Even though I have read a lot more than the average person in November, I still felt a bit slumpish. What’s my secret to battling the cursed book slump? Romance. Especially rom-com style. This is when I felt How to Fail at Flirting would save me. In short, it did. But this was not completely light-hearted.

Normally, light-hearted is the main ingredient of a contemporary romance and that is exactly the reason why it helps with getting your reading mojo back. You don’t want to figure out the family tree in an epic fantasy. You just want quick fun! Now, this novel was enjoyable and a quick read. Naya and Jake were very flirty and had amazing banter (I could just read their quips all day!), but Naya is a survivor of domestic violence and she is still in the process of healing. Sadly, her abusive ex comes back in her life and ruins her progress. This is revealed in the beginning chapter. If this is a topic that triggers you, please go forward with caution. There are flashback scenes and a present encounter.

Let’s move on to the romance! Because of her traumatic past relationship, Naya turned into a hermit and would hide herself and her body. She started wearing baggy clothes and never went out anymore in fear of running into her ex. Her friends convinced her it was time to put herself out there again and together they jokingly made a sexy checklist to spice up Naya’s life. Naya is a sucker for a good list and so am I! I really relate to her stationary ways. Anyone else have a bullet journal?

Naya and her friends agree to implement her list on a weeknight (to ease her into the scene), but her friends have to bail last minute leaving Naya alone at the bar. Luckily, she isn’t lonely for long.

This is where Jake enters the scene. Naya decides to practice her flirting skills and attempt her first one night stand. It doesn’t take long for sparks to fly. After a disastrous end to a very lovely night, Naya believes she will never see him again. Luckily, Jake had got her number from their night out when he had to send her a picture they took together. He starts texting her and wants to take her out again. I won’t go into to much detail because I don’t want to spoil. But this is a romance, so am I really spoiling anything? I’ll just say Jake is very swoon worthy.

There is a background plot of Naya’s teaching career. They are making cuts and she is worried her department will be shut down just one year short of her tenure. This is how her ex enters back into her life. He is part of the team making the cuts. She tries to keep her career separate from Jake for now obvious reasons, but a twist is revealed that complicates things.

The scenes with Naya and Jake were steamy and delicious. Naya was finally receiving proper attention and pleasure. It was liberating to read. I loved the way Williams wrote their scenes! I recently read her interview on Tea Time Lit’s blog and she reveals she has way more sexy scenes that got cut! I would love for some to be released one day.

I also really loved the representation we got from Naya’s character (Black/Mexican American) and from the side characters (mlm relationship). I’m Mexican and loved the cultural references when she talked about her father.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and recommend to fans of sexy adult romances and trauma survivors. It was a healthy balance and so refreshing to read. Naya was so relatable and her story was beautifully written. Let me know if you plan to pick this up and tell me your thoughts if you have already read it!

Thank you Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for the arc! This title was released December 1, 2020.

I think I have just found a new favourite book and author. It’s been a long time since I have connected this much with a book. I absolutely fell in love with Naya and her relationship with Jake is one I was constantly routing for. This book made me laugh and cry. It made me anxious, excited and nervous. It gave me all the emotions! I absolutely loved this book and can’t wait for more books by Denise!!!

What a cracking debut from this author who has gone straight to my list of auto-read authors. In no particular order I loved Naya, her dedication/ commitment to her career, Jake (so dreamy, nerdy and funny), cheesy jokes, the playful banter and romance between the two leads and ride or die friends Felicia and Aaron. The chemistry between Naya and Jake was perfect and the author did a great job of showing not just telling us how they were falling for each other and you could not help but root for them. I felt that Naya’s past relationship and the long term effect it had on her outlook personally and professionally was handled well by the author. Her hesitation and holding back with Jake whilst frustrating at times was perfectly understandable given the circumstances of her past. While I wasn’t 100% sold on how the Davis situation was resolved I did like seeing Naya “turn her volume up again’. Also really liked the writing style and the easy natural conversations between characters. Look forward to more from Denise Williams.

Arc provided by Netgalley

Sweet and enjoyable read. Naya and Jake meet in a bar, when Naya’s friends convince her to let loose and live a little. What was initially meant to be a one night stand turns into something much more complicated, especially when Jake is too charming and attractive for Naya’s own good.
To complicate things even more, they find themselves in a conflict of interest when her relationship with Jake might cost her her career and reputation. And the cherry on top? Naya’s abusive ex-boyfriend is back…

Although I didn’t particularly get attached to the characters, I still enjoyed reading about Naya and Jake’s love story. Their romance was sweet and sexy, they were gentle and kind to each other, which really contrasted with both of their previous relationships. Of course, there is more to the story than the romance. Some parts may be triggering, such as physical, verbal and psychological abuse, gaslighting, blackmailing, and I would like to warn other readers of these problematic themes in the book before they decide to read it.

How to Fail at Flirting is, for me, a book of two halves. One, the romance between Naya and Jake, which I loved. And two, the storyline regarding Naya’s abuse, which, I don’t want to say I hated, but I definitely did not like.

