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A review by jackiehorne
Fight or Flight by Samantha Young
4.0
3.5 This is my first book by Samantha Young, and I picked it up because it's been getting a lot of positive press among fall 2018 romance releases. A meet-angry at the airport between 30-year-old Ava Breevort, an always-put-together interior decorator and 35-year-old Caleb Scott, a cranky, broody CFS of a major tech company leads to a steamy one-night stand while the two are stranded by a layover. Both of the two have their reasons for their rude behavior to one another. Ava's returning from the funeral of her best friend, from whom she's been estranged for years after (won't reveal PLOT SPOILERS). Caleb, too, is dealing with an overabundance of loss and betrayal, although he, unlike a slightly tipsy Ava, won't reveal anything about them. Agreeing that they don't even much l like one another, Ava and Caleb still manage to find welcome solace in each other's arms. (And, of course, the best sex either of them has ever had; this is a romance novel after all).
Of course, when Ava gets back home to Boston, she and Caleb run into each other again, and again, and both decide to have a sex-only fling until Caleb has to return home to Scotland. We only hear the story from Ava's POV, but Young does great work exploring the characters of both. Ava's approach to dealing with her past losses is to be über-controlling, not only with her appearance, but at her home and in her work. Caleb's is to speak as little as possible, to not bother to thank anyone (coworkers, stewardesses, wait staff, not anyone), and to shut down emotionally whenever someone gets too close to one of his emotional hurts and freeze them right out. Both make somewhat incorrect assumptions about the other based on appearances and first impressions, but as they two start to cross the line from sex-only to friends-with-benefits, Young shows the reasons behind those first impressions, which shows the reader what made those impressions both wrong and, to a certain degree, also right.
1/2 star off for Caleb's occasional sexist assertions, and also for the nature of his big hurt:.
Of course, when Ava gets back home to Boston, she and Caleb run into each other again, and again, and both decide to have a sex-only fling until Caleb has to return home to Scotland. We only hear the story from Ava's POV, but Young does great work exploring the characters of both. Ava's approach to dealing with her past losses is to be über-controlling, not only with her appearance, but at her home and in her work. Caleb's is to speak as little as possible, to not bother to thank anyone (coworkers, stewardesses, wait staff, not anyone), and to shut down emotionally whenever someone gets too close to one of his emotional hurts and freeze them right out. Both make somewhat incorrect assumptions about the other based on appearances and first impressions, but as they two start to cross the line from sex-only to friends-with-benefits, Young shows the reasons behind those first impressions, which shows the reader what made those impressions both wrong and, to a certain degree, also right.
1/2 star off for Caleb's occasional sexist assertions, and also for the nature of his big hurt: