Synopsis

She’s desperate for another bestseller… and she’ll go to any length to get it. Even if it means sacrificing her pride to chase the hottest bachelor in town and get him to break her heart…

Once the literary world’s golden girl, Aspen Lourde can’t seem to produce another successful book, and the pressure’s on to prove she’s not just a one-hit-wonder. But there’s a catch: her bestseller was a heartbreak hit, straight from her own love life disaster. Without any fresh romantic turmoil to fuel her pen, Aspen needs inspiration quick enough to create a book her agent can sell to her publisher. So she escapes for the summer to the Outer Banks with a plan to live a story worth writing.

Brick Babel is a romance novelist’s dream: a local heartthrob with a reputation as wild as the horses running free in the town. He’s everything Aspen needs for a muse kickstart—gorgeous, moody, and notoriously unattainable. His affairs are legendary in the small town, and every woman warns her off, including her sister.

Too bad a good heartbreak is exactly what she needs to meet her deadline.

But Brick refuses to play the game, rejecting all of her advances. When Aspen hears his tour company is on the verge of bankruptcy, she offers him a deal: fake a whirlwind summer romance, then ditch her, drama guaranteed.

Desperate to save his grandfather’s business, Brick agrees to the ridiculous deal. What starts as a contractual fling spirals out of control as lines blur and real feelings emerge. Brick’s falling hard, and Aspen’s rethinking her plot twist. The novel might be her ticket back to the top, but at what cost?

Because Aspen’s finally found her muse, but some stories may be too true to share.

Book of the Month isn’t just about finding love where you least expect it. It’s about finding yourself in the pages of life’s unexpected chapters.

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Review

Aspen thinks that she needs heartbreak to write the perfect book. What she doesn’t understand is that sometimes love cures all.

I am not sure if I have read anything by this author before, but this book was a delight to read. There was tension, bargains, sizzling sex, and a HEA.

Aspen and Brick are perfect for each other, but it takes time for them to break down the walls. Actually, it is an agreement for Brick to break her heart at the end of the summer so she can break through the writer’s block that she has at the moment. Or at least one that will let her write a book as good as her first that everyone raves about. I don’t think Aspen realizes that just because one heartache wrote a spectacular book, it isn’t necessarily the recipe for another blockbuster hit.

There are some great supporting characters in this book. I have to say that Marco endeared himself to me. He runs a souvenir-type shop and believes in the power of weed. But he also believes in romance. The Brick hating club is an interesting bunch. They claim to have been traumatized by his actions, but when it gets down to brass tacks, they admit that they don’t have these horror tales that the ringleader wants to believe. And, of course, there is Sierra. She is Aspen’s sister, and I am excited to see her getting her own book. There are hints and tension with Zane, Brick’s friend, but we don’t know the whole story. I can’t wait to see what that is all about.

I enjoyed watching Aspen and Brick’s relationship grow, hit some stumbling blocks, and come back together. It wasn’t easy, but why be miserable when you can be happy?

And I suspected something about the doodling she did while writing. You will probably figure it out, too, once you read the book, but I’ll leave you hanging there!

I will definitely be checking out the next book with Sierra and Kane’s story. There are so many characters that would benefit from their own book. I hope we see that!

We give this book 4 paws up.

About the Author

Jennifer Probst is the New York Times bestselling author of The Billionaire Builders series, The Searching for . . . series, The Marriage series, and The Steele Brothers series, among others. The Start of Something Good is the first book in her new Stay series. Like some of her characters, Probst, along with her husband and two sons, calls New York’s Hudson Valley home. There, she enjoys reading, watching “shameful reality television,” and visiting an animal shelter, when she isn’t traveling to meet readers.

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