Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert

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Title: Take a Hint, Dani Brown
Author: Talia Hibbert
Series: The Brown Sisters #2
Published by: HarperAudio, Avon
Release Date: June 23, 2020
Format: Audiobook, Kobo Book
Narrator: Ione Butler
Pages: 376
Length: 10 hours
Genres: Romantic Comedy, Contemporary
Source: Libby
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2021 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2021 Diversity Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ IndieBound ✩ iTunes ✩ Book Depository ✩ Libro.FM
My rating:

Blurb:

Talia Hibbert returns with 'TAKE A HINT, DANI BROWN', another charming romantic comedy about a young woman who agrees to fake date her friend after a video of him “rescuing” her from their office building goes viral...

Danika Brown knows what she wants: professional success, academic renown, and an occasional roll in the hay to relieve all that career-driven tension. But romance? Been there, done that, burned the T-shirt. Romantic partners, whatever their gender, are a distraction at best and a drain at worst. So Dani asks the universe for the perfect friend-with-benefits—someone who knows the score and knows their way around the bedroom.

When brooding security guard Zafir Ansari rescues Dani from a workplace fire drill gone wrong, it’s an obvious sign: PhD student Dani and ex-rugby player Zaf are destined to sleep together. But before she can explain that fact, a video of the heroic rescue goes viral. Now half the internet is shipping #DrRugbae—and Zaf is begging Dani to play along. Turns out, his sports charity for kids could really use the publicity. Lying to help children? Who on earth would refuse?

Dani’s plan is simple: fake a relationship in public, seduce Zaf behind the scenes. The trouble is, grumpy Zaf’s secretly a hopeless romantic—and he’s determined to corrupt Dani’s stone-cold realism. Before long, he’s tackling her fears into the dirt. But the former sports star has issues of his own, and the walls around his heart are as thick as his... um, thighs.

Suddenly, the easy lay Dani dreamed of is more complex than her thesis. Has her wish backfired? Is her focus being tested? Or is the universe just waiting for her to take a hint?

My Review:

4.5 stars — I think I’ve found a new favourite author.  There’s just something about the quirky characters that Ms. Hibbert creates, and the kind of romance that just gets to my heart…mixed in with amazing depth, and it just works for me.

I will say, no matter how delightful I find Ione Butler’s voice and accent, I finally had to accept that her narration wasn’t a good fit for me.  I LOVED listening to her say all the words, and her emotions were good.  But her pacing was just off for me.  There would be pauses where I wouldn’t expect pauses…and no pauses where I *really* needed them to understand a change in speaker, or something else.  Combine that with not that distinctive voices, and I finally had to accept that I was avoiding the book, no matter how much the characters and plot were sucking me in.  I bought the ebook and switched to it around 60%, and suddenly I was motoring through it.  Ah well, lessons learned.

ZAFIR!!!!  Zafir my ginormous sexy cinnamon roll hero!!  He was a cupcake of a man mixed with a dirty dirty mind, and the combination just about killed me.  He’s most definitely going on the book boyfriend list.  I can’t wait to reread this book in the future so I can highlight a bunch of stuff from the first half.  Don’t get me wrong, the boy had his own issues to work through…but he made me swoon many many times along the way.  I LOVED his romance novel addiction.  I loved how open he was.  I loved learning about everything he had gone through, and what he struggled with in his mental health.  It may be weird to say, but I appreciated seeing him make so many strides, but still falter along the way at times…because that’s the reality with anxiety.  I ADORED what he was trying to do with Tackle It, and I cheered when (with the help of Dani) he figured out how to go that extra step.  And holy fuck that boy was sexy as sin, with a dirty mind, and fabulous sarcastic comebacks.

Dani…well Dani could be frustrating.  But you know what?  I still fell in love with her.  God, her wit just had me in stitches at times.  And I loved how smart she was, and how that juxtaposed with her struggles in emotional areas.  I even appreciated how strongly she held on to the beliefs she had about herself, because I think it’s so realistic.  She was hella stubborn.  It made it so emotional when she finally broke through.

And GOD, the two of them together?  I mean, I was in from the first moments of banter.  And their chemistry just jumped from friendship to steaminess without a misstep.  And they still had fun and teased!  I love fun and teasing during steamy scenes!  It’s my jam.  They just fit one another, and I loved seeing them each blossom because of knowing one another.

SOOOOO many great secondary characters.  It really felt like a romance in real life, b/c the family and friends were there along the way.

So yeah.  I have a feeling if I’d read the whole thing, I would be rounding up.  But since I’m likely going to put this review under the audio, I’m rounding down for that aspect only.