It’s been almost two years since we first stayed up all night reading Sally Thorne’s debut novel, The Hating Game and declared it our Best Book of 2016. And in the intervening months, we’ve waited patiently for Sally Thorne to follow up her cutest of romance novels with something new.
We can only re-read The Hating Game so many times*.
*Technically, we can re-read it non-stop and still come out unscathed and very well satisfied. Especially when picturing Kevin Love as Joshua.
But the wait is almost – sort of, maybe, close to being – over. Sally’s next novel, 99 Percent Mine, is headed to your midnight Kindle download in January. Yes, I know. We thought it was October as well, but things happen in the publishing world. And before you get too depressed about the pushback that you probably didn’t even know about until just now, know this: there is a new summary for 99 Percent Mine, and it is every bit as wonderful as vanilla ice cream … or wedding cake from Joshua Templeman’s fork. Cram these bites into your mouth.
Every Swoony Tidbit from 99 Percent Mine
If you’d like to cheat and read the whole summary, you can do so here. But if you like the slow tease, and I know you do, I’ll give you the whole thing at the end of the post.
Childhood Crush = Life Ruiner
Darcy Barrett is the heroine of this story, and she is unlucky in love. Her life is messy and crazy, and it’s at least partly because she fell in love with the perfect man sometime in the 2nd grade. That’s right, she’s had a huge crush on someone she finds completely perfect since she was eight years old. Tom. No one compares in “looks, brain or heart.” BE STILL, MINE.
Sibling Rivalry: TWINS!
However, this perfect Tom has been claimed since grade school. NOT by another woman, but by Darcy’s own twin brother, Jamie, who decided from day one that Tom was HIS … his best friend. Since then, Tom has been 99% Jamie’s – devoted to her brother and treating Darcy like the little sister she isn’t, forever off limits to Darcy.
And the sibling rivalry doesn’t end there … Jamie is ready to sell their grandmother’s run-down cottage for a big profit, but Darcy is living her tumble-down lifestyle in it and now only has three months to get it together. Ugh, brothers are the worst.
Hot Handyman
Especially when they send their 6-foot-6 (SIX!) perfectly packaged best friend/handyman to turn the place you’re living into the next Magnolia AirBNB. Oh, hahaha, that’s right, super off-limits Tom is a freaking whiz at the house flipping: that means demo and tight t-shirts and tool belts and sheetrock dust. Because if anything can top Joshua Templeman in his robin’s egg blue Hugo Boss shirt, it’s apparently Tom Valeska in dirty, sweaty Carharrt’s.
Le Conflict
Carharrt’s that Darcy does NOT appreciate him wearing as he tears up her space and tears down her walls. Tom might be wielding power tools and a brand new singlehood, but he’s doing Jamie’s bidding with the house, not Darcy’s. Oh, and he’s busy disapproving of her burnout boyfriend too.
“Well, no one is good enough for my kid sister,” might be a great quote from The Hating Game, and Joshua may have been sarcastic, but I have a feeling Tom is going to be dead serious. Apparently, these little conflicts make the THREE MONTHS that Darcy and Tom spend in close quarters quite tumultuous. WHOOO HOO.
And my favorite bit
Why would Darcy’s crush on Tom have lasted all these years, through adolescence and adulthood and these petty squabbles and his devotion to her brother? Well … “One percent of Tom has had to be enough for Darcy, and her adoration has been sustained by his shy kindness.” HIS SHY KINDNESS??? Tom, the six and half foot tall house flipper with a big brother protective streak and a tool belt, that Tom’s defining character quality is SHY KINDNESS??? How has Sally Thorne killed me already with just a novel summary? Probably because she destroyed me two years ago for all other contemporary romances. Except for this one.
Read the whole summary right here.
