The more time I spend with Avery, the more I’m second-guessing everything I thought I wanted, and the harder it is to keep my hands off her.
Heart to Heart, an all-new forced proximity, celebrity romance from award-winning author Sara Furlong Burr is now available!
Avery
Applying to be a contestant on a reality dating show is the last thing I ever thought I would do…Well, aside from actually being on a reality dating show, that is. But here I am on Heart to Heart, hoping to come in second place.
Yes, second place.
I know how crazy that sounds, especially since this season’s love interest is none other than Tristan Tate, the former Sexiest Action Star Alive, and my teenage crush.
Oh, who am I kidding? He’s my today crush, too.
But I can’t think of Tristan or how his lips or his rock-hard body would feel pressed against mine. Not when my parents are in dire financial straits and the prize money awarded to the runner-up would solve all their problems.
Besides, it’s not like I have a chance with Tristan, anyway.
Or do I?
Tristan
One night of stupidity left my career in shambles, but with my new agent at the helm, I’m ready for a comeback. I just have to get through this reality television gig, win viewers over, and not fall for any of the contestants. If I can manage that, I’ll have my career back, provided a wrench doesn’t get thrown into the whole thing.
Enter Avery Martin: the wrench.
Avery stumbled into my life, quite literally, and I haven’t been able to get her out of my mind since then.
And that’s a huge problem.
Because the more time I spend with Avery, the more I’m second-guessing everything I thought I wanted, and the harder it is to keep my hands off her.
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“Cut.”
Frustrated, Kiki tossed her phone on the table, her hands shooting up to her forehead, where she furiously massaged her temples. “You know you have to actually say something, right? I mean, I’m all for the sultry, mysterious bedroom eyes thing, but your eyes look like they just caught sight of your parents doing it on the dining room table.”
“First, thanks for that visual right before bed. Secondly, can’t I just send in a written response with some photos or something?”
“Afraid not.” She picked up her phone and turned the screen so that I could see the official rules for applying to Heart to Heart spelled out in front of me.
Initial submissions had to be emailed no later than midnight tonight with a video of the prospective contestants describing what love meant to them. Who knew a show famous for backstabbing and over-the-top dramatic outbursts, once involving a woman brandishing a purple dildo, would ask its applicants to answer such a deep question? I was expecting to complete a questionnaire asking me for my favorite color and bra size and then calling it a day, not waxing eloquently about love for a show that sometimes felt to be the very antithesis of the word.
“This was a bad idea,” I groaned, resting my forehead against the table. “I’ll just have to sell a kidney. I’m sure it would be far less painful than this.”
“Livers fetch more on the black market.”
“I don’t want to know how you even know that.” I lifted my head back up to see Kiki still fiddling with her phone.
“A girl has to explore all her options.” She glanced up from its screen, eyebrows raised. “Are we doing this or not? Ethan’s coming over in about twenty. The Red Sox won, and you know he gets in a certain kind of way about his team from a city he’s never even visited.”
I shuddered. “Thanks for the warning and also for the reminder to never go to a game with the two of you.” Defeated, I slumped back in my chair. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s too soon for me to adequately answer that question. Guy ruined love for me. I don’t know what it is anymore.”
“We don’t talk about Guy,” Kiki shot back in a sing-song Disney princess voice, promptly following it up with a “no, no, no!”
“Cute.”
“I do my best.” She threw her long, jet black, Pantene-perfect hair, with newly dyed magenta tips, over her shoulder as she tapped the corner of her phone against her chin. “Look, perhaps we’re approaching this all wrong. Love doesn’t have to be romantic. It doesn’t have to be all reverse cowgirl with SportsCenter playing highlights of the game on repeat in the background. Love can be the love you have for your family. That kind of love can’t be tainted by some fickle asshole with an Austen complex. You see what I’m saying?”
“There was a lot to unpack there, but I think I can parse through it.”
Kiki smiled. “What you’re trying to do for your family, that’s love, Ave.”
I nodded through tears as I thought about everything my parents had done for me through the years, all the things they were still doing and missing out on in their lives for the sake of me and Josh. Guy had never been willing to make those kinds of compromises in his life; he had never been willing to bend, choosing instead to break me to spare himself the inconvenience.
So, I took a deep breath and searched my feelings, putting Guy completely aside as I let the words fly out. Not sure whether they made sense, but just hoping for something usable for the producers of Heart to Heart.
“Love is putting others’ dreams ahead of your own, even if it means letting them shine while you stand on the sidelines, cheering them on. Love is knowing that sometimes you have to fall so that others can rise. It’s having each other’s back, making sure they know they’re not alone, that there’s always someone by their side regardless of whether they’re walking in the dark or toward the light.”
“Shit,” Kiki’s voice snapped me out of my reverie. “Where was that an hour and twenty percent of my battery life ago?”
“Do you think that works—did I answer the question?”
“Are you kidding me? I think you need to start packing your bags in three, two, one.” She tapped the screen on her phone, seemingly satisfied with herself. “Submitted.”
“Now we wait.” I exhaled a shaky breath, already regretting my decision in a confusing conflict of emotions. On the one hand, afraid of rejection and, on the other, of being chosen.
“My bestie is going to be on Heart to Heart,” Kiki squealed, covering her mouth with her hands.
“I’m sure they received a million emails. Mine will probably be lost in the sea.”
“Not with the nudes I slipped in there, it won’t.”
“Kiki!”
“Settle down, woman. I only sent the one of you in your Cookie Monster onesie.”
“Okay, you can quit with the jokes, Keeks.”
The smile slowly faded away from her face as she replied, “Joke—yes. That was most definitely a joke.”
For more information about Sara Furlong Burr and her books, visit her website:
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Sunny Shelly’s Review: 4 Stars
This clever romcom is set at a dating reality show, where Plain Jane Avery is hoping to take *second place* so she can win the cash prize and bail out her family’s struggling bakery. Even though the bachelor star of the show is Tristan, her forever celebrity crush.
Heart to Heart was cleverly written. Tristan could have been a real jerk, and he was actually a really sweet guy — with a conscience, no less! I loved how conflicted he was about having Avery among the contestants. He knew she was capable of being eaten alive by the vipers of the bunch, and he was hooked by how genuine she was. Tristan was swoony, Avery was quirky, and together they were super cute! But will the attraction they feel in the bubble of the reality show translate to the real world?
I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.
Sunny Shelly Reads 