One Summer Weekend – ARC Review

One Summer Weekend
by Shannon Stacey
Release Date:  August 5, 2019
Publisher: Carina Press
Book #1 in the Cedar Street series
Number of Pages:  106
Kindle Edition
Source:  Net Galley ARC
Contemporary Romance M/F
Rating:  NC-17
Read 7/31/19 to 8/1/19

 

Noah Stafford loves his life—his happy, single life. So what if he made up a fake girlfriend to stop his boss’s matchmaking? He kept things close to the truth—Carly really does have long, sexy legs and a killer sense of humor. She just happens to be his best friend. His wicked awesome and completely platonic best friend.

But now his boss is having a destination wedding, and Noah is expected to attend…with Carly, his girlfriend.

Carly Randall has no interest in living out a rom-com plot. But Noah is her best friend, so she agrees to help. Still, once they arrive on Cape Cod, she can’t explain the sudden butterflies she feels when he looks at her that way. Or why she doesn’t mind when Noah’s hands stray a little south of her back.

What happens on the Cape stays on the Cape.
Except not really, not at all, and once their sexy faux-cation is over, Noah and Carly return to a reality where everything’s changed. Going for it would mean risking their friendship…but forgetting how good they were together just isn’t an option.

Short, sweet, romantic, steamy, friends-to-lovers…what else could you ask for when on a quick road trip and you’re not the one driving?

Carly and Noah have been friends their whole lives.  Like, seriously, they cannot remember not knowing one another.  Although they both seem to believe there has never been a true attraction between them, I beg to differ.  As the reader gets to know these two, they realize they’ve never really liked each other’s boyfriends/girlfriends through all these years.  Hmmmm…I wonder why that could be?  So far, being best friends has worked for them.  They see each other often, do most activities together, and even just have peaceful nights in watching television or movies with one another.  All that’s missing to make them a true couple is sex.

Again, although they both deny it, the sexual tension is high before there is even a whiff of these two getting together in that way.  As soon as they know they are going to be on a romantic getaway with each other (fake couple or not), and sharing a room, their true chemistry cannot be denied.  Oh, they try to act like nothing has changed for at least a few hours.  But it’s too much and they can’t even last through one night.  Yet there’s nothing forced or unnatural about the moments they share.  The author does a great job with the transitions these characters have to take throughout their “romantic” weekend.

As wonderfully as Ms. Stacey writes heat, she writes the awkwardness just as well.  My gut hurt for these two as they tried to figure out what the weekend meant for their relationship.  Can they act like nothing happened?  Should they even try? Such turmoil and angst. I loved it all!

It seems like this series will be comprised of shorter novella type stories, at least from what I can tell so far.  There’s another story coming out in November that will be another of my favorite sub-genres, Christmas!!! I can’t wait!

5 stars

**I received an ARC of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely**