99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne
Published by William Morrow on January 29, 2019
Pages: 368
Source: the publisher
Buy from Amazon|Buy from Barnes & Noble|Buy from Book Depository
Goodreads

Readers and critics alike raved over USA Today bestselling author Sally Thorne’s smash hit debut, The Hating Game, which has sold in over 20 countries. Now she’s back with an unforgettable romantic comedy about a woman who finally has a shot at her long time crush—if she dares.

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 travelled 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.

This next hilarious romance includes a special PS section with two Happily Ever Afters—one for this novel featuring Darcy and Tom and the other, an epilogue featuring fan favorites Lucy Hutton and Josh Templeman from The Hating Game,!

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Review:

When I started this book, I had no expectations at all because I still haven’t read The Hating Game. I know, I know, I’m late to the party on that one, but it just made reading 99 Percent Mine all the better because I went in completely fresh to what Sally Thorne does, which apparently is write perfect adult contemporary romance stories.

Truly, I haven’t had so much fun reading a romance in a long, long time.

First of all, Darcy and Tom are completely precious. These two are so completely smitten with each other that it also made me fall for them. The way that Darcy worshipped the ground that Tom walked on and everything about him was to die for. She had eyes for nothing and nobody else but TOM. And it was completely obvious that Tom felt the same way about her. This is a friends-to-romance/brother’s best friend romance, so Darcy has not-so-secretly loved Tom for years-since they were younger. Before other relationships. Before they all moved on to do other life things. Before they experienced various heartaches. And now Tom has come back into Darcy’s life to renovate her late grandmother’s home so she (and her twin brother) can sell it, as per her grandmother’s wishes.

When Tom renovates a home, he lives on site for the duration of the project. Which is just about more than Darcy can handle. It’s SO GOOD and there is such good chemistry. I couldn’t stop reading for one second, I COULDN’T.

I’ve not seen smart language like Sally Thorne’s in a romance like this in…ever? She took words and phrases that were completely regular and normal and made them so, so swoony and romantic. Darcy’s inner thoughts and dialogue were so good–my favorite part of the story! I don’t normally fall so hard for female characters and their thought processes, but I have to tell you, I’m 100% fan of Darcy’s words for Tom.

There were other things that I loved about this one too, to be fair: I ALWAYS love house or building renovation stories, I love characters that are bartenders, I love stories with twin characters. I always love well-written character relationships, and not only the romantic kind. Specifically, I loved the relationship Darcy had with her twin brother because real-life sibling relationships are complicated! But I think Thorne did a great job with this one.

So, yeah, I sat down on a Saturday to read this one and was genuinely devastated that I had to put it down long enough to sleep through the night, but I picked it up again the next day and finished it straight out. This one is firmly on my rereads shelf and I also would love to listen on audio.

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble