Romance Review: Party of Two

Summary: Another great book in this series, with delightful characters and a convincing, heartwarming relationship.

Like Royal Holiday, this lovely romance kept the strengths of the first books in the series while eliminating my least favorite tropes. Olivia Monroe is a lawyer starting her own business who falls for state senator Max Powell. As you might guess just from that description, both of our protagonists have jobs that they’re passionate about. This is a recurring motif in this series and part of what makes the characters so well developed. They each also have their own interests, histories, and personality quirks. It was lovely to see how these well-developed characters mesh and clash with one another as their relationship grows.

Another consistent strength of this series is the banter and relationship building. The way the characters notice and enjoy extremely specific things about each others’ personality and appearance means the relationships are always convincing. The author also does a masterful job swapping perspectives within each chapter. She consistently selects just the right sections to show us so that we understand how both characters are experience each big moment in their relationship.

My least favorite part of the first three books in this series is that they each relied on Big Misunderstandings which could have been resolved with some adult conversation. In this book, the main conflict flows more naturally from our protagonists’ personalities. Olivia is a conscientious Black woman who likes to plan everything and who is well aware of how cruel media can be to people like her. Max is a spontaneous golden boy who the media has always given the benefit of the doubt and who doesn’t always look before he leaps. I found the way Olivia and Max navigated this conflict to be a great balance of Max getting it enough to still be a worthy love interest, but making some of the inevitable mistakes that did lead to interesting conflict. The story was also a great balance of fantasy – with Max’s family wealth making spontaneous first class vacation travel or last minute Dolly Parton concerts possible – and reality, with our characters facing conflicts exacerbated by racism and other relatable challenges.

This joins the previous book, Royal Holiday, as one of my favorite romances in the series. With these books only getting better, I can’t wait to read whatever comes next!

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