Book Review: Accidental Tryst by Natasha Boyd

Accidental Tryst

Series: Charleston, Book 1
Author: Natasha Boyd
Publisher: (March 6, 2018)
Kindle edition, 346 pages
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Summary
Two strangers accidentally switch cell phones in a busy airport in this edgier You've Got Mail, sexy romance for the smart-phone era ... 

Emmy
What a disaster! I only just made my flight to New York to help my uncle, and the phone I’m holding is not mine! It seems to belong to some commitment-phobic serial dater who’s never made it past four dates (according to the constant notifications he's getting from his fake dating profile...) And worse? I have a sinking feeling it’s that hot suit-monkey with the arctic grey eyes I just had a run-in with at the airport. Somehow, I have to persuade him not to get a new phone until I get back. My whole life is on that phone. I knew I should have backed it up. It’s only a few days. Surely, we can handle it. 

 

Trystan 
This is a joke, right? My life could not get more f*cked up. I’m in the middle of selling my company and on my way to a funeral and that hot mess hippie-chick stole my freaking phone. I’m not sure how she convinced me not to immediately walk into a smart phone store and get a new one, but now she’s going to have to play stand in and distract me while I deal with my long-avoided and estranged family. I don’t have my dating apps after all, and frankly she’s pretty funny. And sexy. And why can’t I stop texting her? And now we’re talking. And … look, I’ll admit that I usually run for the hills the morning after, but the morning after phone sex? That’s not really real, right?

Rating: 4 stars

Review
Accidental Tryst is told in alternating first person POV, switching between Emmy's POV and Trystan's. This would have been a solid 5 star read for me, and possibly my favorite book of the year, except for one major annoyance: WHY THE HELL ARE TRYSTAN'S CHAPTERS PRESENT TENSE AND EMMY'S CHAPTERS PAST TENSE?! WHAT KIND OF WRITING/EDITING DECISION WAS THAT?! It drove my absolutely batty through the entire book to keep shifting gears from present tense to past tense every time the POV shifted from Trystan to Emmy. I've never seen that in a book before and I hated it. HATED IT. So much that I knocked off a full star from my rating, and debated knocking off another half star. So much that I'm uncertain whether I'll pick up the next book in the series PURELY BECAUSE I HATE THE SWITCHING TENSES EVERYTIME THE POV CHANGES. 

That being said, if not for the super obnoxious changes of the tenses, this would have quite likely been my favorite contemporary romance of 2018. (Why did you ruin it, Natasha!? I feel like if I only understood your choices maybe I could get behind them? Not that you need my approval, but whyyyyy?) 

I went into this expecting a quick light-hearted fluff read, something like a one-night stand off a dating app (looking at you, Trystan...) and instead I ended up falling hard for Trystan and Emmy, for David and Armand, for Beau and even Isabel. The premise of the book is a totally silly rom-com set up; Emmy and Trystan accidentally grab each others' phones as they cross paths at the airport, and Emmy just happens to be sitting next to a hacking genius on the plane who jailbreaks the phone for her... It certainly requires a certain suspension of disbelief, but then most rom-coms do. Trystan comes off like a MAJOR gross jerk in the first chapter (especially a comment/thought about tree-trunk thighs) and it almost made me stop reading, but damn am I glad I kept reading because... *dreamy sigh* 

The chemistry and banter between Trystan and Emmy is amazing, and I want to hug them both. They both have fairly traumatic pasts which have left them with some issues, and they deal with said issues in some pretty opposite ways. And yes, Trystan has some of that "guy who has been hurt so he acts like an asshole but that doesn't make it OK syndrome." If that's your line in the sand, maybe this book isn't for you. I don't think anyone is beyond redemption, and he doesn't do anything truly icky besides have some sexist thoughts (which he grows through some person growth throughout the book, which is great to see) and some consensual casual sex (and if I'm not going to slut shame women, it's kind of a double standard to slut shame men...), so beyond his better-than-thou inferiority complex at the beginning... The thing is, he's not perfect. And he grows a lot throughout the book. Emmy isn't perfect either, and she needs to grow some as well. Nobody wants to read about boring perfect people living boring perfect lives. Give me flawed characters struggling with their pain and their passions, living their lives the best way they know how, sometimes making the wrong choices and sometimes having to figure out how to remove their own foot from their mouth or from the pile of shit they just stepped in. Add in some witty repartee and some crazy chemistry, and that's this book in a nutshell. 

I found myself with my hand clutching my chest over my heart like I could physically press the pain out and stop it from hurting for them several times, and I'm actually tearing up a bit remembering certain events and lines from the book while writing this review, which is a pretty good indicator that the book was that good. It also made me smile a lot (that really goofy grin where people look at you oddly when they see it on your face) and laugh out loud a time or two as well. 

I loved this book. I expected a quick hook up, not a book that was going to keep me up until midnight on a work night because I had to finish it , literally was not capable of putting it down without knowing that everything was going to be OK for Emmy and Trystan. ...And I think I just talked myself into reading the next book in the series, despite how much I dislike the changing tenses, haha.