Butterface
by Avery Flynn
Series: The Hartigans, #1
Genre: Contemporary Romance/Romantic Comedy
Release Date: July 30, 2018
It’s true. I’m not what most people would call “pretty” and, well, high school was rough. Fast forward ten years and life is good…
Until a bunch of jerks think it’s hilarious to put the “butterface” (AKA me) on a wedding Kiss Cam with the hottest guy ever—and that old humiliation hits hard.
I recognize him immediately. The sexiest cop in Waterbury and totally out of my league.
But then he kisses me. And we totally forget the room, the crowd, everything.
Then he tells everyone we’ve been dating for months.
Soon everything starts to feel too real, from adorable fights over “necessary” tools to fix my broken porch to surviving a free-for-all dinner with his six siblings to picking up where our last kiss left off.
But there’s something he’s not telling me about why he’s really hanging around, and I’m pretty sure it has to do with my mob-connected brothers.
Because this is not a make-over story, and Cinderella is only a fairy tale…
Bold and funny, Butterface delivered the hot romantic comedy as promised, but also struck a real-life chord with how hard the struggle often is to not be one of the “beautiful” people or fit into the societal norm.“We both know that I’m not the girl who ends up with a happily ever after with a guy like you, so I need to walk away now while I still can.”
It was hard not to fall in love with Gina. Despite being made fun of and being the butt of many a practical joke, she’s strong, driven, and smart, and she’s not afraid to use any of those traits to get what she wants to build a fulfilling life and career. She’s not convinced that she’ll ever find someone to love her just for her, so she’s convinced herself that love isn’t important – she has her family and her friends, and that will be enough.
Even though Gina sees Ford as one of the beautiful people, he’s carrying around his own baggage that makes him feel less. He’s got his own insecurities and is certainly a bit inept when it comes to social interactions, but he’s kind and fair, and, something that also serves him well as a detective, he knows better than to just look at the surface of something, he knows you need to look further to get a true picture of something…or someone.
Watching these two struggle to come together elicited all sorts of emotions. There was some great dialogue between the two – making me laugh out loud as well as sigh. It was also frustrating to watch Ford stumble over words and not be able to communicate his feelings and to see Gina’s heart breaking.
One thing that did bother me a bit more than I thought it would was the very bad behavior of Ford’s colleagues when it came to Gina’s looks. She may not have been beautiful in the classic sense, but it really made me very angry to hear them continually make comments about her looks. And I kind of wish that Ford would have found a way to set them straight – he never really confronted them, just kind of talked around their comments. I’m sure things like this happen in real life more often than I would like to believe, but I would like to think more people would stand up to people like that rather than just ignore that type of commentary. So, kudos to the author for eliciting such strong feelings in me – well played, or should I say written!
This is the first book in a new series, The Hartigans, that is set in the same Harbor City world as many other books by this author, so it was fun to see a little bit of a crossover between series. The Hartigan family seems to be filled with fun, colorful characters that are going to provide some great stories for future books in this series, and I can’t wait to dive into those when they are available.
This author is one that I know will not disappoint when I pick up one of her books. Guaranteed to deliver romance, steam, and some laugh out loud moments, Butterface is definitely worth adding to your TBR list!
I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book I received from the publisher from NetGalley.
USA Today bestselling romance author Avery Flynn has three slightly-wild children, loves a hockey-addicted husband and is desperately hoping someone invents the coffee IV drip.
She fell in love with romance while reading Johanna Lindsey’s Mallory books. It wasn’t long before Avery had read through all the romance offerings at her local library. Needing a romance fix, she turned to Harlequin’s four books a month home delivery service to ease the withdrawal symptoms. That worked for a short time, but it wasn’t long before the local book stores’ staffs knew her by name.
Avery was a reader before she was a writer and hopes to always be both. She loves to write about smartass alpha heroes who are as good with a quip as they are with their *ahem* other God-given talents. Her heroines are feisty, fierce and fantastic. Brainy and brave, these ladies know how to stand on their own two feet and knock the bad guys off theirs.
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