Lauren Blakely has delivered yet another dazzling romantic comedy in FULL PACKAGE. Check out my review and an excerpt from the book!
Full Package, by Lauren Blakely
Publish Date: January 9, 2017
Publisher: self-published
Format: ARC, provided by the author and Inkslinger PR
Genre: adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Rating: 5 STARS
(Synopsis) I’ve been told I have quite a gift.
Hey, I don’t just mean in my pants. I’ve got a big brain too, and a huge heart of gold. And I like to use all my gifts to the fullest, the package included. Life is smooth sailing....
Until I find myself stuck between a rock and a sexy roommate, which makes for one very hard…place.
Because scoring an apartment in this city is harder than finding true love. So even if I have to shack up with my buddy’s smoking hot and incredibly amazing little sister, a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.
I can resist Josie. I’m disciplined, I’m focused, and I keep my hands to myself, even in the mere five-hundred square feet we share. Until the one night she insists on sliding under the covers with me. It’ll help her sleep after what happened that day, she says.
Spoiler—neither one of us sleeps.
Did I mention she’s also one of my best friends? That she’s brilliant, beautiful and a total firecracker? Guess that makes her the full package too.
What’s a man stuck in a hard place to do?
Lauren Blakely is on a roll. She has created this wonderful world full of incredibly interesting people that I would love to be friends with. They're all meeting and befriending and falling in love, and their stories are AWESOME. Chase Summers and Josie Hammer (yes, Hammer - Wyatt and Nick's sister) have been friends for years and have born witness to this happening over and over again. And now it's their turn.
"I want what every woman wants.""What's that?"She cocks her head. Gazes right into my eyes. Licks her lips. "The full package. I want the full package."
Full Package is a fantastic friends to lovers story. These two are adorable together. They genuinely like each other and share so many mutual likes and experiences. They are also very much attracted to one another, but are willing to keep pushing it aside for the good of the friendship. And when both of them have apartment problems, the only solution is to live together. Chase knows it will be even harder to fight his attraction, but he's willing to do it - for Josie and for her awesome apartment in a great location.
Chase and Josie have this easy camaraderie that made for a sweet story and an easy read. It was funny and light-hearted and romantic. Josie loves to bake - she does own a bakery, after all - so there's a delightful foodie aspect to the book as well. While most of it was told from Chase's POV, his story is interspersed with Josie's recipes, and hidden in the directions are a few tidbits from Josie's thoughts. It was a wonderful way to offer her POV, but yet not.
It's not all fun and games though. Obviously with Chase and Josie living together and dealing with sexual tension so thick you could cut it with a knife, that eventually they would give in to it. And, as we all know, once that happens, a friendship is irrevocably changed forever. So, the question changes from Will they or won't they? to What now?
I wish I could tell her the truth. That it's getting harder for me to pull off this trick. That she challenges my ability to compartmentalize like no one and nothing ever has. All my instincts tell me to kiss her, to touch her, to take her to bed.
I loved every thing about this book. It was so much fun, and I loved Chase and Josie, both as individuals and as a couple. I loved that it took them a little while to figure things out - that, even though they knew each other so well, they still couldn't get it quite right when it counted.
There's still some characters left in this world that haven't found their special someone yet. I can't wait to read all their stories.
I point to the curved wooden stand with a hook at the top. “This. Explain this.”
Josie sets her hands on her hips. “It’s a banana holder.”
I give her a stern look. “I can read. I don’t need to know what. I need to know why.” I poke the object on the shelf at Bed Bath & Beyond, otherwise known as the Nexus of Unnecessary Things. Pretty sure there’s some kind of vortex or force field right smack dab in the middle of this store attracting all the weird, bizarre, and odd home goods. “Why can’t they sit on the kitchen counter? Or, how about in a bowl?”
“Maybe the bananas just like to dangle?” she suggests. “Hang free and all?”
Smacking my forehead, I go along with it. “Aha. That makes perfect sense.”
“I’m here to help.” She tugs on my shirtsleeve. “But can we please get to the sheet aisle? You can’t sleep on a naked mattress.”
“That may be true, but I could definitely sleep naked on a mattress,” I offer, and she laughs as we navigate through another sardine-packed aisle in the mammoth store.
It’s one in the afternoon, and I just moved in this morning. That took all of two hours. Spending my twenties in med school and as a resident gave me very little time for the acquisition of things, so most of my possessions fit in a duffel bag. I have very little. Not even sheets for a queen-size bed. Ergo, I’m spending Saturday at Bed Bath & Beyond, which is a bit like wandering through a Buzzfeed post titled “Ten Things I’ll Never Use.”
More like five hundred. Wait. Make that five hundred and one, because I just spotted the new number one item on the list.
“That,” I say as I make a beeline for a shelf of crème brûlée torches. Grabbing a silvery one, I hold it up. “Please say we can have a housewarming party, and you’ll make crème brûlée, and I can stride all proud and awesome into the kitchen,” I say, puffing out my chest and deepening my voice. “And I can light it with a torch, and we’ll all ooh and ahh at the manly fire I made when I lit up a dessert.”
She arches an eyebrow. “A manly fire?”
I nod vigorously. “And then you’ll let the guests take turns punching me in the face for being a total douche for owning a crème brûlée torch.”
She narrows her eyes. “You actually want people to punch you?”
I’m deadly serious as I answer her. “If I ever own a crème brûlée torch, you have carte blanche to punch me, Josie. You really should.” I drop the torch on the shelf and take her hand, clasping it tightly in mine. “Promise me. From this day forward. Promise you’ll punch me if I ever own a crème brûlée torch, a rotating tie rack, or more than one kind of cheese grater. This is part of our roommate pact.”
She grips my hand tighter, her green eyes glowing with stark seriousness. “I solemnly swear to pummel you under all the aforementioned circumstances. As proof of our friendship and roommate solidarity.”
“You’re a saint,” I say, then wrap a hand around her head and tug her close for a quick kiss on her forehead.
And hello, sweet, sexy scent of Josie. What is this delicious smell? Is it . . . oh fuck me.Cherries. My God, she smells like cherries. Like the perfect summer fruit. Like the naughtiest fruit. And I’ve got to wonder if that cherry scent is her face lotion, her shampoo, or her body wash?
Body wash.
My mind is adrift, and the word association begins. Because what goes with body wash but nudity?
Naked woman in the shower. Washing. Lathering. Soaping.
Ah, hell.
Snap the fuck out it, Summers.
Learn more about Lauren --> Website ** Facebook ** Twitter ** Newsletter ** Goodreads
No comments:
Post a Comment