Named one of the Best Romances of 2020 by Apple, Kirkus, PW, Washington Post, NPR, BookPage, OprahMag, EW, Insider, Buzzfeed, Bustle, and Amazon!
USA Today bestselling author Talia Hibbert returns with another charming romantic comedy about a young woman who agrees to fake date her friend after a video of him “rescuing” her from their office building goes viral...
Danika Brown, a brilliant and bisexual PhD student, knows what she wants: professional success, academic renown, and an occasional roll in the hay to relieve all that career-driven tension. But romance? Been there, done that, burned the T-shirt. Romantic partners, whatever their gender, are a distraction at best and a drain at worst. So Dani asks the universe for the perfect friend-with-benefits—someone who knows the score and knows their way around the bedroom.
When big, brooding security guard Zafir Ansari rescues Dani from a workplace fire drill gone wrong, it’s an obvious sign: PhD student Dani and former rugby player Zaf are destined to sleep together. But before she can explain that fact to him, a video of the heroic rescue goes viral. Suddenly, half the internet is shipping #DrRugbae—and Zaf is begging Dani to play along in this hilarious fake dating romance. Turns out his sports charity for kids could really use the publicity. Lying to help children? Who on earth would refuse?
Dani’s plan is simple: fake a relationship in public, seduce Zaf behind the scenes. The trouble is, Zaf, a grumpy former athlete who is secretly a hopeless romantic, is determined to corrupt Dani’s stone-cold realism. Before long, he’s tackling her fears into the dirt. But the former sports star has issues of his own, and the walls around his heart are as thick as his... um, thighs.
The easy lay this witchy academic dreamed of is now more complex than her thesis. Has her wish backfired? Is her focus being tested? Or is the universe just waiting for her to take a hint?
“Talia Hibbert is a rockstar! Her writing is smart, funny, and sexy..." - Meg Cabot, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Little Bridge Island and Princess Diaries series
Featured in OprahMag, Bustle, Parade, PopSugar, New York Post, Essence, Travel & Leisure, Ms. Magazine, TheSkimm, Betches, Shondaland, Buzzfeed and more...
Readers say *Take a Hint, Dani Brown* is a charming, lighthearted romance with well-developed, diverse characters and palpable chemistry. Reviewers ag...
Fonky_Brewster
8/10 stars
Earlier this year - when 2020 was shiny, new, and still comparatively young and hopeful - I read [b:Get a Life, Chloe Brown|43884209|Get a Life, Chloe Brown (The Brown Sisters, #1)|Talia Hibbert|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1553318108l/43884209._SY75_.jpg|66903616] for my library Romance Novel book-club and it was my favorite book that we had read thus far. This book was published very shortly after, and the other members of the book-club read it on their own and raved about it. I decided these were a couple of Jones I'd need to keep up with for once, so to speak, and added myself to the library holds list. Three months later, I finally got my chance! Danika Brown is a Ph.D. candidate who knows E.X.A.C.T.L.Y what she wants right now, and a "serious relationship" is not exactly circled and highlighted in sparkly gel pen anywhere in her Erin Condren planner. (Yes, I imagine Dani would have a meticulous, over-priced, name brand planner) I mean it - she's fine with flings, but she views a real relationship with the utmost suspicion. Zafir Ansari is a retired professional rugby player turned University security guard with a serious RBF but a soft spot for romance novels... and Danika Brown, as it turns out. However hard he struggled to keep that a secret, he finally gets a break to act on it. ...Sort of. You see, during a routine fire drill, Dani gets trapped in the elevator and Zaf has to help her out of it. Except, things get a wee bit out of hand and he carries her out like, well...
And not surprisingly, it caused a bit of a scene. A few phone cameras trained their way, social media magic, and voilà! You have a viral video and hashtag #DrRugBAE. (There's some obvious chemistry) Because Zaf has a struggling youth charity that could benefit from the free publicity, he convinces Dani to play along with him and pretend to be his girlfriend. And, well, you get it. While reading it, I was reminded again and again why so many people trivialize the Romance genre - still. And how very, very excruciatingly wrong they are. I'll be honest, it really burns my ass up. [a:Talia Hibbert|17088554|Talia Hibbert|https:images.gr-assets.com/authors/1544037896p2/17088554.jpg]'s books are just evidence that the Romance genre is going into a new, better, and non-toxic direction. But yet there are still very intelligent women who feel like it's all trash that's going to give them brain-worms and ruin their lives. In Talia Hibbert's novels, as well as so many other current romance novels I've read published since (let's say) 2013, authors are by and large very careful about discussing mental health, disabilities, healthy relationships, very diverse casts of characters (including race, the LGBTQ+ community, a variety of kinks in a positive and healthy way, etc.) It's incredibly frustrating to me that this stigma is still prevalent and tittered over by grown-ass women. Sure, we have a few outliers - unfortunately, those tend to be the ones most often brought up. However - and pay close attention here - the women reading these books are adult women. They aren't imbeciles. They're allowed to enjoy whatever kind of fiction they like. Yes, even if it's morally corrupt and unsavory. Fiction is still fiction. I'm frigging GRAY-ACE and I read romance novels - it would be incredibly stupid of you to assume that I would read something like 50 Shades and jump into the first red-flag relationship I find. So I'd love it if we'd stop: 1. Expecting the worst from Women's fiction, namely Romance. 2. Infantizing and/or slut-shaming the women who enjoy them. But anyway *ahem* Why did I love this book so much? Because it's like Talia Hibbert read the above paragraph, made a check-list of all my concerns and interests, and figured out a way to include them into her novels - in a very unpretentious, natural way. I did mention that Zaf reads romance novels, right? Well, he also has a teenaged niece that he allows to borrow from his collection because it's "good for her." A lot of Dani and Zaf's foundation for their relationship - their real relationship - is built on vulnerability around their mental health. Both of them have sad and realistic, histories and they work through their issues together in an astoundingly healthy way. This romance novel isn't just a guaranteed HEA, it's a breath of fresh air.
This rarely happens, but I enjoyed Dani's story even more than Chloe's! Great characters, great plot, perfect pacing, and organically diverse. I adored Zaf. I just wanted to wrap him in bubble wrap and protect him from all harm. So happy I finally picked this one up!
#popsugarreadingchallenge2023 (prompt #9 - A book with a color in the title)
Carol Nichole
8/10 stars
This is the second book I read by this author and again it did not disappoint and atspecific chapters I was moist and in heat, don’t read this at work…lol❣️
hershyv
8/10 stars
This book was way better than I expected, and here’s why. I stopped reading romance novels during middle or high school due to the recurring tropes, such as the rich guy and the poor girl, the protector/provider and the pretty/demure girl, the good girl who rehabilitates the bad guy, the tough guy who rescues the stubborn girl, and the arrogant career woman paired with the humble country man. When there isn’t a significant villain causing conflict between the couple, the main characters often fail to communicate effectively until the very last chapter, where they suddenly become eloquent and expressive. To make matters worse, many of these stories glorify harmful traits that are mistaken for love. So, I'm thrilled to have read this book and to discover that authors like Talia Hibbert exist, offering a refreshing break from those annoying clichés. Hibbert provides us with a believable story (though characters like Zaf may be rare) that is fun, hilarious, and surprisingly profound. The characters in this book are communicative and empathetic. They learn and grow into healthy, emotionally mature individuals.
