A review by rosielovesreading
That Secret Crush by Meghan Quinn
5.0
That Secret Crush is a brother’s best friends, friends-to-more romance between Reid Knightly and Eve Roberts, who have both had secret crushes on one another for years.
Reid is lost, a failed chef whose dream of running his own restaurant were destroyed two years before, and he hasn’t cooked since. He has a chip on his shoulder, bitter at having to return to his hometown of Port Snow with his tail between his legs, becoming a fisherman and working at the family business. Adding on to the family love curse him and his brothers picked up on at trip to New Orleans around the same time, and he is very unhappy with his life.
Reid has always had a flirty friendship with Eve, his ex-best friend, and ex-business partner, Eric’s twin sister. She is his dream girl, not that he’s ever admitted it to her, and Eve has harboured her own secret crush on the third Knightly brother since she was a teenager. Eve is on her own, her parents having both passed and her brother avoiding her calls. She is determined to make her own path in life, but one night on a particular difficult day, one thing leads to another, and her relationship with Reid is changed forever. Their chemistry is through the roof, and they agree to start dating, in secret to avoid the rumours from the locals. All is going well for them, and they're slowly getting used to their new feelings, when an opportunity for Reid arises which throws everything he thought about his life into disarray. He becomes even more closed off than normal, keeping important things from Eve. When Eric arrives back in town, will they be able to continue their relationship? Or will Reid’s secrets and doubts over his past cause him to self-destruct and push Eve away for good?
First things first, Reid’s character was so different to what I expected. He was crude, temperamental and unpredictable, but loyal to a fault. He was lost, going through the motions of life but not enjoying it at all, so unhappy and bitter about what went wrong, punishing himself for his past mistakes. But Eve helps him realise what he’s been missing out on for all these years. She helps him see that failure is a part of life and just because it went wrong once, doesn’t mean you give up, you try again and learn from your mistakes. He was so blunt and surly, he kept things bottled up, but the one thing he was always open about was how much he cared for Eve. She balanced him out perfectly, although he did have a lot of making up to do in the end.
Eve was so strong, driven and independent. She had learnt not to rely on anyone else, to put herself first and if she wanted something doing, she should do it herself. But Reid had always silently been there for her to lean on if she needed to, and when she did she realised there could be more between them. She knew what she wanted to do with her life and made sure that she was secured her future because she knew she was good at her job. Her trust in Reid was broken a number of times, there’s only so many secrets being withheld a girl before she has enough, and wow did she make Reid grovel before any kind of forgiveness. But the ending was swoon worthy and so sweet, in my eyes, he had fully redeemed himself.
One person who didn’t though was Eric, I disliked him all the way through and even in the end, I didn’t think he deserved any sort of forgiveness. He treated them both so poorly, and because you never really see Eric and Reid as friends, I didn’t understand how they needed each other to succeed. The same for any kind of relationship with Eve, we never see them as anything more than acquaintances. I think for me, that was the only flaw in the story, and it was very minor. But the other secondary characters, the rest of Knightly family and the towns folk are perfect and really help make the story more three-dimensional. But the other secondary characters, the rest of Knightly family and the towns folk, are perfect and really help make the story more three-dimensional. The meddling, the embarrassment, the rumours, just made it so great. But the brothers are hilarious. They are all so different, they balance each other out perfectly and their banter is just brilliant. Meghan is known for writing fabulous comedy in her books and these Knightly brothers were not an exception. Griffin is the protector, Rogan is the tortured broody one, Reid is lost, and Brig is the hopeless romantic.
All the way through, Brig has had me laughing out loud with his hilarious quirky personality and one-liners. I loved his involvement in the town's gossip mill and the introduction of the Hen Line app only added to it. As the hopeless romantic he's probably been the one who has believed in the curse most vocally, and I am intrigued as to how it affects his life. I have been ready for his book since Griffin’s, and I cannot wait to get inside his crazy mind. The hints at who his love interest may be only makes me more excited and August can’t come soon enough.
That Secret Crush is a great, brother’s best friends, friends-to-more, small-town romance, with heart aching moments, a love curse, steamy scenes (Reid is just on fire), learning to accept your past mistakes and finding love where you least expected it. I would definitely recommend this book!
