Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory -a Review

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Description:
Avery Jensen is almost thirty, fresh off a breakup, and she’s tired of always being so uptight and well-behaved. She wants to get a hobby, date around (especially other women), flirt with everyone she sees, all the fun stuff normal people do in their twenties. One Avery doesn’t know how to do any of that. She doesn’t have a lot of dating experience, with men or women, and despite being self-assured at work, she doesn’t have a lot of confidence when it comes to romance.

Enter Taylor Cameron, Napa Valley’s biggest flirt and champion heartbreaker. Taylor just broke up with her most recent girlfriend, and her best friend bet her that she can’t make it until Labor Day without sleeping with someone. (Two whole months? Without sex? Taylor?!?!) So, she offers to give Avery flirting lessons. It will keep her busy, stop her from texting people she shouldn’t. And it might distract her from how inadequate she feels compared to her friends, who all seem much more settled and adult than Taylor.

At first, Avery is stiff and nervous, but Taylor is patient and encouraging, and soon, Avery looks forward to their weekly lessons. She tells herself it’s because the lessons are fun, not because she kind of might have a little bit of a crush on Taylor. Taylor doesn’t even try to deny that she’s intrigued by Avery, but she’s still got a bet to win. With Taylor’s help, Avery is finally doing what she wants to flirting with lots of women, making friends, having fun! But after a while, it becomes impossible for Avery and Taylor to ignore their attraction to one another, despite them both insisting to themselves and everyone else that it isn’t serious. When Taylor is forced to confront her feelings for Avery, she doesn’t know what to do, how to deal with it, and most importantly, if she’s already ruined the best thing she’s ever had.

Review:

Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory is a very sweet queer romcom stand-alone novel.  We meet Avery Jensen, who just went through a breakup, and wants to try dating women, having been attracted to them, but never acted on this. Avery meets Taylor Cameron, at an event, who is a chronic flirt and heartbreaker, Taylor has no problem flirting and having earned her reputation.  

Taylor takes Avery under her wing, promising to teach Avery some much needed flirting lessons. Both of them will go on a fantastic adventure together. Exploring their sexuality and identity while getting to know each other. Their journey is full of banter, flirting and hookups, as we get closer the last third of the book, their relationship changes since they were spending lots of time together. The chemistry between Taylor and Avery increased, as it was wonderful to see them get closer.  When they started to actually date, it was pretty spicy.

I really enjoyed Taylor taking Avery to different places, including all of Taylor’s friends. Avery learned to get past her anxiety and pushed herself to meet others and befriend them.  Taylor was happy to see Avery beginning to become grow more confident and happier. It was also nice to see Taylor and Erica’s friendship, and Taylor feeling hurt when her friends kept talking about how long before she dumps Avery. But it was nice to see all the friends and the importance of female friendship in their lives.  It was really nice to see both Taylor and Avery finding love together.

Flirting Lessons was a wonderful, witty, fun story that turned out to be a sweet romance.   Flirting Lessons was so very well written by Jasmine Guillory.  This was a fun queer female story line.  Well done by Guillory.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher