Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.
This book follows the Aggie, a woman from the “wrong side of the tracks” and Max, who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, as they are forced together due to the meddling of their two grandmothers. This book takes place in Kansas City and Aggie & her grandmother lay the Southern Charm™ on thick. Neither Max nor Aggie want to be set up by their grandmothers, but both wish to please & honor them, so they go along with the scheming while trying to pull their own punches. The book quickly goes from Max and Aggie hating each other to them liking each other (while still saying they hate each other), with talk of like-like and jealousy. This would be what I consider an enemies to lovers story, but it isn’t so clearly delineated as others you might read with this troupe.
Spoilers below in terms of pros/cons:
Pros: They feel like real people with real problems. Aggie has a lot of baggage and familial issues that lead her to act irrationally. Max comes from a very privileged background and therefore has a hard time seeing outside of his bubble at times. The way they eventually fall for each other doesn’t happen in a lightening strike moment which is more realistic in my opinion.
Cons: This is probably a personal thing, but I really couldn’t deal with some of the bullheadedness that Aggie and Max had. I know both of them have baggage and were protecting their hearts, but they both were making things worse for themselves by not communicating like adults and just acting without thinking. They were constantly quick to provoke one another, yet were very slow to try and work through anything.
Overall, this was an easy read that I did enjoy, and I would give it a 3.5/4 out of 5. Pick it up if you want a nice weekend enemies to lovers.