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Addictive Slow Burn: Managed by Kristen Callihan

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Like a lot of romance fans, I read a lot. Some of the books are fun but forgettable, and some stick with me. But some books grab me and won’t let go. Managed by Kristen Callihan is one of those books.

Managed is the second book in a four-book series, a fact I didn’t realize until I opened the ebook. I would normally wait to read the rest of the books and review them as a series (the other three are in my queue and I’m looking forward to them), but I’m making an exception because I don’t care what the other books are like—this one has me, heart and soul.

How to savor a romance novel

When I finish a book I like, I often page back to reread my favorite scenes before I move on to the next book. I want a little more time with the happy couple, so I relive the highlights: first kiss, first sex, the dramatic breakup, the dramatic reunion. I do the same thing with romantic movies or TV shows, replaying my favorite scenes.

With Managed, that wasn’t enough. I found myself rereading more and more chapters until I’d practically gone back through the whole book again immediately after reading it the first time. I’ve only been this obsessed a few times: at the end of the Spanish series Gran Hotel, after reading The Hating Game and Boyfriend Material. So my recommendation for this book comes with a warning: you could get obsessed.

You had me at “blowjob”

Kristen Callihan’s Managed has a lot to recommend it from the jump: a very British, very rich hero and a mischievous, hysterically funny heroine who decides to have a go at him. The dialog between the two main characters is witty and charming and—best of all—unexpected. By the time Sophie Darling, unexpectedly upgraded to a first class seat, tells her grumpy seatmate Gabriel Scott she knows he’s acting tense so she’ll offer him a blowjob, shocking him out of his high dudgeon, I was hooked.

I was drawn in by the snappy dialogue, but the slow burn romance between Sophie and Gabriel hooked me and it still hasn’t let me go. Alternating each of their perspectives, Callihan draws the reader through the agonizing dance of attraction and resistance with perfect rhythm, never missing a beat.

I’ve read two other perfectly lovely books by a different author since I got to the end of Managed, but I find myself dipping back into it compulsively. I usually read a whole series and review the books together, but this book is so good, I don’t want to wait. I’m sure the rest of Callihan’s VIP series is great, and you should probably read them in order, but don’t miss Managed. It’s terrific.

Tropes: billionaire, thrown together, workplace romance, slow burn

Spice level: 4 out of 5

Humor level: Don’t be fooled by the cover. This book is laugh-out-loud funny!

Buy it at Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, or visit the author’s website. Or, better yet—get it from your local bookstore.

A bit of news about me: my first rom-com, Mia’s List of Don’ts, is out for submission. That means that my fabulous agent, Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary, is sending it to editors. Please send happy thoughts for my manuscript as it makes its way into the world — all grown up!

Getting a Dual Timeline Right: Forget Me Not by Julie Soto

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A while ago, I told my wife I don’t like second chance romances and she pointed out that I totally do. I love Jane Austen’s Persuasion—at least the two movie versions I’ve seen; I read the book so long ago I don’t remember it. And I very much enjoyed Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation (which I see is going to be a Netflix movie—fab!).

But. Here’s the thing I don’t like about many second chance romances: they are told in two timelines. In the present, you see the former lovers maneuvering around each other. In the past, the reason they’re apart in the present, even though they clearly still love each other, slowly unfolds. And I am basically lazy and don’t enjoy jumping between two timelines, remembering what’s going on in each, especially if both are kind of depressing. I am all in it for the HEA, so waiting for the bomb to drop in the past is particularly displeasing to me. Yes, I know every romance needs a falling out in the third act, but somehow, that’s different. I get impatient being dragged into the past when I just want to see the two of them get together in the present. It’s like being forced to wade through a mountain of backstory to get to the good parts.

In fact, I recently did something I never do: I started reading a romance and quit after the first chapter. It wasn’t that the writing was bad or I couldn’t identify with the characters. The author is excellent, and you might read her books and love them—lots of people do. But it was a second chance romance with a dual timeline and I realized that not only was I going to live through the ups and downs of the characters in the present time, I would have to go back to their past every other chapter and live through a painful experience that doesn’t have a happy ending. And it’s just too exhausting, so I put it down.

Forget Me Not by Julie Soto

Second chance – Contemporary

Except when it works. I love Julie Soto’s Forget Me Not, even though most of the book flips back and forth between the past and the present.

Here’s the magic: the past is almost exclusively told from the viewpoint of grumpy, self-conscious florist Elliot Bloom. The present is narrated by chipper wedding planner Ama Torres, as she’s forced to work with Elliot on the wedding that will make her career three years after they broke up. Ama takes us through her daily struggles to have faith in herself and her business while reigniting the feelings for Elliot that never really went away. Elliot tells a parallel love story: the first time he saw Ama, her barging into his shop, the first time they kissed. The past is all about the good parts. It’s a hopeful, sweet story that reveals the chemistry between the characters and I was happy to live in both timelines.

It doesn’t hurt that the Sacramento setting is vibrant and lived in, there are lots of plot twists and a great villain, and Soto’s writing is delightful and funny. If you haven’t read Forget Me Not, it’s on Kindle Unlimited or, if you’re old school like me, buy the book.

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