Firstly, if you’re going to read this, please be aware that the storyline regarding Naya’s past abusive relationship is a good sight more graphic than the blurb — and many reviews — have noted. There are scenes of physical abuse, stalking, threats of revenge porn, and it all culminates in an attempted rape in chapter 41. I’m warning you not just because it’s important to, but I do feel not knowing these things happened really impacted my enjoyment of the book.

So a little rundown of the plot: Naya has been out of an abusive relationship (the breakup of which also affected her working life too) for a while now, but still is reluctant to get back to dating. So her friends write her a to-do list, which involves such items as “let a man buy you a drink” and “have a one-night stand”. When she is stood-up by those friends on a night out, she meets Jake, who, being in town for only a few days, seems the perfect opportunity. But Naya and Jake click, and click well, and it becomes longer than a one-night, or even two-night, stand. In the meantime, Naya’s ex has returned to her workplace and is busy threatening her with revenge porn.

Let me start with what I loved, and that’s Naya and Jake. Everything about them was fun, particularly their dynamic, with the bad jokes and how much they enjoyed each other’s company. They were by far and away the best part of the book, and a major reason that I could still enjoy it, despite not liking other aspects of the plot. I think they are the reason I will likely end up reading any other books Denise Williams writes.

However, and it’s a pretty big however, as much as I liked Naya and Jake and the romance, I just found myself always on edge that something awful was going to happen with regard to the abuse storyline. I think part of that was a lack of forewarning, but another part was the type of abuse there was and the scenes of it. It’s all very well saying “abusive relationship” in your content warnings, but that doesn’t say a whole lot useful, which is what I found when, within the first few chapters, there was a scene of physical abuse. I have read books which include abusive relationships — somewhat graphically too — that I haven’t been forewarned about and enjoyed them, but I think the main part was those involved emotionally abusive relationships, not physically and verbally so. And I, for whatever reason, have an easier time of reading about that.

There’s also the fact that Naya’s abuser is pretty prevalent in this book. He comes back and somehow gets her number, so he’s always there as a kind of shadow over everything in the plot. Which cranks up how on edge I am, because of course he’s going to do something awful. In fact, the easiest time I had reading this book was during/after the awful event, because it had happened so now I could relax some.

That event, an attempted rape, I also didn’t like because it acted as the catalyst for Naya and Jake to start talking again after their argument (which I felt was kind of...stupid I guess? I mean, understandable from Naya’s POV because we know about the abuse. So, her hurting Jake made sense. Jake hurting her back how he did...did not, for me, in the context of his character. And also I’m not sure I could forgive someone saying what he did, but okay Naya. If you can… But anyway). And really, that was its most significant role in the plot. Yes, it got Davis taken down, but I feel like you could work out a way to do that without subjecting your main character to a sexual assault. I don’t quite know how to articulate why I didn’t like that being its role — possibly because it’s traumatic. Again, why would you subject your character to that, when you could have them talk it through, have her apologise and explain everything (at one point, I did worry she wouldn’t apologise at all which would have been disappointing. Just because you had what you saw as a reasonable reason for hurting someone, doesn’t mean you are absolved of it… But she did apologise, sort of). I don’t know if that explains why it didn’t sit well with me, but yeah.

With all that in mind, I did still like the book overall. The good parts were good enough to offset the less-good parts, and I do think if I knew all that was coming, I might enjoy it yet more. But as it was, it was only a 3 star read for me.

It's so difficult to explain how much I loved this book!
It was sexy, swoon-worthy and romantic and I enjoyed every single page.

First i want to talk about the characters. I absolutely loved our main character Naya. She was instantly likeable, she felt so well developed and I adored reading from her point of view. I also loved Jake, what a perfect love interest! He was nerdy, sweet and oh so sexy. I think he was everything Naya needed and I loved watching their relationship blossom.
Naya's friends were also a highlight of the book for me! I loved how supportive they were of Naya!

This book also dealt with the very serious topic of domestic abuse. Naya's ex boyfriend, Davis, was both physically and emotionally abusive to her and when the book starts Naya is still trying to heal from the abuse she faced in her last relationship. I thought this book dealt with that healing process really well. It was really nice to see Naya become herself again, trust others and finally get the love she deserved!

I think this book is probably my favourite romance of the year, I could not stop reading and the relationship between Naya and Jake gave me butterflies! If you're looking for a fun and sexy romance I would highly recommend this one! I cannot WAIT to see what Denise Williams writes next.

TW: Domestic Abuse

*thank you so much to net galley for sending me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion*

Firstly I’d like to say this is has to be easily one of the best romance novels of 2020. How to Fail at Flirting was everything you would want in a romance novel – funny, steamy and full of the sweet emotional moments that come with falling in love.

