he was so awkward about certain things which made me love him even more! He was intelligent, kind, and super thoughtful when it came to Becca. I loved that Becca was always on his mind, and I really, truly adored the two of them together! Their friendship and working relationship was amazing, but their romantic relationship was even better! I loved seeing how their relationship changed, and I was floored by just how perfectly it grew throughout the story. I honestly couldn't have imagined it any better and I thought that it was absolutely perfect!
Overall, I loved BROOKLYNAIRE! It's been my favourite out of all of Sarina Bowen's books that I've read so far! I loved Becca and Nate so much, and I thought that this story was wonderful! I loved the writing, the romance, the Jane Austen/Pride & Prejudice references, all the puns and the palindromes, and of course I loved the characters! BROOKLYNAIRE had me constantly smiling, laughing, and swooning and I seriously CANNOT recommend it enough. If you already love Sarina Bowen's books, especially her Brooklyn Bruisers series, I think you'll love this, but I also think that you'll be fine picking this one up without reading her other books. I really appreciated having read the previous books, but if you haven't read them, you'd be able to catch up as it really centres mostly just around Becca and Nate! It's a fantastic friends-to-lovers, office romance and Nate also happens to be a Billionaire (if that title didn't give him away ;P), so it's packed full of fan-favourite tropes and Sarina Bowen has deftly mastered them all! If you decide to give this book a go I hope you love it as much as I did!
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