Romance is not on the itinerary—or is it? Rom-com fans who love books by Elise Bryant and Jenna Evans Welch will adore this paperback original companion to Hot British Boyfriend by Kristy Boyce.
No one has ever accused Sage Cunningham of being easily distracted. She has a plan, and she won’t be swayed. She’ll spend the summer interning in her mentor's lab in Amsterdam, and then she’ll be ready to start her freshman year of college. All she needs to do to pay for the summer abroad is agree to serve as the au pair for Dr. Reese’s three-year-old.
Sage has it all down to a science, but she doesn’t anticipate the surprise arrival of Dr. Reese’s teenage son. Ryland is spontaneous, flirty, and impulsive—everything Sage isn’t. He’s an artist, and he’s not half bad, but he’s desperately in need of someone to keep him focused. And as nannying proves harder than Sage had expected, it turns out she might need help too.
The two strike a deal. Sage will stop Ryland from going out with a different girl every day, and Ryland will pitch in with his little brother. Spending the whole summer stuck together is the perfect way to keep distractions to a minimum. Right?
Reluctant romance lovers will devour this next summer read from Hot British Boyfriend author Kristy Boyce.
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Gr 7–10—Sage is driven. Her singular focus for the summer after high school is to attend a prestigious academic STEM conference in Berlin. In order to make this happen, she has agreed to serve as nanny for Dr. Reese, a preeminent researcher, working mother, and field expert. The summer takes on a whole new twist, however, when it is revealed that Dr. Reese's older son Ryland, an aspiring artist and general free spirit, will be living at the house, too, and that Sage and Ryland are expressly forbidden from dating. Gauntlet down. It isn't a handful of days before Sage and Ryland are constant companions, and soon sparks are flying. Ryland uses their time together to woo Sage with Amsterdam highlights including travel by tram, bicycling, a visit to a giant clog, and sampling a cone full of fries covered in mayonnaise. The romance is admittedly tame, focused predominantly on kissing and Ryland making personalized screen-printed T-shirts for Sage. Ryland is a great character who focuses on creating unique block prints featuring cats snuck into the corners of every image. He leans into his cat motif by leading Sage to cat-focused tourist attractions including KattenKabinet. Curious readers can lose more than a few moments exploring the virtual tour of this real-world facility or researching the works of Louis Wain. The novel is set in the Netherlands with presumably an all-white cast. VERDICT Hand this to fans of Stephanie Perkins. A perfect summer romance.—Leah Krippner