How to Fail at Flirting, by Denise Williams

“Lord, give me the confidence of an old, rich, white man.”

I love a good romance with sass, steam, and reality - for me it’s refreshing and fun to have a nice place to put my brain for a while, and How to Fail at Flirting is a charming diversion from regular life, while still being about regular life. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

I appreciated that this story deals with some very real issues. There is some difficult content in this story that I felt was handled tremendously well, with adept language and wonderful resolution. While it was tense, at times, it was reassuring and actually very nice to read about characters who have real problems, real baggage, and are able to come to solutions in healthier ways than I often read.

Naya and Jake feel like responsible people who are not still in the chaos of early adulthood. They are able to find a chemistry that I found delightful for how it didn’t feel needlessly dramatic. It’s well constructed plot, wonderful charm, and mutual respect that is here is an absolutely refreshing approach.

They treat each other like real people, and what’s at stake for them is valuable and important. They respond well to each other, and give space, time, effort, attention, and thought to themselves and each other as things progress. It was wonderful to see that their issues weren’t just things that could be solved by one conversation. Reading a romance with 30-somethings as the main characters was so good.

I’m excited to see what Williams does next!

**Thank you to the publishers for my advance reader copy - all opinions are my own :)