Sometimes you get a second chance at a first impression Mary Trace is bright, bubbly and back in the dating pool in her midthirties. All of her closest friends are in love, and she refuses to miss out on romance. So when a regular customer at her trendy Brooklyn boutique wants to set Mary up on a blind date with her son, she gives a hesitant yes. John Modesto-Whitford is gorgeous and … well-groomed, so maybe dinner won’t be a total bust–until he drops a less-than-flattering comment about Mary’s age.
Desperate to be nothing like his snake of a politician father, public defender John Modesto-Whitford prides himself on his honesty and candor. But his social awkwardness and lack of filter just blew it with the most beautiful woman he’s ever dated.
Luckily, Mom’s machinations keep Mary and John running into each other all summer long, and soon they resort to fake dating to get her to back off. When their pretense turns to real friendship–and some surprisingly hot chemistry–can these two stubborn individuals see past their rocky start to a rock-solid future together?
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Pleasant, low-angst, younger-man, Harlequin, single-title romance set in Brooklyn
Mary Trace is an attractive, vivacious, 37-year-old owner of a Brooklyn boutique which carries handmade, decorative items which are crafted by talented local artisans. She has never been married, because Mr. Right has not yet materialized, much to the distress of her former-beauty-queen mother—who never lets an encounter with her only child pass without carping on the fact that, if Mary doesn’t get on the ball and snag a man soon, she is going to wither into an old maid who dies miserable and alone.
Mary is not a huge fan of blind dates, but when a long-time friend, who is one of the artisans who supplies her boutique, offers to set Mary up with her son, whom she describes as a very nice man, Mary hesitantly agrees. On walking into the restaurant where Mary is scheduled to meet 31-year-old John Modesto-Whitford, she notes the hopeful signs that he is handsome and well-groomed. Unfortunately, however, he is wearing an inauspicious frown rather than a welcoming smile, and the first thing he blurts out as she arrives at his table is that he was expecting someone younger. Reeling from his inadvertently poking a sharp stick into an open, maternal wound, Mary is determined to not tolerate such behavior from a total stranger which, by rights, she should have long ago refused to endure from her mother. Gathering up her dignity, Mary politely but firmly confronts John for his rudeness and walks out.
John may be a brilliantly loquacious trial attorney as a public defender, but he’s immediately aware after Mary’s departure that he absolutely stuck his foot in his mouth with one of the most intimidatingly beautiful and stylishly turned out women he’s ever had the opportunity to date. He meant to say to Mary that his mother gave him the totally inaccurate impression that his blind date would be with an unsophisticated, averagely attractive woman in her early 20’s, whom he hoped might possibly be willing to tolerate a man who is massively in debt from student loans and barely above the poverty line as a public defender. Not a classy woman, who is obviously far more prosperous than John, and who could clearly look far higher than him for a potential romantic partner. John would dearly love another chance with Mary, but he hasn’t a clue how to go about it until his lovingly pushy mother drags him to Mary’s boutique.
Mary is shocked that John would willingly face her after his egregious faux pas, and a little bit awed to witness a man actually willing and able to deliver a direct, entirely sincere, self-responsible admission of guilt for behaving like an ass. She graciously accepts his apology, and from there begins a slow-growing friendship that gradually evolves into something much more.
If you are an avid romance fan who has grown tired of billionaires, cowboys, cops, SEALs, and tattoo artists, and are looking for a pleasant, low-angst read with a Beta hero of average means, you might enjoy this novel. If you can manage to ride out the opening scene of this novel, with the author’s rocky initial presentation of John (who, frankly, comes off as someone on the high-functioning end of the Asperger’s scale throughout most of the book—though he is never openly described as such by the author), it fairly soon is revealed that he is an ethical, compassionate, and loyal human being.
In spite of her prosperity, beauty, and a generous, outgoing personality which has garnered her a lovingly loyal circle of close friends, Mary has major self-esteem issues about her age which—it is made patently clear—are entirely because of her emotionally abusive mother. There is an important subplot of Mary’s relationship with her mother that has an essential, “worm that turned” resolution. But until that moment at long last arrives, it is rather wearing waiting for Mary to stop acting like a doormat.
