Once Smitten, Twice Shy
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Jan 14, 2025
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Star-crossed lovers learn that practicing romance leads to the perfect happy ending in this steamy reimagining of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
Since heartbreak entered the scene, Juliet Wilmot, once a hopeless romantic, has sworn off love. But when she’s presented with the chance to revisit romance—purely for practice—with the gorgeous, off-limits guy she keeps serendipitously running into, it feels like a sign from the universe.
Quiet, shy Will Orsino knows happily-ever-after isn’t on his horizon. Problem is, for the sake of the family business, marriage is. Resigned to the inevitable, but with no confidence he can woo a wife, he can hardly say no when fate hands him the alluring, unattainable woman he keeps crossing paths with, offering to help him learn the ropes of romance.
Neither of them looking for love, Jules and Will agree they’re the perfect pair to practice romance. Except that practicing to perfection leads to an irresistible attraction. Their once smitten hearts, though still twice shy, might have happily-ever-after written in the stars for them, after all.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This swoony friends-to-lovers take on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, the third in Liese's Wilmot Sisters series (after Better Hate Than Never), kicks off with a chance meeting—and almost kiss—between Juliet Wilmot and tall redhead Will Orsino at a bar in Scotland. The two meet again seven months later when Juliet finds Will asleep in her greenhouse, nearly attacking him with a trowel before he explains that he's a college friend of her brother's who got their neighboring properties mixed up. After these spark-filled first meetings, Will confides in Juliet that his family expects him to get married soon, even though he's painfully shy around girls. He and Juliet make an agreement: through texting, social engagements, and unrelenting banter, she'll help him learn how to romance somebody. But before long, they're the ones falling in love. Liese's breezy tone charms and she establishes an appealing flirtatious rapport between the two leads. Unfortunately, the focus on disparate intimate moments between the protagonists comes at the expense of narrative momentum, and the meandering plot lacks meaningful stakes. Still, the undeniable chemistry between Will and Juliet will be enough to hook fans of lighthearted romance retellings.
