Title: Take a Hint, Dani Brown
Author: Talia Hibbert
Series: The Brown Sisters
Source: My local library.
Genre: Contemporary Romance.
Explicit? Yeppers!
Trigger Warning: Vehicular death, anxiety, depression.
Summary: Danika Brown knows what she wants: professional success, academic renown, and an occasional roll in the hay to relieve all that career-driven tension. But romance? Been there, done that, burned the T-shirt. Romantic partners, whatever their gender, are a distraction at best and a drain at worst. So Dani asks the universe for the perfect friend-with-benefits—someone who knows the score and knows their way around the bedroom.

When brooding security guard Zafir Ansari rescues Dani from a workplace fire drill gone wrong, it’s an obvious sign: PhD student Dani and ex-rugby player Zaf are destined to sleep together. But before she can explain that fact, a video of the heroic rescue goes viral. Now half the internet is shipping #DrRugbae—and Zaf is begging Dani to play along. Turns out, his sports charity for kids could really use the publicity. Lying to help children? Who on earth would refuse?

Dani’s plan is simple: fake a relationship in public, seduce Zaf behind the scenes. The trouble is, grumpy Zaf’s secretly a hopeless romantic—and he’s determined to corrupt Dani’s stone-cold realism. Before long, he’s tackling her fears into the dirt. But the former sports star has issues of his own, and the walls around his heart are as thick as his… um, thighs.

Suddenly, the easy lay Dani dreamed of is more complex than her thesis. Has her wish backfired? Is her focus being tested? Or is the universe just waiting for her to take a hint?

My Thoughts:

I came out of this book not knowing if I wanted my own Dani or my own Zaf, because seriously, both of them are awesome in their own ways. And gorgeous. And wonderful. And insecure but oh so deserving of love.

Dani is just as feisty as you may have thought she would be from having read Get a Life, Chloe Brown but it’s her moments of thoughtfulness, her intelligence and her insecurities that made me love her so much. Her banter with Zaf was something truly amusing to read and I thoroughly enjoyed the two of them even before they started to get romantic.

Zaf is so sweet, but snarky and grumpy all at the same time and honestly I spent most of the book wanting to force them to just use their words with each other. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that his interest in her was not of the -change her- variety but rather about accepting her the way she is.

Also, who am I to deny myself the enjoyment of a fake dating trope? Unlikely. I gobbled it up, and loved the cause behind it.

This book is a must-read if you want a hot, cozy romance filled with a lot of heart. Seriously, Talia Hibbert will not disappoint you, or at least she hasn’t disappointed me yet and I’m hoping she doesn’t.