Practice Makes Perfect: A Novel (Rome, Kentucky)
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A small-town sweetheart and an emotionally unavailable bad boy try to find some common ground in this chemistry-filled romance from the author of The Cheat Sheet and When in Rome.
A POPSUGAR AND CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Annie Walker is on a quest to find her perfect match—someone who complements her happy, quiet life running the local flower shop in Rome, Kentucky. But finding her dream man may be harder than Annie imagined. Everyone knows everyone in her hometown, and the dating prospects are getting fewer by the day. After she overhears her latest date say she is “so unbelievably boring,” Annie starts to think the problem might be her. Is it too late to become flirtatious and fun like the leading ladies in her favorite romance movies? Maybe she only needs a little practice . . . and Annie has the perfect person in mind to be her tutor: Will Griffin.
Will—the sexy , tattooed, and absolutely gorgeous bodyguard—is temporarily back in Rome, providing security for Amelia Rose as excitement builds for her upcoming marriage to Noah Walker, Annie’s brother. He has one personal objective while on the job: stay away from Annie Walker and any other possible attachments to this sleepy town. But no sooner than he gets settled, Will finds himself tasked with helping Annie find the love of her life by becoming the next leading lady of Rome, Kentucky. Will wants no part in changing the sweet and lovely Annie. He knows for a fact that some stuffy, straitlaced guy won’t make her happy, but he doesn’t have the heart to say no.
Amid steamy practice dates and strictly “educational” tutoring lessons, Annie discovers there are more layers to Will’s usual stoic attitude. As the lines of their friendship become dangerously blurred, Annie reconsiders her dream guy. Maybe her love life doesn’t need to be perfect—it just needs to be real.
Look for all of Sarah Adams’s When in Rome books:
WHEN IN ROME • PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT • BEG, BORROW, OR STEAL • IN YOUR DREAMS
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✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI
Readers say *Practice Makes Perfect* is a sweet, heartwarming romance full of humor and undeniable chemistry between Annie and Will. Many praise its s...
Based on the many five star reviews, I'm obviously in the minority on this one. But the entire time I was reading Practice Makes Perfect, I just kept thinking "ugh." I pushed through and finished it for the sake of writing a review, but I was very, very tempted to DNF this one.
I think the biggest issue I had was with the main character, Annie. A 30-year-old woman with a vocabulary and world experience of a third grader. Eight pages into this book she uses the term "H-E-double-hockey sticks" and I think I audibly groaned. Annie feels immature and naive the entire book and it makes you wonder how the "h-e-double hockey sticks" this woman somehow got a business and has functioned in the world for 30 minutes - let alone 30 years.
The male protagonist, Will, is a body guard and ex-military. He hates romantic relationships because of his parents bad marriage.
The concept of their opposites attract relationship has the potential to be interesting but it never is. They pretend to date under the guise that Will is going to be Annie's dating coach. But they're enamored with each other from the get-go. Annie loses all of her signature social awkwardness and shyness when Will is around (characteristics that I don't think were present for her in the first When in Rome book, btw) and Will loves how sweet and angelic she is.
I don't know, I just felt like both of these people need a looooooot of therapy. Will needs to unpack his parents marriage and how that has made him a commitment phob and Annie needs to deal with the grief of losing her parents atA such a young age.
Maybe this story would have worked if it had been a YA book, but for a romance book dealing with 30+ adults, it just didn't.
Thank you so much to Random House Publishing Group, Dell Romance, and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC to read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I think the biggest issue I had was with the main character, Annie. A 30-year-old woman with a vocabulary and world experience of a third grader. Eight pages into this book she uses the term "H-E-double-hockey sticks" and I think I audibly groaned. Annie feels immature and naive the entire book and it makes you wonder how the "h-e-double hockey sticks" this woman somehow got a business and has functioned in the world for 30 minutes - let alone 30 years.
The male protagonist, Will, is a body guard and ex-military. He hates romantic relationships because of his parents bad marriage.
The concept of their opposites attract relationship has the potential to be interesting but it never is. They pretend to date under the guise that Will is going to be Annie's dating coach. But they're enamored with each other from the get-go. Annie loses all of her signature social awkwardness and shyness when Will is around (characteristics that I don't think were present for her in the first When in Rome book, btw) and Will loves how sweet and angelic she is.
I don't know, I just felt like both of these people need a looooooot of therapy. Will needs to unpack his parents marriage and how that has made him a commitment phob and Annie needs to deal with the grief of losing her parents atA such a young age.
Maybe this story would have worked if it had been a YA book, but for a romance book dealing with 30+ adults, it just didn't.
Thank you so much to Random House Publishing Group, Dell Romance, and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC to read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
This was the second book of the series but my fourth and final book. And it was such fun! We were briefly introduced to Will Griffin in the first book in the series, as Rae Rose's celebrity body guard. Rae Rose, real name Amelia, is getting married to Noah Walker. Each Walker has a book devoted to them, and the second book is all about the youngest of the Walkers, Annie Walker. Annie and Will are the romantic leads in book two, and they are about as different as night and day. Will, being night. And Annie, sometimes called Angel Annie, is day. As the book starts out, Annie is at a restaurant with a first time date who seems to have no interest in her at all - and has a friend call when she gets back from the bathroom, to tell her that he needs to go help the friend fix a flat tire. He's bagging the date, and Annie knows it, because she overheard the conversation that he asked his friend to call in ten minutes, etc. Will also happens to be there on a date, and when he sees Annie with this guy, he gets the gist of the guy bagging out. So he walks Annie out. A cute start, to a premise that winds up with Will helping Annie with 'dating' lessons. Because Annie doesn't blame the guy, she had no conversational game going on her side, and admitted she was a pretty boring date. Through the lessons, of course, opposites are not as opposite as they seem, and sparks ignite. Both parties are trying to fight it - because Will is leaving after his assignment with Rae Rose is over to be a protection agent in Washington DC. He thinks Rome, KY is a nothing town. And Annie is looking for a family and picket fences. The couple was fun to read about, and of the four in this series, I think it was the best overall.
I think my expectations were way to high. Overall I liked it a lot but i was not entirely happy with that ending. Both seem to easily sacrifice so much of their personality without hesitating. I just felt that it was rushed and they did not have to chance to miss each other and therfore get back together. Still i liked both characters development and the sneek peaks into Amelias and Noahs life.
OMG! Annie and Will make such a great couple. Annie, the shy one that wants to be known other than the "nice" girl or girl next door. And Will, the tattooed body guard that thinks he's a bachelor for life. There was no spice in this book, which I'm ok with, but I wanted a little more when Annie had sex with Will (since it was her first). They glazed over that and I felt unsatisfied. I am not a glutton for smut, but usually when they make a FMC a virgin, they do give a little more about how their experience with sex is for the first time. Anyway, it doesn't take away from the story. I really enjoyed these two and it's been my second favorite in the series (Beg, Borrow or Steal is my favorite).
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