Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert

 

Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert is actually the second novel in The Brown Sisters series, but I didn't know that when I got this book from the library and it can be read as a standalone.  Danika Brown is a grad student in literature and she's had her heart broken, so she's only interested in one night stands or ongoing sexual relationships with no feelings attached.  Zafir is a former rugby player turned security guard who has a crush on Danika. One day there's a fire drill and Zaf dramatically carries Dani out of the building and the video of this event creates a viral storm.

Interesting characters: Zafir is an exciting hero to read.  He reads romance novels, teaches young boys how to play rugby AND express their feelings because he feels that toxic masculinity is rampant in much of sport, adores his family, has a goal in life, and is funny and charming.  Consider the following passage:

After a while, she [Kiran, Zaf's sister-in-law] whispered in his ear, "Sweetie, are you crying?"

"No," he said. "I'm leaking masculine pain from my eyeballs." (pages 313-314)

Brilliantly done. He's still funny and charming, but also admitting to his pain. In a sea of alpha heroes, Zafir stands out as a beta who likes women and likes being with women.  He's definitely physically strong, but he's not a dominant force.  He's respectful and tries to play within the rules that Dani sets out for him

And Dani is an interesting character. She tries to pretend she's closed off from the idea of a relationship, but she's really just closed off emotionally because if she doesn't acknowledge her feelings, she won't suffer pain. I think she's interesting in this way, but Dani falls flat for me. She's a grad student, but she doesn't ACT like a grad student. The author talks about how Dani is a workaholic and always thinks about work, but in reality, Dani doesn't actually really think about much beyond reiterating her goals to herself over and over again. I'm going to sound like a broken record, but the way Love Lettering infused Meg's thoughts with script in her every interaction with every person, place, and thing she encountered was much more believable to me. When I was in graduate school, my every thought was about how the world around me related to the material I was studying. I literally didn't have time to think about actual life.  

Believable conflict: Absolutely. It's super interesting that Zaf has already completed the journey of recovering from some emotional fallout in his life and that Dani is just at the start of that. The contrast between these two is stark, but watching them fall in love in parallel is stunning.

Emotional tension: Sure. There's a lot of "will they, won't they" at the beginning and then there's this whole "we're just pretending" thing going on because they want to keep the viral views going and it's almost one hundred pages in before there's so much as a kiss. Very well paced, I thought.

Happily ever after: I adored this ending. Zaf and Dani are just being Zaf and Dani and it's about how their relationship has matured. There's no hint of marriage or babies, just a regular life lived in a regular way. Their lives have clearly changed because they're now a couple with couple schedules and couple shortcuts and it was charming to see and made me did think they are somewhere in a small college town somewhere living happily ever after.

Best scene: There's a scene with a dining room table that will definitely be the scene I remember from this novel.

In general, I thought this was a very good execution of a modern romance novel. 4.5/5 stars from me.

Notable lines:

1) "...I like your voice, and it's cool when you get excited about nerd stuff." (page 163)

Everyone should find someone who will listen to them blather on about stuff they're not interested in. 

2) "A lot of people considered Dani oblivious, but that wasn't true: she simply chose to ignore the things that didn't interest her in favor of the things that did. People, as a group, were therefore pushed to the back of her mind in favor of more relevant topics, such as snacks and poetry and panel research." (page 168)

I think this is what makes me kind of side-eye Dani. People are interesting.  Seriously. You just have to prod them into getting them to tell you what makes them interesting.

3) "With his oversized, raggedy jumper and enormous eyes, he looked the like ghost of a Victorian child shoved into skinny jeans." (page 183)

Hipster cool, you know?

4) "She was lucky Gigi had coached all the Brown girls on the nature of fame long ago, just in case any of them every followed in her show-biz footsteps - or, alternatively, took part in The Great British Bake Off and got caught screwing Paul Hollywood in a field. That had been the example provided, anyway." (page 185)

I know that this reference is going to date this book in twenty years, but I don't care. I spend too much of my time rewatching GBBO episodes and have spent the last two months waiting eagerly for Friday night so I could watch a new episode. I actually don't think Paul Hollywood is that attractive, but there are all sorts of rumors about Hollywood and some of the contestants and this line just slayed me.