99 Percent Mine — Sally Thorne

Genre: Romance, Comedy
Actual Rating: 2 stars
Content Warnings: Sexual content, chronic illness, and medical content.

“99 Percent Mine” is the sophomore book by Sally Thorne and it follows Darcy Barrett, her twin brother Jamie Barrett, and their childhood friend Tom Valeska. Darcy is a young, free spirit that just wants to travel the world, although her heart’s a bit of an impediment to that. The Barrett twins have inherited their fortuneteller grandmother’s house and have to remodel and sell it, as per their grandmother’s will. So in comes Tom Valeska, Jamie’s best friend, and Darcy’s long-standing crush, who coincidentally is a contractor and house-flipper. This story pretty much told itself.

This wasn’t a comedy and it wasn’t even that much of a romance either. The characters seemed to be emotionally stunted, and the interactions between them were awkward and over-the-top in all the wrong ways. I like reading fiction books because they tell a story of something that I feel could potentially happen in real life, and this book wasn’t that.

I feel like I wasted my time reading this book but in the end, I think it was my bad because I grabbed it without checking any reviews. I blindly believed it would be amazing because Sally Thorne is amazing, but now I guess she is a hit-or-miss writer, like most other authors.

I would not recommend this book, but I would actually really highly recommend “The Hating Game” and “Second First Impressions”, which are the other two books by Sally Thorne and those two really are *chef’s kiss*.

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Second First Impressions — Sally Thorne

“That red string never gets it wrong, and unlikely puzzle pieces always fit together.”

Genre: Romance, Comedy
Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
Content Warnings: None that I can think of.

This books follows Ruthie Midona, an employee at the Providence Luxury Retirement Villa, who’s both reluctant and curious about re-entering the dating scene. So, in comes Teddy Prescott, the son of the new owner of the Retirement Villa, who’s looking to earn some money in order to buy his way into a tattoo studio a few towns over. Between them comes an un expected friendship filled with sexual tension, but if there’s one thing they both agree on is that they wouldn’t be right for each other; Ruthie is looking for something serious and permanent in Providence while Teddy is only passing through town, eager to move on. Set in a retirement villa, this book is quirky, funny, and perpetually entertaining.

If I’m being honest, I’m not too fond of the “preacher’s daughter” trope (and hence I had a hunch I wouldn’t like Ruthie—or this book), but I can say I was pleasantly surprised. Overlooking that Ruthie is a preacher’s daughter and Teddy is a tatted-up bad boy, I still loved this book because the characters were so much more than their stereotypes. Sally Thorne, as per usual, has done an exceptional job on her character and world building. I honestly pictured myself working alongside them, happily helping in turtle rehabilitation.

This book is definitely a romance book and oh, does it bang. The sexual tension was patiently built, having us more than 70% through the book and still not having something as simple as a kiss. The only reason this book didn’t get a higher rating was because I felt like it was childish at times, especially when the main characters fought.

I would recommend this book to readers who have enjoyed books by authors like Emily Henry, Christina Lauren, or Sally Thorne herself. This isn’t a mind-blowing romance book, but it is still pretty great and entertaining, and so I would still recommend it.

If you click here, you’ll be redirected to Goodreads, so you can add the book to your TBR list.

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“Tidy, messy. Give, take. Adorer, adoree. Together, we can be all these things.”