“On Sunday, I cut off all my hair.
Lyle said trim, so I get a bob. Not just because of Lyle. I wanted a definitive way to show the world I wasn’t that girl anymore. I don’t cry on cue, I don’t take shots of tequila in club bathrooms, I don’t flash my underwear on the red carpet, and I no longer let men make my decisions for me.”
Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
Spicy Meter: 3 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Deals with alcoholism, insecurities, cheating, parental neglect, and Hollywood trauma.
“Built To Last” follows Shelby Springfield and Cameron Riggs, two childhood costars and lovers, after they’re reunited years later to take part on a home renovation show that’ll change their lives. Since their childhood show (and their breakup), Shelby hit rock bottom and moved back to Michigan to help in her father’s home reno business, while Cam got his college degree and joined Nat Geo, traveling around the world all alone. When their other former costar, Lyle Jessup, calls in to pitch them HomeMade, a new home renovation show, they don’t say no to that pilot, but aren’t too sure about everything else. Working closing with your ex you still love? Kind of a slippery slope to travel—but they’re set on tackling it.
This second-chance romance is the sweet break you’ve been waiting for. With some close proximity and mutual pining, Shelby’s and Cam’s love story is a somewhat slow-paced one, but one that’s worth the wait.
This is the first time I’ve read the “one room/one bed” trope where, in fact, they don’t end up sleeping in the same bed, and nothing actually happens throughout it. It was weird, and perhaps refreshing, being so sure something would happen, and then it didn’t.
The one thing I didn’t like about this book was it’s spicy content. The intimate scenes were weird and climax kept being described as a feeling of bonelessness, and that just really threw me off. Not that Shelby and Cam don’t have chemistry, because they do, it’s just those moments felt weirdly described to me.
All in all, I really enjoyed this read. I would recommend it specifically if you’ve enjoyed other reality tv show-ish books, like “For Butter or Worse” by Erin La Rosa, or if you just like those kinds of show in real life. But even if you’re not the biggest fans of these kinds of shows, like me, “Built To Last” is a cute, relatively short, lighthearted, second-chance romance with a HAE that’s definitely worth grabbing for this fall season.
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ARC provided by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.
andrea's galley 