djenne g.

I read Ten Trends to Seduce Your Best Friend by Penny Reid and I really enjoyed it. I was really into her writing after reading the Winston brothers series and have been making a point to get through her other books.

There were many things I enjoyed about this book— I love a woman in STEM and a neurodiverse MC and/or love interest and in this book, I got both.

Winnifred is a public school science teacher and Bryon is a bestselling fiction author. They both share a best friend who convinces  Winnifred to begin a side hustle; to get out of her student debt. The two of them decide that go viral on social media doing a #bestfriendrealtionship challenge. But first, they need to find a man who would go along with their plan. 

When their first plan doesn’t pan out, Byron steps in and decides he would help even though he hates social media.

As they film their content, their affection begins to grow and we all know where things lead.

This story has two virgin love interests which were interesting, I hardly ever read stories with two characters who are inexperienced but I think it was well written and gave the characters some more depth. It was really funny reading how they figured things out and I love that it didn’t give “horny teen” immaturity but it did give a lot of lust and longing as one would feel as an adult. I have read stories with virginity being portrayed as a sense of innocents or adolescents which I  do not like.

Choosing not to have sex during your life doesn’t mean you are immature. These characters showed so much tender love for each other and the way they both lusted for each other and had such beautiful and open communication. 

There was one scene that really really freaking hit me— it was emotional and raw and really touched me. I think Penny Reid did a really amazing job portraying characters who lack experience in romance and relationships very well.

There were some parts that I found to be kinda outrageous and cringe but… I mean… it is fiction. Like I cannot imagine thinking, “hey, I need money to pay off my debt— I guess ill just do a trend on social media with a sorta celebrity and that’ll fix things right up!”

And because this idea is ever so strange, there are a lot of moments where I am kinda taken out of the story.