Review: Take a Hint, Dani Brown (The Brown Sisters #2)

Title: Take a Hint, Dani Brown (The Brown Sisters #2)
Author: Talia Hibbert
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Avon
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss
Format: Ebook
Release Date: June 23, 2020
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

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 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 brooding security guard Zafir Ansari rescues Dani from a workplace fire drill gone wrong, it’s an obvious sign: PhD student Dani and ex-rugby player Zaf are destined to sleep together. But before she can explain that fact, a video of the heroic rescue goes viral. Now half the internet is shipping #DrRugbae—and Zaf is begging Dani to play along. 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, grumpy Zaf’s secretly a hopeless romantic—and he’s 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. 

Suddenly, the easy lay Dani dreamed of is 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?

Review:

Danika Brown is a PhD candidate. She isn’t interested in romance, but she needs to have friends-with-benefits. When her friend, Zaf, rescues her from a building during an emergency drill, the video of him carrying her outside goes viral. Zaf is a former rugby player, who works as a security guard at the university. The sudden viral video brings a lot of attention to the mental health charity that he created after a tragedy ended his rugby career. Since Zaf needs the popularity of the viral video to promote his charity and Dani needs a new friend-with-benefits, they decide to start a fake relationship to help them both. However, their fake relationship becomes threatened when feelings get involved.

This was another steamy romance in the series about The Brown Sisters. Even though there was a lot of romance, there were also some important issues that were brought up in the story. Zaf suddenly lost his brother and father in a car accident, which ended his rugby career. He experienced anxiety and depression following that accident. He still has triggers that can give him panic attacks. One way that he dealt with that is creating a charity to help athletes with mental health. Dani was supportive of his mental health, which is so important.

One thing I loved about the first book in the series was seeing the three Brown sisters together. They were a lot of fun and supportive of each other. In this book, the other sisters only appeared a couple of times for short scenes. I wished they had gotten together more, because it was great to see their relationship. Hopefully in the next book, the Brown sisters will have more time together.

This is a great, steamy romance!

Thank you HarperCollins for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

Other books in the series:

• Get a Life, Chloe Brown

Have you read Take a Hint, Dani Brown? What did you think of it?