seriously romantic: the austen playbook by lucy parker

i've read all the london celebrities books, and honestly i thought the series had ended. but the world is rich and layered enough that it is entirely possible for this series to keep going on indefinitely. something that totally works for me.

in this book we are treated to a heroine who is both delightfully sunny and honest. her brand of honesty is not the kind that cuts, but it is still incisive and astute. and that core of honesty is what brings freddy and griff together. he is that acerbic, no-holds-barred kind of honest. the kind of person you hate for being right because of the way he elects to deliver the unvarnished truth about your truest self. how he sees past all artifice and gets to the heart of the matter. he is not kind. but he isn't cruel either.

at their core, freddy and griff are both intensely moral people who do things for love of their family. you look past all the window dressings of who they appear to be and you see that they are, of course, meant for each other in spite of everything that seems so opposite.

this is a layered plot, what with the multi-level adaptation of austen, griff's estate issues, and freddy's family skeletons bouncing about, but the relationship moves forward with intense chemistry and relatively minor hiccups. when freddy and griff go all in, they are all in. and how they sort through the chaos around them, is one of those things that leaves you swoony and happy and slightly hungover.

i loved the austen playbook. i love griff and freddy. i hope to see a future story with nick and sabrina because i believe there is a lot to go on there. i want this series to keep going and going because it is that good.

**the austen playbook will publish on april 22, 2019. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/carina press in exchange for my honest review.