I am ready for the holiday stories and Eight Nights of Flirting is the official beginning for me! Talk about a holiday contemporary with flirting lessons and second chances? Swoony and precious, keep reading this book review for my full thoughts.
Summary
Shira Barbanel has a plan: this Hanukkah, she’s going to get a boyfriend. And she has the perfect candidate in mind—her great-uncle’s assistant, Isaac. He’s reliable, brilliant, and of course, super hot. The only problem? Shira’s an absolute disaster when it comes to flirting.
Enter Tyler Nelson, Shira’s nemesis-slash-former-crush. As much as she hates to admit it, Tyler is the most charming and popular guy she knows. Which means he’s the perfect person to teach her how to win Isaac over.
When Shira and Tyler get snowed in together at Golden Doors, they strike a deal—flirting lessons for Shira in exchange for career connections for Tyler. But as Shira starts to see the sweet, funny boy beneath Tyler’s playboy exterior, she realizes she actually likes hanging out with him. And that wasn’t part of the plan.
Amidst a whirl of snowy adventures, hot chocolate, and candlelight, Shira must learn to trust her heart to discover if the romance she planned is really the one that will make her happiest.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Eight Nights of Flirting has a fantastic premise and opening. Meeting her former crush who is charming and irresistible, Shira decides she has to ask him how to flirt. Because she’s totally over him. Right? I feel like you might have an idea of how things will not go according to plan. I could empathize with Shira, with this secret language of flirting, and this self-confidence that we are supposed to impersonate. So what could go wrong when she asks Tyler to teach her to flirt?
And from the premise that we’ve set up alone, Eight Nights of Flirting is an entertaining and fast paced read. It’s perfect for fans of To All the Boys I Loved Before. But while it’s so easy to get caught up in the immaculate banter and the ways in which we fall in love, what I ended up enjoying the most were the themes. How for Shira and Tyler they have to expose the lies they’ve been telling themselves. Tyler who has become a chameleon to become well liked, but having lost himself. And Shira who is so convinced in what looks good, what should work, that what if it doesn’t?
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In Eight Nights of Flirting, Tyler and Shira explore vulnerability. There’s a difference between butterflies and discomfort. Shira was relatable to me in that we can get so obsessed with this idea of who we think we want, who would work in our lives, that we forgot to see the ones around us. Both Shira and Tyler end up hiding pieces of themselves and Eight Nights of Flirting becomes about discovering how to confront that space. Find Eight Nights of Flirting on Goodreads, Amazon, Indiebound, Bookshop.org & The Book Depository.
Discussion
What is your favorite holiday story?