From FWB To A Relationship

 

Okay, so in honor of valentine's later this month, I chose a new-to-me author, Michelle-Lindo-Rice.  Over the years, I've found that Harlequins can be hit or miss no matter which franchise they're from---Special Edition, Suspense, etc.---and I mostly tend to stick with authors that I know, but at the same time, I try to expand my horizons with new-to-me authors.

Characters: Selina Cartwright, Trent Moon (guest appearance by Selina's mother, Helen, and Trent's sister Pammie).

Premise: Two people who hate valentine's day decide to become friends-with-benefits and then find themselves falling in love.

Okay, so this wasn't a typical harlequin for me.  Usually with Special Editions it's either life-long friends who start a relationship out of convenience (to convince parents or friends not to meddle in romantic lives of the main characters)  or one-time rivals putting aside old preconceptions and falling in love.  I do not recall ever seeing a friends-with-benefits/falling in love scenario.

The whole thing starts because both Selina and Trent---who cohost a radio program---hate valentine's, Selina because her father left on valentine's and was later revealed to have another family, and Trent because his ex-best friend snaked and married his girlfriend after he had just proposed to her, which look, if either of these scenarios had happened to me, I would've hated valentine's day too.  So, because of this, they pitch an idea to their boss: have a dance catered to those who are single and after announcing it on the air, they start getting calls from their listeners who seem receptive to the idea, which I mean, I would be too.  Anything that acknowledges that people don't have to be in a relationship is just fine with me.  Along with these calls, they get a call from someone calling themselves "Crying Heart" who appears to be real despondent, which raises up alarm bells for Selina, who had also been a psychiatrist before she sells her practice to focus on the radio show, which I get, she was running herself ragged doing both, so one had to go, but they never really showed Selina in her element as a psychiatrist, so it was a little hard to care about this side of her.

Of course, you find out that underneath their breezy exteriors, both Selina and Trent have issues other than their valentine's trauma.  Selina's mother, Helen lost her grip on reality after her husband left and was verbally abusive towards Selina, blaming her for her father leaving as he had a son in the other family, which was what he wanted, while Trent was the guardian of his younger sister, Pammie, who had Downes Syndrome,(which I thought was interesting because you don't see that representation very often.  Whether or not it was accurate, I'm not sure of because I haven't been around anyone who has Downes, but I thought it was well done) and he was very protective of her, being resistant to her dating, which, come on, my guy!  She's twenty.  And she's growing up.  Like, I get that it's hard to face, but...yeah, I'm digressing.  Sorry.

However, as Selina and Trent get closer together, they reveal more of their hurts to one another and Trent finds out that Selina won't ever get closure with her father because he died in 9/11, which, great for the author for acknowledging this as well as some other social and political issues, such as Tamir Rice's death---I do not want to get into a debate on this site, that's not what it's for----but at the same time, this is the only time that 9/11 is mentioned and honestly, it felt like it was added in for shock value rather than having any significance to the plot as a whole, same as a later revelation that someone who had called their show a few times had committed suicide.

Of course, both of these idiots realize that they've fallen in love but resist it until they're almost caught and have to go through some changes: Selina realizing that her mother will never change her opinion of her---even though the woman is totally wrong---and Trent steps back and lets Pammie grow up a little bit, which includes dating, and surprisingly, there's no big miscommunication because the characters don't talk (which is something Selina makes a point of stating that she hates, which I feel ya on this one.  People need to talk to each other) and they both confess their feelings.

As a whole, I thought the plot was decent.  As stated, this was a new plotline for me and while I became invested enough in the story to finish it, I didn't really find either Selina or Trent engaging and the some of the issues added felt like they were added just to check off boxes.  Perhaps if the story was reworked and tweaked a bit, such as letting the readers see Selina in the role of a psychiatrist, go a bit deeper into how Trent felt about being betrayed---which was just stated as a throwaway line---make the transition between scenes tighter, and maybe focus more on the social issues mentioned in the book, it would be a bit better to me.  Then again, I'm just a white girl so maybe some of the experiences in this book weren't relatable to me for that reason, I don't know.  Perhaps someone else will get more out of this book than I did.  That being said, I give it about a 4.