“Nova Porter isn’t looking for love, and she certainly has no explanation for her attraction to buttoned-up, three-piece-suit-wearing investment banker Charlie Milford. Maybe it’s his charm? Or maybe it’s his determination to help her fledgling business however he can. Either way, she’s distracted every time he’s around. With her new tattoo studio set to open in her hometown of Inglewild, she doesn’t have time for frivolous flirtations. In an effort to get Charlie out of her system once and for all, Nova offers a proposition. One night. No strings. They’ll kick their uncomfortable attraction to the curb and return to their respective responsibilities. But their explosive night together scatters their expectations like fallen leaves. And with Charlie in town as the temporary head of Lovelight Farms, Nova can’t quite avoid him. And Charlie? Well, Charlie knows a good investment when he sees one. He’s hoping he can convince Nova he’s worth some of her time.” (book blurb taken from BK Borison’s website).
Business Casual is an interconnected, smalltown romantic comedy and the fourth installment of the Lovelight series; it could be read as a standalone, but I think that it makes more sense if you’ve already read the first three books in the series. It features the friends to lovers, friends with benefits, and forced proximity tropes. I would recommend Business Casual to fans of books like Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez, Hopeless by Elsie Silver, Only and Forever by Chloe Liese, The Catch by Amy Lea, Wildfire by Hannah Grace, and Need Me by Tessa Bailey. Themes and topics present include family, self worth and self doubt, fear of failure, perfectionism, change versus tradition, migraine representation, appearance versus reality, mental health, loneliness and isolation, and love and heartbreak. Having already read books one through three in this series, I felt like I could dive right into this book without a lot of preambles as I was already familiar with the town of Inglewild and all the Lovelight characters. Nova and Charlie’s chemistry was very steamy, and I enjoyed the comedic elements that Borison included in this book (including a meddling phone tree as well as Nova and Charlie’s hilarious antics while trying to hide their relationship). I thought that Nova was very cool and artsy (I think that she might be my favourite character in the Lovelight series), and I enjoyed reading about her trendy tattoo studio filled with plants. Nova talks a lot about the symbolism behind certain flowers that she uses in tattoos; I thought that this was really interesting and not something that I’ve seen in other romance novels. Lastly, I felt like the ending and epilogue in Business Casual wrapped up the Lovelight series nicely. The only downside I can think of is that Nova and Charlie’s romance had a lot of “will they, won’t they” vibes before they finally got together. Additionally, Nova and Charlie seemed like total opposites and (I’m not sure if their ages are ever shared but) there seemed to be a significant age gap between them (which isn’t my favourite trope); Nova seemed younger in that she’s trendy and just starting her tattoo business while Charlie seemed older in that he’s a suit-wearing, already well-established financial investor. Overall, I really enjoyed Nova and Charlie’s story and highly recommend the Lovelight series to fellow smalltown romance readers!
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February 2024
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