Come As You Are by Lauren Blakely

I couldn’t have scripted a more perfect night.

For one fantastic evening, at a masquerade party in the heart of Manhattan, I’m not the millionaire everyone wants a piece of. Fine—multimillionaire. But who’s counting all those commas? Not me, and not the most intriguing woman I've ever met, who happens to like dancing, witty banter, and hot, passionate up-against-the-wall sex as much as I do.

There's no need for names or business cards. And that’s why I’m eager to get to know her more, since my mystery woman seems to like me for me, rather than for my huge…bank account.

Everything’s coming up aces. Until the next day when things get a little complicated. (Newsflash — a lot complicated.)

***

He's charming, brilliant, an incredible lover, and right now I want to stab fate in the eyeballs.

I've had one goal I've been working toward, and lo and behold, my mystery man is the very person who stands between me and my dream job. A job I desperately need since my hard-knock life has nothing in common with his star-kissed one.

But it’s time to put that fairytale night behind me, and focus on learning what makes him tick. Too bad it turns out his quirks are my quirks, and his love affair with New York matches mine.

And as we spend our days together, I discover something else that feels like a cruel twist of fate — I’m falling for this naughty prince charming, and that’s not an ending I can write to our story.

Here’s the issue. I read this back-to-back-to-back-to-back with a bunch of similarish romance books over one weekend while I worked on jigsaw puzzles and ate Cheerios for pretty much every meal. Yeah, I know how to have a good time.

Most of what I remember from my reading that weekend is just a blur of doing it. Very hot doing it, but plots and why I loved something (because I did indeed love this book), that I can’t remember for the life of me. So instead of trying to fake it, or skipping this review, I’m going to share my notes and how I described this to my friends. Typically, I tone it down for the blog, so consider this your warning if you want to keep on assuming I’m a well adjusted adult human.

“Wow, this is like slutty Cinderella. GET IT GURL.”

“There was just very hot library sex…after a masquerade party. I didn’t even know that was a thing in contemporary, or something I thought would be hot, but god dayum. fans self Also, where are all these masquerade balls happening in the real world. We should go to them. And I wanna dress up for Halloween now. Okbyeeee.”

“These dates are so cute, I can’t even. How are they just not kissing all the time?”

“Hot diggity dog.”

“What, it’s over already. Oh no, only one more LB left! Good thing she puts out like three books a month lolz.”

And this has been a stream of consciousness of my horrible review notes for a book that was so steamy, so cutesy, SO worth reading. Pro tip: get the audio. It’s narrated by Sebastian York (and Andi Arndt). It’s swoony.

XOXO