Reid is lost, a failed chef whose dream of running his own restaurant were destroyed two years before, and he hasn’t cooked since. He has a chip on his shoulder, bitter at having to return to his hometown of Port Snow with his tail between his legs, becoming a fisherman and working at the family business. Adding on to the family love curse him and his brothers picked up on at trip to New Orleans around the same time, and he is very unhappy with his life.
Reid has always had a flirty friendship with Eve, his ex-best friend, and ex-business partner, Eric’s twin sister. She is his dream girl, not that he’s ever admitted it to her, and Eve has harboured her own secret crush on the third Knightly brother since she was a teenager. Eve is on her own, her parents having both passed and her brother avoiding her calls. She is determined to make her own path in life, but one night on a particular difficult day, one thing leads to another, and her relationship with Reid is changed forever. Their chemistry is through the roof, and they agree to start dating, in secret to avoid the rumours from the locals. All is going well for them, and they're slowly getting used to their new feelings, when an opportunity for Reid arises which throws everything he thought about his life into disarray. He becomes even more closed off than normal, keeping important things from Eve. When Eric arrives back in town, will they be able to continue their relationship? Or will Reid’s secrets and doubts over his past cause him to self-destruct and push Eve away for good?
First things first, Reid’s character was so different to what I expected. He was crude, temperamental and unpredictable, but loyal to a fault. He was lost, going through the motions of life but not enjoying it at all, so unhappy and bitter about what went wrong, punishing himself for his past mistakes. But Eve helps him realise what he’s been missing out on for all these years. She helps him see that failure is a part of life and just because it went wrong once, doesn’t mean you give up, you try again and learn from your mistakes. He was so blunt and surly, he kept things bottled up, but the one thing he was always open about was how much he cared for Eve. She balanced him out perfectly, although he did have a lot of making up to do in the end.
Eve was so strong, driven and independent. She had learnt not to rely on anyone else, to put herself first and if she wanted something doing, she should do it herself. But Reid had always silently been there for her to lean on if she needed to, and when she did she realised there could be more between them. She knew what she wanted to do with her life and made sure that she was secured her future because she knew she was good at her job. Her trust in Reid was broken a number of times, there’s only so many secrets being withheld a girl before she has enough, and wow did she make Reid grovel before any kind of forgiveness. But the ending was swoon worthy and so sweet, in my eyes, he had fully redeemed himself.
One person who didn’t though was Eric, I disliked him all the way through and even in the end, I didn’t think he deserved any sort of forgiveness. He treated them both so poorly, and because you never really see Eric and Reid as friends, I didn’t understand how they needed each other to succeed. The same for any kind of relationship with Eve, we never see them as anything more than acquaintances. I think for me, that was the only flaw in the story, and it was very minor. But the other secondary characters, the rest of Knightly family and the towns folk are perfect and really help make the story more three-dimensional. But the other secondary characters, the rest of Knightly family and the towns folk, are perfect and really help make the story more three-dimensional. The meddling, the embarrassment, the rumours, just made it so great. But the brothers are hilarious. They are all so different, they balance each other out perfectly and their banter is just brilliant. Meghan is known for writing fabulous comedy in her books and these Knightly brothers were not an exception. Griffin is the protector, Rogan is the tortured broody one, Reid is lost, and Brig is the hopeless romantic.
All the way through, Brig has had me laughing out loud with his hilarious quirky personality and one-liners. I loved his involvement in the town's gossip mill and the introduction of the Hen Line app only added to it. As the hopeless romantic he's probably been the one who has believed in the curse most vocally, and I am intrigued as to how it affects his life. I have been ready for his book since Griffin’s, and I cannot wait to get inside his crazy mind. The hints at who his love interest may be only makes me more excited and August can’t come soon enough.
That Secret Crush is a great, brother’s best friends, friends-to-more, small-town romance, with heart aching moments, a love curse, steamy scenes (Reid is just on fire), learning to accept your past mistakes and finding love where you least expected it. I would definitely recommend this book!