For readers who prefer a slow-burn romance, this novel offers not so much as a kiss between Mary and John until 80% of the book has passed. But after that, there are a couple of sensitively done, only mildly graphic sex scenes.
The setting in the Brooklyn portion of New York City is offered from a middle-class viewpoint—no glitz and glamour here—which I actually found quite refreshing. Though I did feel really sorry for poor John, who lives in a tiny, walk-up, studio apartment with no air conditioning.
If you like animals, John owns a cute little rescue kitty. Which brings me to the ridiculously inaccurate cover. John is clean shaven, and there is no dog, whatsoever, in this book.
In a marketplace with an ever growing amount of self-published, 40,000-word romance novels, it is almost shocking to run into a Harlequin, single-title (as opposed to category) romance like this one which is an amazing, 90,000 words long—which translates into 11 solid hours in audiobook format. Typically, a mainstream-published novel of this type would have no more than about 70,000 words. I would personally have enjoyed those extra 20,000 words much more if there were enough juicy story events to fill those pages. But, sadly, for my particular preference anyway, there were not. The vast majority of the scenes in this novel consist of the two romantic protagonists going on dates. The only proceedings other than those dates were multiple scenes at John’s office, at Mary’s boutique, and get-togethers between Mary and the romantic protagonists of the previous two novels in this trilogy, and several scenes with Mary’s awful mother. Yes, there is a tiny subplot with an unexplained, criminal trashing of Mary’s store. But to me it simply comes off as a convenience that exists merely to provide an opportunity for John—and the protagonists from the previous two books—to ride to Mary’s rescue. Especially since the villains are never caught and, therefore, their motivation for random mayhem is never discovered.
I experienced this novel in audiobook format. Though the narrator, Susannah Jones, does a decent job with female voices of all ages and that of a young boy, her adult, male voices are only performed moderately well. She does, however, do a good job acting out all the parts.
I rate this novel as follows:
Heroine: 3.5 stars
Hero: 3.5 stars
Subcharacters: 3 stars
Romance Plot: 3.5 stars
Mean Mother Plot: 2 stars
Trashed Boutique Plot: 2.5 stars
Brooklyn Setting: 4 stars
Audiobook Narration: 3 stars
Overall: 3 stars
Bastone is a new to me author (she came to me in a Readromancerepeat box) and I wasn’t sure if I was gonna like this book. I was very happy to learn I was wrong! Mary and John are very dynamic characters! So are the supporting characters for that matter. This was a very very slow burn and it took me a while to finish this one but I slammed though the second half of it cause I just had to know how everything fell into place! It was nice to read about a woman in her late 30s still trying to figure out what love looks like! John was also a breath if fresh air with his awkward ( unknowingly jerky) personality! The two together had excellent chemistry and the sex was nice and steamy and oh so satisfying after that long burn! I’ll definitely be picking up more of Cara Bastone!
OMG this book!!!! In Flirting With Fovever Cara Bastone made me almost cry.. I say almost because I am not an emotional person so an “almost” is pretty much the normal person equivalent of a full on breakdown.
Mary is 37-years-old running a successful home decor shop when a customer sets her up with her son. Too bad John insults Mary with the first words out of his mouth “I thought you’d be younger.” Really!!! He’s lucky Mary didn’t kick him in the nuts right then, apparently she is a better person than me. John and Mary find themselves constantly thrown together and form a friendship that becomes more.
John was just the most adorable, awkward, cat owning, vegan (he wants to offset his carbon footprint SWOOON) lawyer, and fighting for the wrongly accused in his cheap suits. I loved how he really just blurted out that he thought Mary would be younger simply because of his own misconception, not because he wasn’t attracted to her. Mary was total grown up goals. I loved that we saw her stand up to her mother, her ability to take charge of her life but lean on John or her friends when she needed help.
