Carey Douglas has worked for home remodeling and design gurus Melissa and Rusty Tripp for nearly a decade. A country girl at heart, Carey started in their first store at sixteen, and—more than anyone would suspect—has helped them build an empire. With a new show and a book about to launch, the Tripps are on the verge of superstardom. There’s only one problem: America’s favorite couple can’t stand each other.
James McCann, MIT graduate and engineering genius, was originally hired as a structural engineer, but the job isn’t all he thought it’d be. The last straw? Both he and Carey must go on book tour with the Tripps and keep the wheels from falling off the proverbial bus.
Unfortunately, neither of them is in any position to quit. Carey needs health insurance, and James has been promised the role of a lifetime if he can just keep the couple on track for a few more weeks. While road-tripping with the Tripps up the West Coast, Carey and James vow to work together to keep their bosses’ secrets hidden, and their own jobs secure. But if they stop playing along—and start playing for keeps—they may have the chance to build something beautiful together…
I was a little scared going into this one, I’m not gonna lie. The Goodreads reviews are bad. If the reviews for a Christina Lauren book are this bad, then there must be some serious problem with the book, right?? I kept waiting and waiting for something seriously offensive to happen in this book, but it really was just a nice quick and cute read from the author-duo.
First and foremost, James and Carey were sooooo cute together. He was just so sweet and caring and I loved how their relationship developed.
I was also very appreciative of how Carey’s disorder was discussed and represented. Chronic illnesses and disorders are not usually portrayed often in romance books, so it was really great to see here.
I do think we could have done without the interview and blog post interjections between chapters. The interviews were useful to build suspense for the ending, but the blog posts were kind of just there to reinforce what we were already being told about the story.
In general, I would have just loved to see more of Carey and James and really understand more of their background. There are a lot of things hinted to about Carey’s life growing up that the authors could have really expanded on.
These are really just small ideas I had though, and overall, I thought this was a very cute and quick read. It wasn’t the best romance book I’ve ever read, but it definitely has the Christina Lauren touch which you just can’t seem to go wrong with.
Have you read this one? Let me know what you thought below!
Louise Reads 