For Jamir Cunningham, a relationship is the last thing on his mind. After inheriting his grandparents' bookstore, Jamir has been completely focused on running the business. And if he's lonely, that was between him and the books. Yet, from the moment Emmy Park walked into his life, Jamir was immediately captivated by the plus-size Korean.
A Fresh Start
After his recent divorce, former Olympic wrestler Emerson "Emmy" Park moved to Texas to get a fresh start. After taking a job as an assistant wrestling coach at a nearby university, he stumbles across Jamir's bookstore. Emmy is instantly attracted to Jamir. Unfortunately, he is big and burly with a resting bitch face and thinks he has zero chance with the gorgeous Black man. However, when a sudden encounter shows them how good they can be together. Is the simmering attraction between them enough for them to see past their differences and finally give in to their desires?
This was my first read of February. As it's Black History Month no matter what anybody says, I specifically tried to choose books with Black characters. I bought this ebook during one of those "stuff your ereader" sales last year.
The leads meet because Emmy likes to sit in Jamir's bookstore and read during his lunch hour. Jamir is instantly attracted to Emmy and kind of follows him around the bookstore trying-to-be-stealthily; Emmy thinks Jamir stares at him because he's a big, tall Korean. I found the manner in which they get to talking rather contrived; Emmy forgets his beloved copy of Pride & Prejudice at Jamir's bookstore (he really takes his own book to read at a bookstore? ok...) so he goes there during a rainstorm (just wait til the next day??) and Jamir urges him to dry off in his apartment above the store, sparks fly, etc.
I found the romance cute, and I liked the relationships the men had with their family and friends. Both men have their own problems to deal with in their jobs and personal lives, but there really wasn't much in the way of an obstacle to their relationship apart from some silly contrived drama towards the end.
Weirdly, I found the non-romance writing to be kind of awkward while the ~romantic~ writing wasn't; usually it's the other way around. There were also several editing errors and typos in my ebook (and in the summary, which I had to fix). The line in the summary calling Emmy a plus-size Korean, plus the way Jamir's attraction to Emmy's size was described (slightly/borderline chaser-y), made me a bit uncomfortable; those sensitive to how fat characters are described may not like it. No fatphobia though.
Sometimes you just want a simple fluffy romance book, and the fact that there's a bookstore is the icing on the cake. Overall I liked this.
Score: ★★★½ out of 5 stars
Spice score: 🌶🌶🌶 out of 5 chilies
Read in: February 1
From: B&N Nook
Tropes: idk what it's called but that whole "the weather makes the romance/encounter" happen, forced proximity, close proximity, "he's probably staring at me because I look strange/my odd looks", athlete x nerd, "no, [family member], I'm giving up on YOUR dream", the ex tries to get them back in the third act
Representation: Black man MC, Korean man MC, fat MC, I think both are bisexual so bi4bi
Trigger warnings: the author has a list at the beginning of the book so I'll just redirect you to what I wrote in the second to last paragraph about the way the fat MMC was talked about, also I didn't like how Emmy's boss was such a jerk and yelled all the time
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