Ten Trends to Seduce Your Bestfriend by Penny Reid Blog Tour

Winnifred Gobaldi and Byron Visser are not best friends.

Yes, they’ve known each other for years, but they’re not even friendly. Winnie considers them more like casual, distant acquaintances who find each other barely tolerable, especially when he's being condescending (which is all the time).

The truth is, they have nothing in common. She’s a public school science teacher with stars in her eyes, and he’s a pretentious, joyless double PhD turned world-famous bestselling fiction author. She loves sharing her passion for promulgating women in STEM careers and building community via social media, and he eschews all socialization, virtual or otherwise. She’s looking for a side hustle to help pay down a mountain of student debt, and his financial portfolio is the stuff of fiduciary wet dreams. So why are they faking a #bestfriend relationship for millions of online spectators?

When a simple case of tit-for-tat trends between nonfriends leads to a wholly unexpected kind of pretend, nothing is simple. Sometimes, it takes a public audience to reveal the truth of private feelings, and rarely—very rarely—you should believe what you see online.

Ten Trends to Seduce Your Bestfriend is a full-length, complete standalone, adult contemporary romantic comedy.

 

 

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“This is the video from yesterday.” My stomach did a weird thing at the sight of him, and the sight of me crawling on all fours toward him, and what came after. I blinked away from the replay, before the part where I’d forgotten we were being filmed. “Why would I be mad at you about this? I knew you were filming.”

“Look harder.”

My forehead wrinkled, giving my attention back to her phone. I didn’t know what she wanted me to see, but now the video was repeating and—

“OH MY GOD!” I grabbed the phone. “This—this is—”

“Shh! Yes.” Now Amelia looked around, presumably to make certain none of the Seattleites surrounding us felt a disturbance in the politeness force. “Yes. I recorded it live. I’m so, so, so sorry.”

I leaned forward. “So that means it’s been—”

“Posted since last night. That’s right.” She covered her face again, groaning. “I’m so sorry.”

My eyes caught on the number of views, and I stood from the table, my chair scraping noisily on the linoleum. “ONE MILLION VIEWS?”

“Sorry!” she whispered loudly to someone at a nearby table. “We’ll just—we’re leaving.” Amelia grabbed my laptop and notebook and tilted her head toward the exit. “Time to go, and it was one point three the last time I checked. Now get your bag.”

Numbly, I lowered her phone and grabbed for my backpack and coat, fumbling with the strap. My fingers didn’t seem to work. She walked around the table and placed a hand on my back, helping to usher me out of the quiet area and waiting until we were standing in the hall to say, “I’m so sorry. It was an accident.”

“I can’t...” I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t think, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t speak. One point three million views. What must Byron think? “Oh crap,” I whispered, my gaze swinging around the interior of the library, unable to settle. “What about Byron? Does he know? How is he going to feel about this?”

“I don’t know if he knows. I’ve been trying to call him all morning. He won’t pick up his phone, and I’m frankly a little scared to leave a voice mail. Since he’s not on social media, he might not know.” Stuffing my laptop and notebook into my backpack, Amelia put the strap on my shoulder and took her cell phone from where I still gripped it.

I immediately covered my face like I could hide from this. My cheeks were hot. As much time as I’d spent this morning coming to terms with Jeff’s decisions last night, I’d spent ZERO seconds thinking about my ridiculous reaction to Byron’s performance. I wouldn’t allow myself to think about it. What was the point? He’d been pretending, acting, playing a part, and—as per usual—I’d left the interaction feeling like a fool.

“We have to delete it,” I rasped, my mouth dry, my brain on fire. “Before he sees it and finds out, we have to delete it.”

“No! No. Don’t do that.” She pressed the phone to her chest.

“What? Why not?”

“Think for a second.” She pushed me toward the elevator. “If you delete it, it might become a whole thing. He’s a famous guy who millions of people are starving to know more about. He has no social media and suddenly he’s on TikTok with you? And this isn’t like your lab video from Friday, this is you two together, acting like you’re close friends crushing on each other. We need to call him—together—and tell him. But first we need him to answer his damn phone.” Amelia nodded at her own assertion while stabbing the elevator call button with her index finger.

