Hard Sell

Interesting Dichotomies. This book, for me, was more about the interesting dichotomies than anything. You get a MM romance... with both an FF couple as side characters and set within the Asian community, which isn't overly common. (Maybe not as hyper-macho as wildfire firefighters, but seemingly near that level in rarity.) You get a hyper successful financial type... who isn't being his normal hyper successful self, and in fact is desperate for a win and who comes from... less successful... beginnings. You get a black sheep who feels he must prove himself apart from his ultra-successful family. And you get the particular blend of tech and finance that I could have felt was a bit too close to my own “real” world (where I work in IT for a Fortune 50 financial firm) that it could have been too real. And yet it all worked. And worked well in fact. On the actual romance side, you get a fairly standard will they/ won't they / this is a freaking romance novel so you know they do. You get the whole “best friend's sibling” dynamic, with its usual problems and resolutions. And you get a crap ton of angst. If you want your romance novels bright and breezy... this aint it. But if you want a romance novel unlike most you've ever seen before... this one is probably exactly that. Very much recommended.