Flirting With Forever ended up being my favorite of the series. The serious issues that Cara Bastone tackled- parents expectations, different economic brackets, worked with their love story. Plus the interactions with Seb, Via, Tyler and Finn, I loved!! Now we need Matty and Kylie’s stories!
I am officially a Cara Bastone fanatic. I’ve devoured her ‘Forever Yours’ series and have loved each story more than the last.
‘Flirting with Forever’ was absolutely divine. John was such a fake grouch and Mary was total sunshine and together they were prefect.
Bastone is a wonderful storyteller and the slow-burn is worth it every single time. I love all the friendships intertwined in her stories and the fact that her characters are human beings dealing with personal insecurities and social issues that are very relatable to readers, or at least this reader.
My only complaint is that I want more…so much more. Personally I would love to read Maddox’s story next.
Mary agrees to a blind date with the son of one of her clients. She’s back in the dating pool and is an optimistic person by nature. When the date starts off on the wrong foot, Mary tries to give John Modesto-Whitford the benefit of the doubt. But when John drops a less than flattering comment about Mary’s age, she’s out. She doesn’t deserve to sit on a blind date and feel harassed.
As soon as the words leave John’s mouth, he knows he should never have said them. He tries to make things right with Mary and even seeks her out at her shop to apologize in person. But that setback landed him firmly in the friend zone.
The more time Mary and John seem to spend with each other – the harder it is to not want something more. They understand each others vulnerabilities and complicated familial relationships. Both John and Mary are fighting their own battles with their loved ones, but can always rely on one another. Will they end up taking a chance on one another after their rocky beginning?
Audiobook:
Story: 5
Narration: 5
Overall: 5
The audiobook of Flirting with Forever was narrated by Susannah Jones and I loved her narration of both Mary and John. I could always feel the varying emotions from both characters – from frustration to elation. I enjoyed the audiobook so much that I would often find things to do around the house or walk just so I could continue listening to the audiobook of Flirting with Forever.
I’m not sure why I haven’t read a book by Cara Bastone before, but I can’t wait to read more of her backlist! I really enjoyed the sweet, sexy slow burn romance in Flirting with Forever!
I received a complimentary audiobook copy of this book from the publisher.
Cara Bastone just keeps hitting that sweet spot and giving me exactly what I need and want in a romance novel. As a woman of a certain age, I found Mary extremely relatable. (I also found myself incredibly glad my mother wasn’t like hers, who constantly harped on her about how she was going to die alone.) John’s feelings of inadequacy and hangups about where he was in his life in relation to Mary endeared him to me. I do love a guy who is grumpy on the outside, but vulnerable and sweet underneath.
As you may know, I do love me a good slow burn and Cara nailed that with Flirting with Forever. More than once during this book, I wanted to smush John and Mary together. Their chemistry was so apparent to, well, everyone but them. Until that bar scene at least. *spontaneously combusts* I loved seeing my favorites from earlier in this series again, and I especially loved how they gave these two the time and space to figure things out on their own.
The audio for this book was excellent, too. It’s not often I spend literally hours — if I’m not driving — listening to an audio nonstop, but that’s exactly what I did with this one. Susannah Jones did a great job bringing this story, John, and Mary to life.
Like Mary, I was surprised by how much I ended up like John as the story played out. On first introduction, he’s terrible and I love Mary even more for not putting up with him on their first date. However, the more we learn about John and see passed his social awkwardness, the more adorable he becomes. Mary and John, as they start to know each other, become friends first. I forgot how much I love the friends first trope. The chemistry between the two of them is there and burning but they spend time getting to know each other first. They both have serious holdups about a relationship, John’s tied to his lack of money and Mary’s having money, and Mary’s tied to her mom and her mom’s issues. It was satisfying to see them work through theses issues as adults. Like all relationships, there are awkward moments and misunderstandings but they get discussed and cleared up. This was just a soothing book to read, like the others in the series, and exactly what I needed. Plus there’s an adorable cat and that just warmed my heart.
*Received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.