Mary Trace is bright, bubbly and back in the dating pool in her midthirties. All of her closest friends are in love, and she refuses to miss out on romance. So when a regular customer at her trendy Brooklyn boutique wants to set Mary up on a blind date with her son, she gives a hesitant yes. John Modesto-Whitford is gorgeous and well-groomed, so maybe dinner won’t be a total bust—until he drops a less-than-flattering comment about Mary’s age.

Desperate to be nothing like his snake of a politician father, public defender John Modesto-Whitford prides himself on his honesty and candor. But his social awkwardness and lack of filter just blew it with the most beautiful woman he’s ever dated.

Luckily, Mom’s machinations keep Mary and John running into each other all summer long, and soon they resort to fake dating to get her to back off. When their pretense turns to real friendship—and some surprisingly hot chemistry—can these two stubborn individuals see past their rocky start to a rock-solid future together?

I received a complimentary copy of this book for review consideration.
This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

In Review: My Thoughts

Cara Bastone just keeps hitting that sweet spot and giving me exactly what I need and want in a romance novel. As a single woman of a certain age, I found Mary extremely relatable. (I also found myself incredibly glad my mother wasn’t like hers, who constantly harped on her about how she was going to die alone.) John’s feelings of inadequacy and hangups about where he was in his life in relation to Mary endeared him to me. I do love a guy who is grumpy on the outside, but vulnerable and sweet underneath.

As you may know, I do love me a good slow burn and Cara nailed that with Flirting with Forever. More than once during this book, I wanted to smush John and Mary together. Their chemistry was so apparent to, well, everyone but them. Until that bar scene at least. *spontaneously combusts* I loved seeing my favorites from earlier in this series again, and I especially loved how they gave these two the time and space to figure things out on their own.

The audio for this book was excellent, too. It’s not often I spend literally hours — if I’m not driving — listening to an audio nonstop, but that’s exactly what I did with this one. Susannah Jones did a great job bringing this story, John, and Mary to life.

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Have you read any of Cara Bastone’s books?