Naya has been through a lot - physically, mentally and emotionally with an abusive ex and after three years of being single, her friends order an intervention in the form of a ‘check list’ in order to get their friend back out there and flirting. They want to see their friends ‘volume’ go back up and want her to learn that there are some good men left out there. Enter Jake - a hot, intelligent, witty, steamy man of muscle and mystery who whisks Naya off her feet from the get go. Will this one night stand become more? Or will Naya’s nightmarish past come back to haunt her and ruin things?

This book manages to strike a balance between serious, light, romantic, and funny. William’s approach to the abusive relationship and Naya’s way of fighting against it, her bravery and inner struggles were superbly conveyed. I instantly connected with the main character Naya, a resilient, career focused woman who is fearful of getting her heart broken again but is intrigued to see what dreamy Jake has to offer as she ticks off tasks on her new ‘checklist’. Naya is strong yet vulnerable, sexy yet insecure, confident yet shy, this woman is the perfect representation of what we really go through when trying to flirt and find love.

Full of fun, puns, ups and downs - this story is an emotional rollercoaster that will keep you hooked from the first page! I didn’t want to put this down but I also didn’t want it to end the more I read. This swoon worthy, steamy love story is a must read for all😭💖

Thank you to NetGallery and Little, Brown Book Group for sending me an ARC of this! Available to all from the 1st December - would definitely recommend adding this to your Christmas wishlist 🙌🏻

A chance meeting, acting out of character starts a new relationship. Obstacles of work distance and an devious ex stretch the commitment.
As usual Denise does not disappoint. You feel for the characters and route for them down to the last page.
Not my first book by this autho and I will look out for other by her.

Thank you to Little, Brown House UK and Netgalley for an early copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book.. it may look like your standard girl meets boy love story but is so much more than that.

Never has a heroine of a story been so well named as the nain character Naya is a heroine having survived a domestic abusive relationship. From the off you can tell how.much she lived a comfortable if sometimes boring life and it was interesting to see her come out of her box and start to live life to its full extent.

I was absolutely whooping for her towards the end of the book, a heroine for sure!

Like I said I really enjoyed this book and will look out for whatever else this author produces.

I just needed to read this book. I must confess that I loves the cover. Yes,yes I know I am a cover snob, and I love pretty covers. But then I read the synopsis, and after that this book was for a long time on my TBR list.
And I just read such a good things about this book. So, when I was approved for this ARC, I was like a kid on a Christmas day.
And this book is everything and more.
Yes this is romance novel, but I love the friendship aspect of this book.
Naya is such a strong person, she is a beautiful mix raced woman working in the man's world. And she is a victim of abuse. But she found her way. Yes, it was hard and rocky but she did it. I hate that, because what happened to her, she always second guessed herself. She always asked herself, if the dress is to tight, or the jeans. Does this show to much cleavage? God I hate that. I hate that we as a women need to second guess everything. If we show tears and ask for help, we are weak. If we don't show to much emotions, we are cold and frigid. And If you are beautiful you can not be smart. And if you are woman on the top and attractive, you didn't got there on your on merit.
I hate double standard. And if you are smart and young and a woman they don't respect you. This is such a good book. I love that she found someone (Jake) who respect her and appreciate her hard work and knows how important her career is to her.
The writing is gorgeous. Love the main characters. Such a beautiful read.
I love the chemistry between Naya and Jake. And love the meet cute moment.

Of course this is a 5 stars read.

After her abusive relationship with a fellow academic ended three years ago Dr Naya Turner has retreated into her shell, choosing to concentrate on her career as a professor specialising in maths education for English-language learners. Then her two BFFs write a crazy To-Do list for her and she ends up chatting to a handsome stranger in a bar.

Naya and Jake embark upon a relationship while he is visiting Chicago for a friend's wedding, but then it turns out that he may have an influence on Naya's future career, can she take a chance on love?

I felt that this was three different books jammed together and it didn't always work for me.

The first book was the nerdy academic has a one-night stand, humorous romance, complete with embarrassing drunkenness. It was okay but I have a low tolerance for the 'Oh, Miss Jones you are beautiful when you take off that cardigan' genre.

The second book was more rounded. The romance with a stranger who turns out to be your boss type of thing. One where the characters have ex-wives and protective friends and serious jobs. I liked this book.

The third book is where the ex-boyfriend was abusive and has come back to work in the same faculty, sending her creepy texts and threatening her. These novels have to be really well done if they don't come across as if the ex is a villain from a silent movie.

Overall, while I enjoyed the romance I didn't feel the three storylines flowed together seamlessly.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

A great read.

Naya meets Jake on a night out when she is trying to take risks and be someone different. When she finds out that he works for the comany deciding the future of the college where she works, she knows she should break it off, but can't bring herself to do it.

Both have issues in their past that are holding them back, and it is an emotional read at times, especially when Naya's ex comes back in to her life.

Looking forward to more books from this author.

A fun and flirty read depicting the story of a single-not-by-choice academic that suddenly gets the chance to reinvent herself, but is she willing to pay the price? Highly recommended!