Book Smart Kate

Book: 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 Audiobook performance: 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 Spice: 🌶️🌶️

by Hannah Grace (August 27, 2024) – I’ve been a huge fan of this series since the first book, and, like many, I’ve been anxiously awaiting Henry’s book. Thankfully, this one met my high expectations!

Henry Turner is having a tough junior year between the pressures of being captain of the hockey team and being stuck with a difficult professor in one of UCMH’s most challenging classes. With his role as captain (which he never really wanted) hanging on his grade in that class, he is stressed. Until he accidentally crashes a romance book club meeting and meets Halle Jacobs. Halle is doing a lot for other people – her parents, her siblings, her douche of an ex. She’s also got her junior year classes, her job, running the book club, and the writing contest she wants to enter. She has no time or interest in romance or friends but sees in Henry someone whose kindness and friendship draw her in. She’s had that professor and knows how to guide Henry through the class. In exchange for tutoring, Henry agrees to give her the dating experiences she doesn’t have so she can authentically write her novel. But don’t worry – they have a fake dating rule book that includes not catching feelings.

The character development is superb, especially Henry’s undiagnosed ADHD and Halle’s all too familiar struggle with putting others priorities over her own. Grace balances humor, depth, and the slow-burn romance beautifully, giving readers a heartfelt love story without sacrificing her signature spice. The friendships are refreshingly real, with the men’s emotional openness and the women’s supportive bond standing out. While the third act drama is intense, it doesn’t rely on frustrating miscommunication tropes. 

The audiobook is a dual narration that is so fun, and I absolutely inhaled it.