How Freaking Romantic by Emily Harding

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How Freaking Romantic by Emily Harding

Romance

How Freaking Romantic

by Emily Harding

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Quick take

First comes love, then comes...falling head over heels for the opposing counsel in your friend’s divorce case?

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, LOL

    LOL

  • Illustrated icon, Salacious

    Salacious

  • Illustrated icon, Academic

    Academic

  • Illustrated icon, Enemies_to_Love

    Enemies to lovers

Synopsis

Beatrice Nilsson is what some might call “feisty” (those who love her) and others “combative” (those who don’t). But no matter what you call her, she’s a good lawyer and an even better friend. So when the marriage of her two closest pals ends in divorce, Bea picks a side and storms the office of attorney Nathan Asher to tell him exactly what he can do with his alimony petition. Unfortunately, what should end with a few choice words soon spirals into uncharted territory when Nate shows up at her NYU Law office a few days later as a newly-minted adjunct professor—and her new colleague.

Bea still hates Nathan, of course. But between weekly meetings and networking events, walks around Washington Square Park and late-night pizza, that hate begins to feel a lot like something else. And as uncomfortable truths emerge about the divorce that started it all, she might have to choose between her friends’ happily ever after and her own for the very first time.

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Get an early look from the first pages of How Freaking Romantic.

How Freaking Romantic

CHAPTER 1

My mom likes to say I was born angry. It’s usually something she brings up during holiday meals or to her latest boyfriend, inevitably followed by a tittering laugh, as if it’s everything you needed to know about me. And I always pretend not to hear, even as the comment stokes my ever-present annoyance—which, now that I think about it, might prove her point a little.

But honestly, is anyone born angry? Terrified, yes. Who wouldn’t be? Thrust into a cold, unforgiving world only to be weighed and probed and manhandled by strangers? There’s a reason we all emerge screaming. The first few moments of being a person are horrifying. Still, no one comes out mad about it. Mostly because we haven’t learned that being scared and vulnerable are things we can even be mad about. That comes later. Anger comes from experience.

The first time I remember being truly angry was at my mother’s third wedding. That’s not to say there was anything wrong with the wedding itself; of all her ceremonies it was probably my favorite. Her fiancé, Larry Huffman, paid for us to fly first class from Minneapolis to Cancún, where he and my mom exchanged vows on a white-sand beach at sunset. The night before, at the rehearsal dinner, he even let me order a virgin strawberry daiquiri with one of those little paper umbrellas, which, for a ten-year-old girl with trust issues, was a very big step.

No, the anger came the next day, after I watched my mom walk barefoot down the makeshift aisle on the beach. The sun was setting behind a gauzy veil of pink and orange clouds, sending soft rays of light off the Swarovski crystals in her hair, while a guitarist played Canon in D nearby. And when she reached Larry, smiling so brightly that her rose-colored blush creased along her cheeks, I couldn’t help but smile, too. The moment was perfect. The epitome of what love was supposed to look like, what romance ought to be.

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Why I love it

Sometimes I read so I can live vicariously through characters who have a heck of a lot more nerve than I do. You see, despite standing at a proud 6 feet, I am unfortunately as confrontational as a humble field mouse. My heroines are often the women I meet in romance novels. It has less to do with their happy endings and more with the personalities they tend to present on the page: loud, messy, and unafraid to stand up for who and what they believe in.

This is most certainly the case with Bea, the star of my new favorite romance, How Freaking Romantic. We kick off at the office of a successful divorce lawyer, Nathan, who is representing Bea’s friend’s ex-husband in their devastating divorce. Bea storms into the office and screams at Nathan (literally imagine!) before randomly running into him at school and networking events in the weeks to follow. Over time, their rivalry melts into a friendship, one thing leads to another, and…

Well, you’ll have to read to find out, of course. Just know that this is the hottest romance I’ve read in years. The tension between Nathan and Bea is sizzling and there are as many emotional high points as there are laugh-out-loud scenes and heated screaming matches. If you’re hoping to free your inner angry girl and also dig into a delectable summer romance, this is your best freaking bet.

Member ratings (681)

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Salacious
View all
The Compound
Finding Grace
These Summer Storms
How Freaking Romantic
The Other Side of Now
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
A Curse Carved in Bone
Aftertaste
Silver Elite
The Bombshell
Gifted & Talented
Passion Project
The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits
Every Sweet Thing Is Bitter
Promise Me Sunshine
Wild Dark Shore
Liquid
Our Infinite Fates
You Between the Lines
Rebel Witch
Wedding Dashers
The Bones Beneath My Skin
Black Woods, Blue Sky
First-Time Caller
Babylonia
I Might Be in Trouble
Most Wonderful
The Courting of Bristol Keats
Pictures of You
PS: I Hate You
The Road of Bones
Hum
Hera
The Love of My Afterlife
Husbands & Lovers
Margo’s Got Money Troubles
Honey
The Lady Waiting
The Paradise Problem
The Ministry of Time
Happily Never After
A Fate Inked in Blood
Annie Bot
Ready or Not
More
Alice Sadie Celine
A Winter in New York
This Spells Love
Stars in Your Eyes
You, Again
Love, Theoretically
The True Love Experiment
Yours Truly
Ana María and the Fox
Georgie, All Along
Vladimir
Love & Other Disasters
The Love Hypothesis
The Hunting Wives
The Heiress Gets a Duke
Beach Read
Bringing Down the Duke