The Perfect Find
Grade : A+

Narrated by Wesleigh Siobhan

I loved this book. LOVED IT! The Perfect Find is the second Tia Williams book I’ve read and loved, and I think I’ve found myself a new auto-buy author!

Jenna Jones is trying to make a comeback. After her long-term fiancé Brian announced his vision of their future had nothing to do with her vision, she left her high-glam New York City life and a high-powered job as a fashion editor for Darling magazine to slink home to Virginia and lick her wounds. After working through her heartbreak, she’s returned to the city, poor and in completely over her head at her new job at StyleZine, an on-line fashion and trend website run by her nemesis, Darcy Vale. At forty, Jenna knows nothing about social media or the video-focus of the modern fashion industry. Not to mention she’s resorted to shopping at Target, something no self-respecting fashionista would ever do!

Looking to relieve some work stress and end her years-long sexual dry spell, Jenna attends a book launch party where she enjoys her adult beverages a little too much and engages in an ill-advised encounter with a young hottie named Eric Combs. She stops things before they go too far; however, when she arrives at work on Monday to discover her new videographer is none other than Eric Combs, she’s mortified. When she learns Eric is only twenty-two, her mortification turns to horror. She’s a cougar! But Eric does have the knowledge of the tech-savvy youth and can teach her how to navigate through Tweets and Instagram.

Their first attempt to work together results in an epic crash and burn. Eric sees Jenna as an old-skool know-it-all who won’t listen to his advice, and she sees him as an infant who can’t appreciate the amount of pressure she’s under. Given the task of tripling StyleZine’s readership in eight months or risk losing her job, Jenna is desperate to figure things out even if that means making peace with Eric. Once they start to work together, things begin to click, and before long, they’ve created a viral fashion must-see series.

Through it all, the white-hot attraction they’d felt for each other during their brief encounter at the party continues to grow. Jenna is determined to keep things professional, not only because of their age difference but because for spoilery reasons, having a relationship with Eric Combs could destroy her career. Unfortunately, the more time they spend together, the more impossible it becomes to deny their feelings, and they soon find themselves legitimately in love.

But at forty, Jenna’s biological clock is about to run out, and she wants a family, while Eric is just starting his life, not ready to settle into domesticity. Knowing that he should have the chance to follow his dreams of becoming a successful filmmaker, Jenna faces an agonizing choice: hold on to the man she loves or let him go free.

This book grabbed me from the beginning and had me upset every time I had to put it down. The dialogue is mesmerizing - I can’t tell you how many times I laughed out loud. Jenna is such a relatable heroine, slightly dorky and insecure but so easy to root for. Eric is dreamy, an old-soul in a young, hot package. Williams does an amazing job of bridging the eighteen-year age gap between these two in such a way that you can see why and how they fall for each other. And the obstacles to their being together are so genuine and understandable.

In an effort to really immerse the reader into Jenna’s high-fashion world, Williams engages in a lot of designer and couture name-dropping, and I would guess that 90% of the fashion references flew over my head. That’s really my only quibble, but it did nothing to reduce my enjoyment of this amazing story.

I listened to the majority of this book on audio, and narrator Wesleigh Siobhan takes the already stellar material to a whole new level, bringing every character to life. While reading the book is highly recommended, this is one of those cases where I think listening to the audio version enhanced my enjoyment.

I do have one very strong warning. Do NOT watch the Netflix adaptation of this book! After I finished, I went to check it out with high hopes only to discover the movie version to be nearly unwatchable. Not only is there zero chemistry between the lead actors, but the story has been changed to be almost unrecognizable, especially the ending. I haven’t been so disappointed with a book-to-movie adaptation since the steaming pile of horse crap that was Francis Ford Coppola’s version of The Outsiders.

I can’t recommend The Perfect Find highly enough. Listen to it if you can. And I’m off to check out the next great Tia Williams read!

Running Time: 11 hrs 48 minutes
 

Reviewed by Jenna Harper
Grade : A+

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : March 25, 2024

Publication Date: 03/2021

Review Tags: AoC PoC age gap

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Jenna Harper

I'm a city-fied suburban hockey mom who owns more books than I will probably ever manage to read in my lifetime, but I'm determined to try.
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