Thursday, March 26, 2020

Blog Tour + Excerpt + Review: "Attracting Aubrey" by Avery Flynn

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Today, I am thrilled to participate in the blog tour promoting Avery Flynn's latest novella, "Attracting Aubrey," which is being released as part of the Gone Wild series. Gone Wild is a collection of five standalone stories by bestselling authors Katee Robert, Robin Covington, Piper J. Drake, Stacey Kennedy, and Avery Flynn, featuring five friends from college who plan a vacation together and accidentally end up aboard a singles cruise. Hilarity ensues because of the mix-up, but each of the friends also manages to find love in between games of shuffleboard and excursions to beautiful Caribbean ports.

I've only read "Attracting Aubrey" so far, which is technically book #3 of the series, but I can confirm that it reads as a complete standalone. Like all of Avery Flynn's stories, I found it to be charming, funny, and sweet with likeable characters and a multitude of laugh-out-loud moments. I am happy to recommend it for all fans of contemporary romantic comedies.

About "Attracting Aubrey"

Read for a great cause and help those in need!

Attracting Aubrey, an all-new not-to-be-missed standalone romantic comedy from Wall Street Journal bestselling author Avery Flynn, is available now, and Avery is donating all royalties from Attracting Aubrey this month to Feeding America‘s COVID-19 Response Fund!

I never dreamed I’d meet my celebrity crush while stealing every single pair of my best friend’s pants.

Trust me, my life is not that wild. In fact, the most excitement I usually get is running my fan-favorite Insta thirst account featuring butt-tastic pics of Hollywood superhero Carter Hayes. So, imagine my shock when, in the middle of the cruise ship hallway, I realize the guy whose shirt I'm stuffing slacks inside of is Carter disguised as a tourist. How I manage not to faint dead away, I've got no clue.

When word leaks that Carter might be on board, he asks me to help him maintain his cover. There’s no way I’m gonna say no to that. I just don't share that I’m the anonymous woman behind the fan account that reported sighting him onboard. No biggie. Right?

However, when things between us go from friendly to hot to OMG-I-can’t-keep-my-clothes-on-around-him, all I can do is hope he never discovers my secret. You see, somewhere along the way, Carter went from an untouchable movie star to the man I’m falling for.

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Read an Excerpt from "Attracting Aubrey"

This was beyond a doubt the weirdest experience Carter Hayes had ever had and he'd once spent six hours on a green screen sound stage wearing a CGI suit and pretending to fight a one-eyed zombie giant with poisonous farts.

When he'd turned the corner and found the cute blonde giggling to herself as she pulled one pair of pants after another out of a suitcase, he thought she might be a little touched, as his grandmother used to say. When she held one pair up in the air and declared she was freeing Grace's sexy thighs, he figured she was drunk already. And just when he thought it couldn't get more bizarre, she managed to pull him in as an accessory to pants theft and now she wanted him to shove four pairs of pants down his shirt?

This was a mistake. It would only draw attention to himself when he was supposed to be observing others, not be observed. The last thing he needed was for anyone to realize that he wasn't mild mannered dental laboratory technician Carter Van Stettle from Iowa. This cruise was his opportunity to prove to indie-darling director Kennedy Howard that he could disappear into a part, that movie goers could look up at the big screen and see him as anyone other than The Admiral.

He was all ready to return the pants to their rightful owner and be on his way. It was the smart thing to do. Then, the thief beside him said please and, well, one could only play the most debonair superhero to ever top the box office for so long before some of the character stuck to them. He stuffed the stupid pants up his shirt and tucked the hem of it into his shorts to keep them from falling out. The special effects team on his last movie would have laughed their asses off, but the pants' paunch effect was actually pretty good.

***

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My Review

I am generally a fan of romances featuring Hollywood movie stars, and Avery Flynn's "Attracting Aubrey" was no exception to that rule. It was a super cute, fun, and flirty story that kept me smiling the entire time I was reading. Main characters Carter and Aubrey were very likeable and well-developed in spite of the story's short length, and I really appreciated that there wasn't a typical insta-love feel to their relationship development. Between the forced proximity of being on a cruise ship together and faking a relationship in an effort to maintain Carter's cover, it felt like they were able to get to know each other pretty well in a short period of time, which made their feelings for each other more believable to me.

I adored Carter, who seemed very down to Earth despite growing up in Hollywood as the child of two famous actors before becoming famous himself. He was sweet, funny, and, of course, handsome; based on the various descriptions of him in the book, I couldn't help but picture him as a Chris Evans lookalike. Aubrey was also very funny and apparently the prankster of her friend group, but she had a good heart and looked out for those she loved. She gave up a lot to move back to her hometown after college to take over her grandmother's bakery, even though she had no interest in (or talent for) baking herself.

Despite their very different backgrounds, Aubrey and Carter seemed to have a lot in common. For example, they both wanted to be taken seriously for their talents (writing for Aubrey and acting for Carter). In addition, each of them was unhappy with the current direction of their life and was looking to make a change. Boarding the cruise and meeting each other was exactly the spark they needed to point their lives in a new direction, and both Carter and Aubrey ended up much happier for it.

Overall, "Attracting Aubrey" was a lighthearted and delightful story, and I found it to be a perfect distraction from the craziness of current events. I highly recommend it for all romantic comedy fans whether or not they have read the other books in the Gone Wild series or any of Ms. Flynn's previous works.

*ARC provided by the author via Social Butterfly PR. All opinions expressed are my own.

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