pages: 339
heard: 3/11-12/19
rating: yea cool read
book: 28 in 2019
"why is life just about giving things up?"
Crush (n.): a strong and often short-lived infatuation, particularly for someone beyond your reach…
Darcy Barrett has undertaken a global survey of men. She’s traveled the world, and can categorically say that no one measures up to Tom Valeska, whose only flaw is that Darcy’s twin brother Jamie saw him first and claimed him forever as his best friend. Despite Darcy’s best efforts, Tom’s off limits and loyal to her brother, 99%. That’s the problem with finding her dream man at age eight and peaking in her photography career at age twenty—ever since, she’s had to learn to settle for good enough.
When Darcy and Jamie inherit a tumble-down cottage from their grandmother, they’re left with strict instructions to bring it back to its former glory and sell the property. Darcy plans to be in an aisle seat halfway across the ocean as soon as the renovations start, but before she can cut and run, she finds a familiar face on her porch: house-flipper extraordinaire Tom’s arrived, he’s bearing power tools, and he’s single for the first time in almost a decade.
Suddenly Darcy’s considering sticking around to make sure her twin doesn’t ruin the cottage’s inherent magic with his penchant for grey and chrome. She’s definitely not staying because of her new business partner’s tight t-shirts, or that perfect face that's inspiring her to pick up her camera again. Soon sparks are flying—and it’s not the faulty wiring. It turns out one percent of Tom’s heart might not be enough for Darcy anymore. This time around, she’s switching things up. She’s going to make Tom Valeska 99 percent hers.
MY THOUGHTS
SHORT VERSION
good read. but i can see why everyone says SPOILED twins. overall, im meh about this one.
LONG VERSION
for all the "man, it's just not the same" I've been bitching about, I'm surprised that I'm not saying that about this book. all in all i think it has to do with the fact that i read her first book back in 2016. i have some recollection but not enough to complain lol
anyway, I'm surprised i was able to score the book and the audiobook pretty much right away. i was expecting a bit of a wait but thankfully, they both came along at the same time which was amazing cause i was able to listen to most of it and then read along when i wanted to.
this was an okay read. i didn't hate it but i didn't love it. i wont be thinking about it hoping to read it again sometime soon. and i think it has to do with the fact that...mostly everyone else is sorta right.
its a love story but its mostly about a set of twins who are....spoiled. who held Tom to this level of perfection that they eventually break him.
they were both jerks.
all of them were actually.
not a single one of them is a saint. and i understand that no one is perfect but the way that they talk to each other. holy crap. (and on my end, that's saying a lot cause i talk a lot of shit but nowhere near the level like the twins talk to each other.)
Darcy tries to be this bad ass woman which...really, all she really does is travel and not take care of her heart which should be her #1 priority. and Jamie is such a dick.
he's so mean to Darcy. he's so rude to her. he swears he's better than them both.
and Tom.
i mean, Tom. he was a cool guy for the most part, i feel for him but he still had some dick qualities.
that whole scene with the fireplace.
first: he undermines Darcy and goes over her head and talks to Jamie about it. then he uses his sexuality to get Darcy to agree on actions that he already acted on just to justify them having already happened. he thought maybe she'd say no plainly so he uses himself to get her to agree because he knows how she feels about him and he uses that against her.
AND THEN once they arrive at the house and Darcy sees what he did, all she asked him for was a warning. she wanted to say goodbye to it. its where she grew up and all he does is basically scold her for being attached to an inanimate object. and he tried to justify it by saying that he doesn't see the big deal since he never got the privilege to grow up like that which....i mean, they basically raised him and took him everywhere soo.......and honestly, fuck you for shaming someone else's attachment to whatever the fuck. just because you didn't have it doesn't mean that other's should be shamed for having it.
i don't know. that whole scene to me was just one big Tom being a dick punk ass move.
...other than that, he wasn't a bad guy. they just really overworked him.
and i think its sooooo funny that Jamie wants to be sooo territorial over Tom when he's essentially doing the same thing with Darcy's best friend Truly.
anyway...its a good read yea.
i just don't feel.....sorry(?) for any of them. they were all unnecessary dicks.
but its a good quick read that doesn't require too much involvement if that's what you're looking for!
either way, im glad i read it, im glad that i didn't buy it but hands down i wont be thinking about it now that this is out there.
oh well, spoilers coming right up.
thanks for reading!
SPOILERS
Jamie & Darcy had a house in front of them that had new tenants all the time. then, Jamie came across Tom who was waiting for his mom one night and that's how they all became best friends. except that Jamie mostly "claimed" him.
because Darcy has a heart condition, when they had family trips, Tom would go in her place and she would stay with her grandmother.
Tom tells Darcy that he loves her and she doesn't say anything. she runs away to her grandmas and gma buys her a plane ticket to who knows where and that's where her love of travel started.
mostly, she's traveled since because Tom has been with Megan for 8+ years now and she hurts for him. she loves him but fears she's lost her chance.
Darcy & Jamie inherit their grandmother's house once she passes away, the deal is fix up the house and sell it; split the profit down the middle. and of course Jamie hires Tom to fix it up. Tom lives at all the sites he works at.
Darcy's plan was to leave the minute he arrived but she lost her passport.
J & D get in a fight because a developer came over to offer a deal on the house without any renovations and she flipped out on him. Jamie being money hungry that he is, was pissed off at her for that. and stopped talking to her. (i seriously thought it was more serious than that).
EVENTUALLY....Tom admits to Darcy that he still loves her and they have amazing sex after he undermines her with the whole fireplace thing.
they hook up and then the next day, he goes to pick up Jamie who i can't remember why, is no longer mad at Darcy.
D thinks that they should tell J about them but Tom asks her for 3 months while the construction is going on because its his first job and he's already fucked up the budget. they agree.
then they go inside and J gives her all this shit about a hickey she has and how she's a bother to Tom and infuriated tells him that they're sleeping together. (tom stepped outside to take a call from his mother.)
J belittles her calls her trash and pushes her buttons.
turns out that while Darcy was after Tom, Jamie was after Truly who is Darcy's best friend.
tom of course freaks out (calmly) and tells her that all he wanted was time. he's waited for her for X amount of years and she only lasted 30 minutes.
he confesses to Jamie that he messed up the budget and he confesses to having taken Darcy's passport. he leaves to go get his mom because she's being evicted.
he drops his mom & patty (his chihuahua) off at D & J's parent's house and takes off on a road trip of some sort.
he's missing for a couple of months and doesn't come back until the day that Darcy has am appointment to have her heart checked out.
he just walks into the room.
in the end, the house got fixed and Jamie was able to save costs with construction.
they both felt it was fucked up that tom was basically another grandkid but didn't get anything so they both agree to split it 3 ways and surprise him.
it ends with them going on a cruise.
tom surprises her with Jamie & Truly.
and she surprises him with the deposit he gets from the sale.
Jamie arrives and they swap rings (Tom had proposed to Megan and got the ring back & Jamie got his gma's ring that Darcy wanted real bad.)
the epilogue is of them fixing another house and they are engaged and because Tom has never really had stability, he wants to buy her a house but she doesn't want to settle.
they end up buying the house that they are currently working on.
and das it.
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