The Love Plot

 The Love Plot- Samantha Young

Berkley

Release Date: August 29, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: There's a magnetic attraction when a happy-go-lucky gig worker agrees to a fake relationship with a rich, uptight New Yorker in this steamy romantic comedy from New York Times bestselling author Samantha Young.

Star Shine Meadows is all about freedom, thanks to the hippie parents who raised her. Juggling her jobs as a professional costume character actor and a line sitter, she believes in no expectations, no stressful ambitions, and no-strings-attached relationships. So when she meets a birthday girl's grumpy uncle while working a princess party, she can't help but needle him. She'll never see him again, and honestly, he's pretty hot.

Rafe Whitman may be a veterinarian with a great bedside manner, but that doesn't mean his patience extends to anyone with opposable thumbs. His family will not stop nagging him about finding "the one," so when he runs into obnoxiously cheery Star again, he makes her an offer: He'll pay her more than she would make doing her odd jobs if she'll pretend to be his girlfriend at family gatherings. She can stop sitting in line waiting for someone else's new phone, and he'll get his family off his back.

When the tension between them heats to a breaking point, Star's desire for "no strings" is tested against Rafe's staunch stability. They say opposites attract, after all....

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Possibly the most grumpy-sunshine of relationships I've seen since Good Omens 2, Star and Rafe are total opposites, and accidentally perfect for each other. She always looks for the positive in things, doesn't think a career is for her so has two unconventional jobs, doesn't do long-term relationships because she doesn't think she can do committed, and her greatest goal in life is to be happy. He went the conventional route, likes animals more than people, and is going crazy because his mother and sister-in-law are aggressively trying to set him up without asking him how he feels about it. When they meet at Rafe's niece's birthday party, you could not find two more different people. Rafe's idea to hire Star to be his pretend girlfriend has predictably surprising and entertaining consequences: his parents like her, and Rafe discovers he likes Star more than he expected. They do say opposites attract. . . .

Star is a quirky, delightful, believably flawed and wonderful person. Her parents are self-proclaimed hippies who taught her not believe in committed relationships, careers, or tying herself down to anything long-term. While that works in the short-term, and Star is quite happy with her jobs as a character actor and line-sitter, Rafe and his stability start making her question if she's limiting herself. I love how Star works to see something positive in people, gives them the benefit of the doubt, and to put happy out into the world to improve the lives of others. She practices what she preaches. The times when she tries to be something she isn't, she's miserable, reminding both Star and us that being our authentic selves is the best life.

I can best describe Rafe as a Mr. Darcy- only more outgoing when he's happy. Shy and quiet around strangers, better with dogs than people, it's no wonder that he's going crazy with his mother and sister-in-law throwing random women at him! He's a guy who believes in commitment if he's going to be in a relationship, so he and Star come at pretty much everything people-related from different angles. But I loved how he doesn't just dismiss Star's views based on his own experiences, he listens to her thoughts and frequently found himself changing his mind because of her viewpoints. They'd catch themselves in arguments and try to explain what the problem was exactly because they came at things so differently. I don't think I've ever read that in a romance before, where the main characters so continually work like real people to make a real relationship happen and I really enjoyed it. Even when they mess things up, it is real and relatable. 

Rafe's rich family doesn't know what to do with Star and her bohemian ways and polyamorous friends at first. Do they change her to fit with them or do they accept that she makes him happy as is? I loved how Rafe stood by Star when she dealt with her family crisis and started facing her defining childhood, and how she was willing to do anything to ensure he didn't break with his family because of her. It was clear they loved each other long before they admitted it, but that was kind of the point. Star has lots to teach Rafe and his family, but they have some things to show her as well. 

This was a lovely, funny, heart-warming book and I definitely recommend it, not just to Samantha Young (Much Ado About You, A Cosmic Kind of Love) fans, but to anyone looking for a beautiful romance.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review