Brooklynaire (Brooklyn Bruisers #4)

Goodreads
Author: Sarina Bowen
Find the author: Website, Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon, Instagram, Pinterest
Also by this author: , The Fifteenth Minute, The Year We Fell Down, The Year We Hid Away, Blonde Date, The Understatement of the Year, The Shameless Hour, The Fifteenth Minute, Rookie Move, Hard Hitter, Bittersweet, Steadfast, Keepsake (True North, #3), Him, Us, Untitled, Hard Hitter, Good Boy, Keepsake (True North, #3), Goodbye Paradise, Pipe Dreams, Stay (WAGs, #2), Pipe Dreams, Temporary, Man Hands (Man Hands, #1), Man Card, Speakeasy, The Accidentals, Overnight Sensation, Top Secret, Superfan (Brooklyn, #3)
Publication date: February 12th 2018
Source: Author's publicist (thank you!)
Format: eARC
My rating:
Buy It: The Book Depository | Audible

A sexy new standalone from USA Today bestseller Sarina Bowen.

You'd think a billion dollars, a professional hockey team and a six-bedroom mansion on the Promenade would satisfy a guy. You'd be wrong.

For seven years Rebecca has brightened my office with her wit and her smile. She manages both my hockey team and my sanity. I don't know when I started waking in the night, craving her. All I know is that one whiff of her perfume ruins my concentration. And her laugh makes me hard.

When Rebecca gets hurt, I step in to help. It's what friends do. But what friends don't do is rip off each others' clothes for a single, wild night together.

Now she's avoiding me. She says we're too different, and it can never happen again. So why can't we keep our hands off each other?

I think this is my highest rating ever for a Sarina Bowen novel, and that’s saying something. Sarina writes some of my favorite new adult romances, and every single one of her books is an immediate must-read for me.

The reason this one struck me so hard? It’s the slow burn of the century.

If you’ve read the rest of the books in Sarina’s Brooklyn Bruisers series, you’ll know that she’s already hinted at the romance between billionaire tech guru Nate Kattenberger, owner of the Brooklyn Bruisers hockey team, and his office manager, the sassy Rebecca Rowley. Those glimpses were SO tantalizing that I was desperately waiting for this book.

It didn’t disappoint.

It doesn’t hurt that this book is RIFE with Pride and Prejudice references, nerdy jokes, and super steamy moments. There’s also a really well-researched discussion of brain and head injuries. And like all of Sarina’s work, there is a huge, well-managed cast of secondary characters you’ll adore.

We get to see Nate and Becca in their current timeline, but also how they met and how their history informs their current relationship. They both happened onto their jobs through hard work. They also happen to be incredibly attracted to each other. It’s frustrating, sexually and emotionally. And even though it’s romance and I knew it was going to be a happy ending, I just couldn’t figure out how this one would end.

What Brooklynaire does incredibly well, that I honestly haven’t seen in any other boss-employee or billionaire/millionaire romance, is address the inequality and power imbalance between Nate and Becca in a way that never takes away Becca’s agency.

It’s a completely unique take on these tropes in romance, because Becca is and always will be a strong, competent, kick-arse woman who won’t take any crap. And Nate will always be a silent genius with a heart of gold – but an understanding of how to run the world without being a jerk about it.

If you are at all interested in the boss-employee or the billionaire tropes that have been so hot in the romance genre lately, I highly, HIGHLY encourage you to read Brooklynaire. If you like hockey or sports romances, I also highly encourage you to read Brooklynaire. And if you like romances that start with just a spark and grow and build from friendship into incredible relationships, full of the little and big hiccups of every day, I encourage you to read Brooklynaire. This one made me think a little, but it also fulfilled all my Cinderella fantasies in the most heartwarming way possible.

The Final Word:

I whipped through Brooklynaire in three days, desperate to find out what would happen (for a new mom, this is really fast, I swear!). It’s the forbidden office/billionaire romance that you always want to read. It’s also so fresh and real about the power imbalances between billionaire Nate and office manager Becca. The central relationship is respectful, honest, funny and loving. I was yearning for Nate and Becca to get together, cheering when they did, and smiling and crying by the end. One of the best romances I’ve read in a long time.

BROOKLYNAIRE by Sarina Bowen comes out today! Will you be reading it? (Please, please do, it’s SO good!). Have you read other Sarina Bowen titles? What are your fave billionaire or office romances? Let me know in the comments!