Scarlett Davis has always been the square peg trying to fit into the round hole of her reality TV family. Her sisters, Jensen and Ava, are so effortlessly glamorous, as is their Hollywood actress mother, now in recovery from her addictions detailed in the first book in the series. Whereas Scarlett was the sporty one. The curvaceous one. The one who always felt "other." Now, on the night that could save her flagging fashion design career, her insecurities come to a head when a rival goes in for the kill.
Scarlett and her sisters have been killing themselves the last several years starting their own fashion and design business, Scava. They had to work twice as hard to get folks to take them seriously in the uber-competitive New York fashion scene, but they were making headway, until Orelia Peters decided to swoop in and steal as many of their clients as possible. Orelia is young, gorgeous, and not above a good social media stunt. She also puts the mean in "mean girl." With Orelia chipping away at their client list, Scarlett is using the Met Gala to make headway in landing Cecilia Palmer, a hot young actress starting to make a name for herself. Naturally Orelia has also set her sights on Cecilia, unleashing all of Scarlett's insecurities. A pointedly barbed conversation at the gala has Orelia implying to Cecilia that Scarlett is a hack, a has-been, yesterday's news. Scarlett, desperate to bag Cecilia as a client and on the ropes then does the one thing she knows she shouldn't do - she tells both of them she's engaged to Rafael "Rafe" Sánchez. Impossibly good-looking, former footballer, now getting his new Manhattan Football Club off the ground, and oh yeah - her BFF.
Rafe and Scarlett met on a reality TV cooking competition they did together a few years back, sparks flew, and viewers 'shipped them all the way to ratings gold. But while the spark is undeniably, they're strictly friends. Why? Because Rafe, while a decent guy, is a Grade A Commitment-phobe, thanks to Daddy's alcoholism and his parents' combustible marriage. And Scarlett? Rafe's a decent enough guy to know she's too soft and vulnerable for a non-commitment style affair. So he leaves her alone, sort of. He likes her. She likes him. They quickly become best friends and spend a great deal of time together. Now she's rushing across the room to him at the Met Gala begging him to play along with this fake engagement charade and like a fool he says yes. To be honest, as he's trying to sign players, bring in big name sponsors and generate excitement for his football club, there's also a little something in it for him.
As romance readers we all know where this is going, our friends are already half in love with each other they're both just too cowardly to do anything about it. Scarlett's desperation to save her business is what pushes them together in close quarters, and ultimately into bed. But whew, vulnerabilities and past hurts are hard to overcome, especially when they're learned at the knees of your parents.
Hayward delivers all the glitz and glamor her readers in the Presents line have come to expect while delivering a larger story featuring multiple plot threads, characters and a slightly kinder, gentler hero (oh, he's still a jerk at times - but we're not talking Raging Alphahole). I got a real sense that these two truly were friends, even if they were both deluding themselves about how they really felt. Add to this mix the added complications of Mean Girl Orelia, Scarlett's ratings hungry mother, and the return of the father who abandoned the family and is now getting married to a woman barely older than Scarlett, and it all makes for a fun and emotional read.
Presents clock in at around 200 pages, and this book clocks in at nearly 400. For the most part I felt the author handled this leap to single title well. The characters are interesting, the story fun, and the conflict compelling. There's a handful of very steamy sex scenes, well timed given the tension simmering between these two, and the pacing felt mostly right. It really only stumbled a bit for me when a Big Secret spills out in the final chapters - mostly because I wanted that explored a little bit more after the author foreshadows the revelation a little over at the halfway point.
It was really fun to be back in this world. Personally, I don't have much patience for reality TV, but there's something about it as a backdrop in a romance novel that sinks its claws into me every single time. Also, Scarlett is very relatable. A young woman thrust into the spotlight by her mother, who in her defense had "reasons" at the time, who wants to be respected on her own merits and talent but gets sucked into a competition with a mean girl that raises a lot of old insecurities. Girl, we've all been there. Here's hoping Ava's story is on the horizon.
Final Grade = B
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