Published: 28th June 2016
Source: NetGalley
Genre: Romance, New Adult
My Rating:
In her witty and breathtakingly sexy novel, Emily Foster introduces a story of lust, friendship, and other unpredictable experiments. . .
Data, research, scientific formulae--Annabelle Coffey is completely at ease with all of them. Men, not so much. But that's all going to change after she asks Dr. Charles Douglas, the postdoctoral fellow in her lab, to have sex with her. Charles is not only beautiful, he is also adorably awkward, British, brilliant, and nice. What are the odds he'd turn her down?
Very high, as it happens. Something to do with that whole student/teacher/ethics thing. But in a few weeks, Annie will graduate. As soon as she does, the unlikely friendship that's developing between them can turn physical--just until Annie leaves for graduate school. Yet nothing could have prepared either Annie or Charles for chemistry like this, or for what happens when a simple exercise in mutual pleasure turns into something as exhilarating and infernally complicated as love.
This book is one I hoped to love but didn’t think I would when I began the first chapter. I had heard it raved about on Smart Bitches podcasts. I adored the podcast with Emily Foster on and was fascinated by everything she had to say. She is a woman I think women (and men) could learn so much from it is crazy. I would love to read her book Come As You Are (written as Emily Nagoski) as I think it would be the most eye-opening read about women’s bodies in general. I think I had a whole heap of expectations for this book so you can imagine my heartbreak when I began the first chapter and didn’t like Annie or the writing style.
My Heartbreak Did Not Last Long Because I Fell In Love
My doubts were unfounded and absurd, though. This book is amazing. I thought I didn’t like it as the writing was very blunt and in your face and I thought Annie was too logical and scientific. I was wrong on all counts. Annie is not too logical, she is straightforward and believes everyone else is as well. That may sound naïve, but it’s not somehow. She is surprised when things are not as obvious and straightforward as she expects, but she takes this in her stride and adjusts her expectations based on her experience. Her experience at the beginning of the book had taught her she just has to face things head on and go for what she wants. When she is logical and puts her points forward with strong arguments and logic to back it up then she can expect to get what she wants, she learns things get more complex when you are getting involved with people.
I know many always exclaim their love for a male character and how they are their dream boyfriend or whatever, but I fell in love with Annie. Annie is my own little science loving spirit animal. She is funny, and geeky and naïve but in a way which isn’t negative and is really more she is so optimistic and recovers so quickly from the bad. She is just amazing. She is straightforward and blunt and I was cheering her on every step of the way. The characteristics she had that could be annoying in other books with other characters are what make her so fabulous in this book.
Science Can Be Sexy? Who Knew?
I thought the book was going to be science-y and I was intimidated because Emily Foster has a PhD and is a totally smart science person. She is an actual smart person and I wasn’t fully certain how that would translate into writing fiction. Turns out it translates fantastically. She knows the science behind sex and it worked for me. These were the bluntest and most straight forward sex scenes I have ever read. She calls it what it is. I mean who knew mentioning a person's labia and a bunch of scientific parts of an ear would be sexy? Not I. It works, though. I loved how there were no ridiculous euphemisms for a guys penis entering a vagina which took me out of the story a moment to laugh. Instead, it was just all out there and it was great. It might be a style all will not be enamoured with, but I found it so refreshing and greatly appreciated.
It’s Not All Sunshine And Rainbows But Who Actually Cares?
There were flaws to the book, sure. I felt like there was way too much sex and not enough story going on at times. The pacing had issues. You had an epic sex weekend where various sexual acts are described and it’s great, but it got a bit boring towards the end. You want sex in your romance but you don’t want it to get boring. Or bordered on boring at times for me. I actually skimmed a couple of scenes because I wanted the juicy story bit. My other issue with the book is that it’s gone over into another book! I reckon it could have been edited down to one book (I assume, based upon the length of this one) if some of the sex got cut out. It annoyed me that it’s gone over into two. That being said, I wouldn’t tell you to avoid reading over that… unless you don’t like a lot of sex in your romance because this will not be one for you.
Where I Repeat Myself To Convince You To Get Reading
Overall, this was a mature and refreshing read. Especially as it does get categorised in the often criticised New Adult genre. This is a stand out book in that genre, I think. It’s not overly angsty (no more than real life can be angsty) and the writing is just spot on. It’s a book about science nerds with sex and love and difficulties along the way. It’s well written. It’s blunt. It has a female character who is direct and acts like a crazy person and gets annoyed about it and is trying to be smart in the face of a bunch of emotions she doesn’t know how to direct because it’s hard to feel things and be sensible and logical and she demonstrates this. It involves a hot British guy who can obviously not be a genuine person (I live here guys, blokes like this do not exist) who has a lot of issues but is awesome and is the perfect bookish man I’ve read in a while. I was far more in love with the character of Annie anyway.
Look, even if I don’t manage to convince you to go listen to the podcasts over at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books with Emily did which just demonstrate how she is awesome. Her speaking may convince you to give her romance a chance even if I can’t.
Have you ever been daunted by a romance because you thought it might be too intellectual (doesn’t that seem contradictory)? And have you read this because I would love to hear your thoughts on the blunt straightforward approach in this book.
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