Library's review
Dani is her younger sister, a preternaturally focused graduate student determined not to let personal relationships (ugh!) distract her from her professional goals. She's not opposed to some uncomplicated tension relief, however, and she thinks she finds the perfect candidate in a security guard at her university. Zafir has his own issues, chiefly his ongoing struggle with anxiety since the sudden deaths of his father and brother several years earlier. When a video of Dani and Zaf goes viral, they realize a fake relationship could get them both what they think they want.
I love the increasing diversity found in contemporary romances, and this series does a great job of presenting characters with complex lives and diverse backgrounds acting like, you know, normal human beings who want love and respect just like "regular" people. If I have a criticism, it's a gentle one: While the characters certainly encounter their share of obstacles on the way to HEV, the unconditional love and support from their family and friends seems a bit too perfect. But that's not enough to keep me from recommending the series to readers who like to see romance heroes and heroines who look more like the world we see around us every day.
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Fiction. Romance. Humor (Fiction.) LGBTQIA+ (Fiction.) HTML: One of Oprah Magazine's 21 Romance Novels That Are Set to Be the Best of 2020 USA Today bestselling author Talia Hibbert returns with another charming romantic comedy about a young woman who agrees to fake date her friend after a video of him "rescuing" her from their office building goes viral... Danika Brown knows what she wants: professional success, academic renown, and an occasional roll in the hay to relieve all that career-driven tension. But romance? Been there, done that, burned the T-shirt. Romantic partners, whatever their gender, are a distraction at best and a drain at worst. So Dani asks the universe for the perfect friend-with-benefits�??someone who knows the score and knows their way around the bedroom. When big, brooding security guard Zafir Ansari rescues Dani from a workplace fire drill gone wrong, it's an obvious sign: PhD student Dani and former rugby player Zaf are destined to sleep together. But before she can explain that fact to him, a video of the heroic rescue goes viral. Suddenly, half the internet is shipping #DrRugbae�??and Zaf is begging Dani to play along. Turns out his sports charity for kids could really use the publicity. Lying to help children? Who on earth would refuse? Dani's plan is simple: fake a relationship in public, seduce Zaf behind the scenes. The trouble is, grumpy Zaf is secretly a hopeless romantic�??and he's determined to corrupt Dani's stone-cold realism. Before long, he's tackling her fears into the dirt. But the former sports star has issues of his own, and the walls around his heart are as thick as his... um, thighs. The easy lay Dani dreamed of is now more complex than her thesis. Has her wish backfired? Is her focus being tested? Or is the universe just waiting for her to take a hint? "Talia Hibbert is a rockstar! Her writing is smart, funny, and sexy..." - Meg Cabot, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Little Bridge Island and Princess Diaries series… (more)