5⭐️/ 3🌶️

If there’s one thing I’ve quickly come to the conclusion is that, one, Pippa Grant knows how to write a memorable and hilarious opening chapter, and two, I fully understand what she meant by the sneezes in this book! All this to say, I was immediately hooked, and couldn’t help laughing at the craziness that ensued within the very beginning. 

This story followed Delaney “Laney” Kingston and Theo Monroe as they were stuck together during the duration of Theo’s sister, Emma’s wedding a.k.a. Laney’s best friend. Stuck with the responsibility of basically babysitting Theo to make sure he doesn’t cause any trouble, Langley had to make sure Theo didn’t cause any more problems with the upcoming wedding party and more… obviously things went haywire of course. 

Laney was always the straight laced bestie who kept things in order and followed the rules. If you asked Theo, he’d refer to Laney as a stick in the mud, teacher’s pet, and other nicknames curtesy to annoy her. If having to babysit the one man she literally didn’t want anything to do, Laney would do it for the sake of her best friend, Emma, she’d literally do anything for her. Laney was a dependable friend and bless her for having to come up with creative ways in order to keep track of Theo and prevent him from causing more trouble. 

Theo was a troublemaker or usually trouble found him. With his sister, Emma’s destination wedding in Hawaii, he couldn’t help finding himself in trouble from nearly catching himself on fire due to his explosive sneeze causing Chandler (Emma’s fiancée) to freak out and whack him with his electric bug zapper. Yes, that was a thing that actually happened and my goodness was it hilarious! Anyways, Theo liked to have fun, do random pranks, and accepting dares for the sake of letting loose, but with all that came the reputation of being known as the town’s resident troublemaker/ bad boy. 

Both Laney and Theo were perceived to be certain types of people. From Theo being known as the troublemaker to Laney being seen as the perfect person who could do no wrong, it seemed like everyone in town and within their own family thought of them in a specific way. As the story progressed, I got to see more of who Laney and Theo were as individuals. Based on what Theo talked about in his own chapters, I was able to see that he learned from his past and tried to better himself, as well as show Laney that he wasn’t a bad person nor had bad intentions as she thought of him. Laney also showed a side of herself that not many people saw which was that the constant pressure of trying to maintain a perfect facade in her life was draining and stressful on her. While Laney and Theo were opposites, they each shared their vulnerabilities about one another, and revealed the struggles they were faced with on a daily basis.

 "We're not so different, are we? Both of us living in the direction of the world's expectations of us." 

In a way, it was a blessing in disguise having Laney be Theo’s babysitter since it gave them the opportunity to spend time together, and truly dive deep into who they were at their core. 

Growing up in Snaggletooth (town where Laney & Theo grew up) Laney and Theo didn’t always get along so, there was that enemies to lovers trope in full force in this story. Laney and Theo grew up not getting along with Theo’s pranks and back handed insults to Laney, and Laney always enforcing the rules with Theo, they were opposites from each other. Now, with Emma’s wedding and having to babysit Theo, Laney was at first reluctant having to spend time with Theo to keep a close eye on him, but slowly started to see a different side to him. I think one (out of many) of my favorite parts of the book was, seeing Laney and Theo discover that they weren’t as they perceived the other to be such as, Laney seeing that Theo wasn’t the complete bad boy that she grew up with. In fact, Theo was actually really thoughtful and kind from rescuing those kittens he found to helping Laney when she was tipsy, and more. Even Theo started to see past Laney’s “princess” persona and remind her it was ok for her to let loose and have fun. Also, the fact that both Laney and Theo had crushed on each other when they were younger?! Like, what?! That was just juicy news to me, but added another interesting layer to their dynamic. In all honesty though, Theo and Laney’s crushes on each other resurfaced and were secretly wanting each other which was clear to me from their individual p.o.v. chapters! Nothing like a good old secret crush mixed in within the enemies to lovers trope to shake things up! 

The intimacy in this book was both beautiful and passionate. I love me a good spicy scenes, but with Pippa’s writing, there was a beautiful, deep layer to Laney and Theo’s romance. I loved how Laney started to not only see the true kind of man Theo was, but she was so attuned and observant to how he was, knew him better than anyone else especially in the short time they were reunited.

Aww Laney, you sweetheart, letting Theo know she knows him and cared for him (sniff) that quote was a perfect example of just how much Laney treated Theo as more than others treated him poorly. At the core of this romance, it was Laney and Theo seeing each other for who they truly were, allowing each other to be open and honest about what they wanted, and supporting each other which, I found very lovely. Plus, they grew closer as the story progressed that included a lot of wholesome sweetness and sexy, fun times! Woo!

Pippa Grant imbued this story with some loving, intriguing, hilarious characters that I instantly fell in love with. If there’s one thing I’ve come to notice when reading books by Pippa is that, her story aren’t just humorous, but also the level of depth she adds to he characters reveals a lot about who they were, and the struggles they faced. Laney and Theo were the good girl/ bad boy of Snaggletooth, but over the course of the story talked about their experiences having to maintain a certain persona in front of others. There was vulnerability that I appreciated seeing and again it added more depth to the story. I was constantly thinking about Laney and Theo even when taking momentary breaks and the closer I got to the end, I didn’t want the story to end. This truly was another amazing book to read. 

Overall, I had lots of fun reading the shenanigans that occurred while Laney and Theo were in Hawaii for Emma’s destination wedding, and I will forever feel acknowledged by the fact that I too have a very loud sneezer in my family haha! I knew exactly what Pippa was talking about haha. I found myself relating a lot to Laney in regards to wanting to experience things in life and not be the “boring” one, understood where she was coming from, and inspired me to take more action in my life. Theo, omg that man was misunderstood and was an absolute sweetheart with baking cookies for Laney, taking care of her when she was drunk, being the best supportive big brother to Emma, and so attentive to Laney in general! The romance was a great build up that had just the right amount of teases in between. The humor in this book was classic Pippa Grant, that was excellent! Epilogue was good, and I could be wrong, but something tells me that there will be another book based off what was mentioned in the chapter. Anyways, would recommend especially if you’re looking for best friend’s brother, destination wedding, shenanigans happening, good girl/ bad boy, heartfelt, little bit of spice, and lovable characters.