I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Practice Makes Perfect by Sarah Adams Series: When in Rome #2
Published by Random House Publishing Group on May 2, 2023
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy
Pages: 352
Goodreads
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A small-town sweetheart and an emotionally unavailable bad boy try to find some common ground in this chemistry-filled romance from the author of The Cheat Sheet and When in Rome.
Annie Walker is on a quest to find her perfect match—someone who complements her happy, quiet life running the local flower shop in Rome, Kentucky. But finding her dream man may be harder than Annie imagined. Everyone knows everyone in her hometown, and the dating prospects are getting fewer by the day. After she overhears her latest date say she is “so unbelievably boring,” Annie starts to think the problem might be her. Is it too late to become flirtatious and fun like the leading ladies in her favorite romance movies? Maybe she only needs a little practice . . . and Annie has the perfect person in mind to be her tutor: Will Griffin.
Will—the sexy , tattooed, and absolutely gorgeous bodyguard—is temporarily back in Rome, providing security for Amelia Rose as excitement builds for her upcoming marriage to Noah Walker, Annie’s brother. He has one personal objective while on the job: stay away from Annie Walker and any other possible attachments to this sleepy town. But no sooner than he gets settled, Will finds himself tasked with helping Annie find the love of her life by becoming the next leading lady of Rome, Kentucky. Will wants no part in changing the sweet and lovely Annie. He knows for a fact that some stuffy, straitlaced guy won’t make her happy, but he doesn’t have the heart to say no.
Amid steamy practice dates and strictly “educational” tutoring lessons, Annie discovers there are more layers to Will’s usual stoic attitude. As the lines of their friendship become dangerously blurred, Annie reconsiders her dream guy. Maybe her love life doesn’t need to be perfect—it just needs to be real.
I’ve wanted to start dabbling in reviewing new releases from Net Galley and throwing my hat in the ring to really start to turn this into a consistent place of review. What better way to start than by reviewing Practice Makes Perfect by Sarah Adams, where he absolutely falls first (in my opinion).
TROPES
Grumpy/sunshine, fake dating, coming of age (learning who you are), virgin heroine.
CONTENT WARNINGS
Death of a parent (historical, referenced), child abuse (historical, referenced), grief, bullying, infidelity (historical, referenced), sexual content.
WHAT WORKED FOR ME
Will as a character. He was broody, dark and was so into our girl Annie that swooned for him. He’s a grumpy bodyguard that is drawn to Annie for reasons he can’t quite explain. A dual POV (point of view) novel, seeing him absolutely fall for Annie before he even recognizes what is happening is everything I love in a romance novel. The angst of “we shouldn’t be doing this” to the “I can’t stay away from you” pipeline in this book gave me feelings. I could continue to gush about Will, honestly. Breaking his own “rules” for dating and seeing him realize he would do anything to keep Annie safe is, truthfully, swoon-worthy.
Annie as a character, specifically her growth. One of my absolute favorite parts of this book was the fact that Will brought out who Annie really is, and not the person she molded herself in to for the sake of others. It bothered me immensely that the whole town called her “Angel Annie”, putting her into a box that she wanted to break from. There’s something so wonderful about seeing someone become who they truly are to be happy. In romance, I love when that happens because the love interest makes our main character feel so safe to explore that side of themself. Annie’s growth as an individual is everything you want to see in a novel and it was a joy to read about.
WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME
While I loved so much of this novel, there were a couple of things that didn’t work for me. Virgin main characters, especially when it’s used as a plot device, is not my favorite thing to read (though not worse than surprise pregnancy or secret baby for me). In this case, it felt like it made sense to who Annie is, but it’s still not my favorite.
While there is nothing wrong with a more closed door romance novel, I prefer to know that going into the book so I have appropriate expectations. Since this was my first Sarah Adams book, I was not expecting the spice level involved. Purely due to my own expectations, this caught me off guard and left me wanting more.
SPICE RATING
Two (2) chili peppers. A primarily closed door romance novel that does provide the angst and leads well into what I assume are steamy scenes behind closed doors. Limited on page action.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Despite some of the small items that I noted, this was easily an enjoyable first outing with Sarah Adams. I’m definitely interested in exploring more of her works and hope she brings us more grumpy and brooding heroes that fall first.
