Book Smart Kate

Book: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Audiobook: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

By Jessica Joyce

This book is everything you could wish for in a romance novel. It has some of the best tropes (enemies-to-lovers, second chance, one bed) while being tender, heartbreaking, sarcastic, and laugh-out-loud funny.

Once voted most likely to succeed, Noelle Shepard has been drifting for the ten years since high school graduation. Most recently, she was dealt the one-two punch of losing her job only weeks after the death of her beloved grandmother. Now living in her childhood bedroom, Noelle discovers photos and a letter about her grandmother’s broken engagement before she married her grandfather. With time on her hands and desperate to understand this unknown part of a woman she thought she knew completely, she creates a TikTok searching for the man in the photos. When another user identifies the man as his grandfather, Noelle schedules a meeting only to discover that the anonymous user is Theo Spencer, her former high school rival, and the other person voted most likely to succeed. Unlike her, Theo hasn’t drifted; he has flourished and become wildly successful. However, he is still just as adept at getting under her skin.

Although Theo is annoying, his grandfather, Paul, is terrific. When Paul shares the honeymoon road trip he and Noelle’s grandmother had planned, they decide to embark on the trip together, but Paul insists Theo come along. Over their 2-week journey, Noelle discovers much about her grandmother’s past, embarks on a journey of self-discovery, and realizes that Theo might be an essential part of her future.

The spicy romance between Noelle and Theo is central to this book – and it is fantastic. Their banter and competitive nature make them an absolute joy to read as they begin to realize what Paul already sees. But, two things I LOVE about this book are how it addresses (1) the impact of familial relationships on how children approach trust and love as adults and (2) the power of grandparent/grandchild relationships both when children are young and when they grow up. 

Overall, it is a beautiful book about life, love, and being true to yourself. I both read the print version and listened to the audiobook. The narration of the audiobook is fantastic. Theo and Noelle smolder off the pages in the audio.