Hannah Melville has always felt like the odd one out in her family. While the rest of her family (parents, twin siblings – sister and brother) are all into science one way or another, Hannah is a dress designer. She is successful enough but still feels defensive. As the oldest child, she’s also been something of a conformist and is chafing a bit under always being responsible and predictable. At a family dinner with her parents, when her mother turns the conversation towards Hannah’s love life – again, she decides rock the boat and announces she is gay. Only, instead of the shock and negative reaction that she anticipated her parents celebrate her “coming out” saying they suspected it all along. And the next thing Hannah knows is that her mother has set her up on a blind date – with a woman.
Ashley West is a firefighter – a hot firefighter. She is out but not interested in a relationship. She’s been rather badly burnt by a relationship in the past with a girl who claimed to be straight but also insisted she loved Ashley. The ex could never come to terms with her own sexuality and Ashley suffered greatly in the situation. Now Ashley is not ready for a relationship and definitely more than a little leery about having anything to do with straight girls and their experimentation.
But Hannah is the exact opposite of Ashley’s ex. Ashley’s ex claimed to be straight while having an affair with Ashley and Hannah is out as gay to the world and insists she is straight in private.
To keep their mothers of their backs, Hannah and Ashley agree to pretend to be in a relationship for the world.
Hannah and Ashley are both extremely appealing. The dialogue is sharp and the relationship is really sweet. Munroe takes time in developing the relationship over a period of time and offers plenty of insight into both, Hannah’s and Ashley’s minds and emotions. We loved their interaction, their banter, their caring for each other and the whole relationship.
The secondary characters provide excellent context and are all extremely likeable. We loved the little scene where Hannah’s best friend points out that Hannah hasn’t really been seeing or appreciating the support she receives from her parents and sister because she is so busy feeling like she doesn’t belong. This is absolutely true – completely missing out what is there because you’ve decided something and colour everything with the strokes of that prejudice.
This is a delightful romcom with great humour and a decent dose of emotions in which everything (including justifiable not-forced-or-drawn-out conflict) just right.
⭐⭐⭐⭐★
