Book Review — The Piano Man Project by Kat French

Finding love isn’t always black and white…

• Buy THE PIANO MAN PROJECT (Kindle)

Teehee!!! This was such a delightfully fun book!! I’d best describe it as a cross between an outrageously HILARIOUS laugh-out-loud romantic comedy, and just a really light-hearted, easy beach read. The hero was this grumpy recluse (with a secret!!) who moved in next door to the heroine and, despite her friends’ best efforts to set her up with a bunch of (really funny) blind dates, she kept being drawn back to the moody, grouchy-but-gorgeous guy who seemed determined to make her hate him. It was a total feel-good book (half romance, half chick-lit) with a dash of sexy. Before anything, I’ll share the blurb with you:

You: kind, piano-playing sex god
Me: hopelessly romantic charity shop manager

Honeysuckle Jones has a problem, and her best friends Nell and Tash are on a mission to help her solve it. She needs a man – a caring, intelligent, funny man. But most importantly, a man who’s good with his hands…

Luckily Honey’s new neighbour – moody, antisocial ex-chef Hal – fails on almost every count. Even though the chemistry between them is electric, he’s obviously wrong for her in every way.

But when Honey discovers the devastating reason for his moods she decides to give him another chance. And discovers that the best songs aren’t always in tune…

And, if you want a taste of the writing, here are literally the first lines of the book:

“Don’t you think there’s something sad about buying yourself a new vibrator for Valentine’s Day?” Honey picked up a lurid pink model and eyed it with distaste.

“Why?” Tash laughed. “My last one was the best boyfriend I ever had. When it gave out I buried it in the back garden and planted a phallic cactus over it as tribute.”

“How did you break it, anyways?” Honey frowned at the hunk of neon plastic in her hand. It looked pretty indestructible.

“Overuse, probably.”

That sold me on the book!! 😀

Hal, the hero, was such a great character. He was grouchy, cantankerous, reclusive, moody, objectionable, downright rude, but his secret made him quite vulnerable and my heart broke for his situation. Despite his total lack of social skills, he and Honey had this sparkling romantic tension that neither of them could deny existed. And, when not a single one of her blind dates panned out (despite the very best efforts of her overly eager friends), she realized that not a single one of them made her heart race as much as the grouchy man next door whose rare smiles lit up her life. And so… she came to him with a proposition…

“One night, Hal. No strings. No dates. One night…”

This book is quite honestly a 50-50 spilt between romantic comedy and chick lit. The romance side was focused on Honey’s unconventional and unlikely romance with her reclusive, grouchy neighbor, and the chick lit side focused on some crazy stuff going down at Honey’s workplace near a senior’s home.

While this book wasn’t necessarily always funny, the funny parts were H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S!! I mean, really! Half my book has highlights and I couldn’t stop laughing! These parts almost reminded me of a British Wallbanger-type feeling. Honestly, I kinda wish that the whole book had been like this because even though the chick-lit-y scenes at her work were fun, I found myself just wanting to get back to the romance.

Regardless, this book definitely is all light-hearted. From hilarious sex shop escapades, to banter with her angry neighbor, to sexy spaghetti making lessons (this girl can’t cook to save her life, but he can), one of the best failed blind dates ever, a group of feisty seniors, and a whole lot of laughs, it was undeniably fun!

“We haven’t been to bed, and we’re not going to,” he said.

“You’re not wrong there, buster,” she yelled, opening the door. “You had your chance to spend the night with me and you blew it, big time.”

It wasn’t the best time to find herself eyeball to eyeball with the postman. He lifted his eyebrows at her appraisingly, handed her the morning mail and walked away sounding suspiciously as if he were laughing under his breath.

If you’re in the mood for just something that’ll make you smile, try this book! I’ll be honest, if the whole story had been focused on the romantic comedy side of things (rather than going back and forth with the workplace stuff), I would have rated it a solid 5 stars because seriously that stuff was pure GOLD!!!!! But regardless of that, I loved the writing, thoroughly enjoyed the book, and am really glad I read it! 🙂

Rating: 4+ stars. Standalone romantic comedy / chick-lit.

• Buy THE PIANO MAN PROJECT (Kindle)