Meet Cute

Naming a book after a cliché of the genre is a brave move that doesn’t pay off for Hunting (the Pucked series). The first encounter between Kailyn Flowers and Daxton Hughes is far from cute; it’s as forced and foolish as Dax’s best friend, Felix, whose dialogue includes such immortal lines as “Teenage girls are like rabid, angry puppies.” This thread of misogyny runs through the book, punctuated by nonconsensual touching in professional and public spaces and similar boundary-ignoring behavior (“I keep pushing, though, because she’s obviously flustered,” Dax narrates without a hint of self-awareness). After their initial connection, Kailyn and Dax part on bad terms. Eight years later, Dax, a former child star turned entertainment lawyer, hires Kailyn, a trust lawyer, to secure his young sister Emme’s financial future. His parents are active in the process—until they’re killed in a crash. Dax is named Emme’s guardian, but his shady aunt sues for custody, which keeps Kailyn in the picture as Emme’s conservator. Meanwhile, Kailyn’s boss bribes her to lure Dax to their firm. The tragedy is as cheap and forced as the comedy, and the romance is a kid-centered enemies-to-lovers scenario that brings nothing memorable to the table. Readers will be too put off by Dax’s obnoxious aggression to find anything romantic in this disappointing novel. [em]Agent: Kimberly Brower, Brower Literary & Mgmt. (Apr.) [/em]