Real estate agent Bennett Pierce has had a thing for receptionist Charlie Hansley since her first day on the job, but they got off on the wrong foot, and now she thinks he's a jerk. He's too focused on his career for a relationship anyway, so he's actively tried to maintain his reputation as the office playboy so that he wouldn't be tempted to let anything happen between them. Besides, Charlie has a boyfriend, which makes her off-limits. Things begin to change one night when Charlie and her best friend Olivia decide to head out to the bar after a rough week at work. Their waitress accidentally sees a photo Charlie's showing Olivia from a weekend away with her boyfriend, Jared, and recognizes him as the guy she recently met on a dating app. A few drinks later, Olivia convinces Charlie to create a fake profile on the app so that she can catch her cheating boyfriend in the act. While checking for a response to their message to Jared the following day, Charlie ends up chatting with a different guy for hours. It's mostly innocent, both of them just venting frustrations to a stranger, but there's a strong connection (and a bit of flirtation) between them. What Charlie doesn't know is that the other guy is actually office playboy Bennett, who joined the app to get his mother and sister to stop trying to set him up. How will she react when she learns the truth?
I really enjoyed the banter and steamy chemistry between Bennett and Charlie, and they were very cute together once they started dating. That said, I did find myself growing slightly frustrated with them at times because of their many misunderstandings and failures to communicate. They were both likeable characters, however, and I couldn't help rooting for them to work through their issues and end up together.
"Flirting with the Playboy" is technically the author's first published book, and it shows at times. For example, there's a timeline problem in the first half of the story; after Charlie and Bennett chatted the first time through the app, he tells his friend Trey that they'd been chatting for the past several nights, and Charlie later tells someone that they had been chatting for "a few weeks," which wasn't possible since it was the day after she confronted her boyfriend about the cheating. While these issues were at times a bit confusing, they fortunately didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story, and I have every reason to believe that the author's storytelling will only improve with experience.
Overall, I enjoyed this funny, sweet, and steamy story and recommend it for all fans of the enemies-to-lovers and workplace romance tropes. I look forward to the author's next book.
*Review copy provided by the author/publisher via Enticing Journey Book Promotions. All opinions expressed are my own.
About "Flirting with the Playboy"
Flirting with the sexy stranger on a dating app was easy.
Finding out the sexy stranger is also the office playboy…
I wasn't expecting that.
They don't call Bennett Pierce the office playboy for nothing. The parade of women through his doorway makes me want to dry-heave. Sure, he looks like he strolled off the page of a male fashion magazine, but his personality is anything but desirable.
But after catching my ex cheating on a dating app and Bennett witnessing my very public break up, his offer of margaritas is too hard to pass up. Tequila didn't make my clothes fall off, but it did lead to one scorching hot kiss.
Instantly, I regret it but an unexpected message on the dating app distracts me from too much self-loathing. And when the friendly banter quickly turns into steamy flirting, Bennett Pierce is one swipe right forgotten.
And when we finally meet, I realize…
I've been flirting with the playboy.
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