Samantha Evans’s life is going to hell. Not only has she rage-quit her beloved, high-powered job, but she is suddenly afflicted by hormones, free time, and an unavoidable, unignorable, undeniably gorgeous irritant in the form of Nick Hawke, her extreme sports star neighbour, who has come home to take over the reins of his grandmother's second-hand bookshop. Sam needs something to keep her from begging for her old job back until she's good and sure her boss understands how wrong he was, and taking a low-risk, low-stress job helping Nick at the bookstore might be just the thing.
After all, it's not like Nick is the right guy to help her with her hormones. He'll just be fun to look at while she searches for the one.
Nick has six months to get over an injury before Everest and a big, fat contract beckon. That means no sports, no danger and, above all else, no risks. It means playing it safe. And Nick Hawke doesn’t do safe. So he’s going to need something to stave off the boredom while selling books he doesn't read to people who wouldn't know a carabineer from a crochet hook. What could be safer than hiring a cranky, unemployed accountant to help run the bookstore? Sam is efficient and methodical and messing up her neat, post-it note world could be a fun way to pass the time….
Risky Business mixes the classic romance of Philadelphia Story, the humour and wit of When Harry Met Sally, and a strong, contemporary Australian setting to create a delightful, irresistible, utterly satisfying treat of a novel.
I loved this book! It was such a breath of fresh air after reading some crappy or mediocre books the last couple of weeks. This is pure chicklit romance and it reminded me why I love this genre so much. With any book that has romance in it you know how it's going to end. I mean nobody wants to read a romance novel that will leave them sad or malcontent with the ending. It's the setting and the story in between the beginning and the end that determines how good of a book this is.
This is obviously not my first romantic read and I've pretty much read all possible variations of the same story. There are things that often come back and left me with the feeling of "oh this was fun and relaxing, but I've read this before and was ably to predict almost every detail". To be clear this was absolutely not the case with Risky Business! Sam and Nick's story was very original and even had me laughing out loud a couple of times.
Sam is hilarious in this non intentional way. Somehow the big 3-0 is approaching and with her neighbour dying, she realizes she has no friends and no live plus suddenly her eggs are revolting and demanding to be fertilized. I am not kidding you, the conversations about that topic throughout this book had me cracking up. Needing to re-evaluate her life, she quits her job because she wasn't getting the appreciation she deserved, starts working in the bookshop downstairs and is on a mission to find herself a baby daddy. Though not everyone would just do, the girl still has some standards.
Nick is almost the opposite of Sam. She's all list and goals, while he's more the go with the flow kind of guy. He's a professional mountain climber, but he now has to take things slow to help him recover from an injury. Thus he's the one who gets to take over his grandmother's book store and since he doesn't know much about it, he hires Sam to help him out. Nick, after hearing Sam's story, even decides to help her out with her man hunt, though they mostly end up with Nick laughing his ass of. There is a reason why this guy is a professional mountain climber and not a matchmaker.
The connection between these two characters was of the charts. Sam isn't blind and fully acknowledges the hotness and awesomeness that is Nick. They get along great, but she's looking for someone permanent in her life and casual sex just seems like a bad idea when you have to work together. Not that Sam actually believes Nick is attracted to her, though he very much is. He clearly agrees he's not the one for Sam, but that doesn't mean they couldn't have a little fun. Due time it actually becomes more difficult for Nick to set her up with other men and to keep his hands off of her.
I really liked how slowly and natural things progressed between them. There is that attraction, but neither of them really acts on it, so first there is this friendship before anything more happens. A couple of times I believed that it was finally 'the moment', but always something or someone interupts, leaving me with some frustration. This was all in a good way, because the anticipation only grows and you're not left disappointed.
The writing was excellent, the characters fabulous and the humor spot on. There is not one thing missing from this book. I will definitely be reading more from Amy Andrews.
4.5
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