“Call him? You want to call him together?” Oh God. I didn’t want to call him. I never wanted to talk to him again. “You don’t think he’ll want us to take it down ASAP? Like you said, millions of people want to know about him. Don’t you think he’ll view this as an invasion of privacy?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?” I flinched back. “I think you mean, most certainly yes.”

“No.” She pulled me by the arm into the elevator and pressed all the right buttons. “We should call him, leave a voice mail together where we tell him exactly what happened, and ask what he wants to do about it. If you take it down, it might create more difficulty for him than if you left it up and let it run its course.”

I covered my face again, leaning against the wall for support. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

“Hey, on the bright side, you have over ten thousand new followers. That’s... something.”

I groaned. I would’ve given up every single one of my new followers if it would’ve somehow undone the posting of that video. What a nightmare.

 

 

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Ruthie – ☆☆☆☆
I really enjoyed this book – I am not convinced that the title really gave me a good idea of what it was about, as it is so much richer and deeper than it infers.

Winnie (often called Fred by Byron) is a science teacher who does 'women in STEM' videos to encourage girls into science careers. Her best friend from college and housemate, Allie, suggests that she branches out a bit to get extra followers and increase her reach before an interview. They also agree she could do a ten-part challenge – and Byron ends up volunteering to help. Now this is the crux of the story... Byron is extremely awkward when around Winnie, and she finds him to be overbearing and critical. His behaviour is, in fact, because he has always thought she was his perfect woman, and loved her since they first met in college, but cannot express himself in a way she understands.

Winnie doesn't really get why Allie is such good friends with Byron, but she finds his criticisms very difficult to take as they remind her of her awful uncle who made her childhood truly appalling. But she cannot deny that Byron is incredibly handsome, successful, and intelligent. Now he is paying her attention, and she cannot work out whether it is real or just sympathy. The level of misunderstanding between them is out of all proportion and can get a bit wearing! Once she works it out, things make much more sense.

I was really invested in the situation being resolved, and certainly was delighted when they finally realised what they meant to each other, even if they still had a lot to sort out from their pasts to be happy in their futures. There was maybe a little too much to get to that point, but it was entirely in character.

A very cute and ultimately passionate story about two people who were unexpectedly absolutely perfect for each other.


Veronica – ☆☆☆
My favorite thing about Ten Trends to Seduce Your Bestfriend is the chemistry between Winnie and Byron. Even in the beginning when they don't really know each other well, there are great sparks between them. Winne doesn’t like Byron and thinks he doesn’t like her either. This hooked me in straight away and I sped through the first half of the book, enjoying them getting to know each other as their obvious attraction grows. I really enjoyed how different Winnie’s personality is from Byron and I found the first half of this story tantalizing and fun.

Once the story got past the halfway mark the story started to slow down. As the couple's connection gets deeper and they learn even more about each other, insecurities arise and things are a little more serious. At times, the issues are dealt with in a really sensible adult way and other times, immaturity reins and the inexperience of the couple makes it feel like we are dealing with teenagers instead of two intelligent adults.

Ten Trends to Seduce Your Bestfriend had a great start, but the story is far too long. It focuses almost entirely on the relationship between Byron and Winnie, and by the time I was three quarters of the way through it was getting tedious and I was starting to lose interest. I really had to force myself to finish the story which I will say, does wrap up very nicely. Three stars from me.

 

 

PENNY REID is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of the Winston Brothers and Knitting in the City series. She used to spend her days writing federal grant proposals as a biomedical researcher, but now she writes kissing books. Penny is an obsessive knitter and manages the #OwnVoices-focused mentorship incubator/publishing imprint, Smartypants Romance. She lives in Seattle Washington with her husband, three kids, and dog named Hazel.

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Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Ten Trends to Seduce Your Bestfriend by Penny Reid to read and review.