Read This Book…

This book is equal parts incredibly steamy sex and absolute hilarity. The romance trope that is central to this book is fake dating which historically I was ho-hum about, but this book totally ruined me and I was all-in after the first couple of chapters.

Dani Brown is a Ph.D. candidate who doesn’t suffer any fools. She has super short hot pink hair and just broke up with her girlfriend who teaches in the same academic department. The ex-girlfriend did the thing that Dani avoids at all costs, which is to start having Feelings. Yes, Feelings with a capital ‘F’ is the surefire way to send Dani Brown running. In the prologue, Dani prays to the goddess Oshun for a no-strings-attached sex buddy.

Her counterpart, Zafir Ansari, is the very fit security guard who works in the same building that Dani teaches in. Unbeknownst to Dani, Zafir is a former rugby player and he began a nonprofit teaching kids both rugby and how to talk about their feelings because Zafir has pretty serious anxiety and panic attacks. Also, Zafir is an absolutely hopeless romantic and full of feelings 24/7.

The two of them, Dani & Zafir, flirt shamelessly daily. Dani brings him coffee on her way from the cafe to her office. Zaf brings Dani a protein bar every morning because he knows she works a lot and never makes time to eat properly. This exchange is their ‘thing.’

So, Dani teaches her first class of the day and after class, Dani has an awkward interaction with her ex and then gets in the elevator which freezes to a stop when she is in it because there is a fire drill she didn’t know about. Meanwhile, Zafir is in his element, making sure everyone is out of the building. He’s been planning this fire drill forever, he’s checking off his boxes, and everyone is outside except, he notices, Dani Brown. She never made it outside. Zaf goes in, hears her yelling from the elevator, pries open the doors and carries her out firefighter style. The lust between is palpable, even to the dozens of students who are now taking photos of them.

Zaf and Dani end up trending on social media and it gets a bunch of donations for his nonprofit so they agree to fake a relationship for a month, you know, for marketing purposes.