Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Love Practice
SERIES: Good Bad Idea Book 7
AUTHOR: A.F. Zoelle
PUBLISHER: Sarayashi Publishing
LENGTH: 148 pages
RELEASE DATE: March 24, 2021
BLURB:
Wren is kinda sorta super in love with his best friend. Asking Izzy to go on practice dates as his dating tutor probably isn’t the best idea to keep those feelings hidden. But a bad idea has never stopped Wren before.
Wren Ferres
Does anyone know how to make Prince Charming fall in love with you? I’m asking for a friend.
…yeah, that friend is me. I’m secretly a little in love with my best friend and roommate. Okay, I’m a lot in love with him. Like, truly, madly, deeply in love with him. But it’s not my fault! He’s hot, French, and laughs at all my stupid jokes. He’s the prince of my dreams, minus the part where he isn’t actual royalty and not in love with me. Determined to change that, I come up with a brilliant plan to challenge Monsieur Know-it-all to be my dating tutor. I’m hoping that’ll tempt him into acting on our flirtatious banter.
If it doesn’t, maybe I’ll push my luck by suggesting some kissing practice?
Isidore “Izzy” Devereaux
Wren is flirty, quirky, très cute—and completely oblivious about how much I love him. His wild ideas usually make me laugh, but his request to go on practice dates to give him pointers? Yeah, that pushes all my buttons. Agreeing to his outlandish request means risking him discovering my secret. But, it also presents a tempting opportunity. This is my one chance to make him see me as more than just his best friend. It could be my only shot at making him my boyfriend for real.
I may not be a real prince like he teases me about, but can’t we still have a happily ever after?
Love Practice is the seventh and final book in the Good Bad Idea series and part of the Sunnyside universe. This novel features a friends to lovers, roommates, fake dating romance. Full of cute sweetness and sexy fun, every story ends with a satisfying HEA and no cliffhangers. Each book can be read as a standalone or as part of the series in order.
REVIEW:
Love Practice is the seventh and culminating book in A.F. Zoelle’s Good Bad Idea series, which you can read as a standalone, but will enjoy more if you’ve read the prior books. This book gives Wren and Izzy their long-awaited HEA.
Wren and Izzy are roommates and BFFs with Felix (from Book 6, Picture Love) and his roommate North (from Book 5, Love Directions). If you’ve read the series, you’ve had glimpses of Wren and Izzy in Book 2, Love Means More, in Book 3, Fancy Love (which remains my favorite of the series), and the preceding Book 6, Picture Love. Notably, Wren and Izzy appear as a unit throughout the series. You never see one without the other. This is indicative of their close connection, which runs deeper than friendship. In Book 6, Felix notes that everyone knows Wren and Izzy belong together. Yet, Wren and Izzy verbally spar and tease, but aren’t together, much to the puzzlement of all of their friends.
Wren and Izzy are complete opposites. Wren has the whole punk vibe and an over-the-top personality. He is forward, loud and uncensored, constantly making jokes and offering commentary that sometimes is less than tactful. Izzy is French sophistication, chic, polite and always apropos for the circumstances.
Wren masks his desire for Izzy by going “all-in” in an over-the-top way. He persistently and brazenly comes on to Izzy over and over again. His approach is so outlandish, Izzy believes that Wren doesn’t mean anything by it but a joke. It’s a heartbreaking position to be in. Izzy is constantly tempted with what he wants most, but believes he can never have it: deep, lasting, true love with his best friend. So in what may be the ultimate irony, Izzy continually rejects the very person he loves and wants the most.
While there’s nothing Izzy wants more than to say yes to Wren, he wants to say yes to being the only person Wren loves, not yes to being one of the many guys Wren fools around with. For Wren’s part, his behavior cries out to Izzy, begging for Izzy to claim him, to give Wren the lasting love he he wants but is too scared to ask for because he thinks he can never have it.
Love Practice tracks Wren and Izzy’s convoluted journey to becoming romantic partners. These two adorable fools are head-over-heels for each other but neither can see their way clear to take a chance on love. The typical excuses are at work here to justify why these two are inexplicably not together. Fear (“I don’t want to jeopardize our friendship if it all goes wrong”; “I don’t want to get hurt”), misreading the signs of interest (“He’ll never see me as anything but a friend”), and self-deprecation (“I’m not good enough for him”). These “rationales” hold Wren and Izzy back from communicating their true feelings.
Wren and Izzy’s story most closely tracks Book 4, Love Fool, which also features a best friends to lovers, foregone conclusion, everyone knew they should be together except them romance between Jules and Xander. The abundant similarities stripped away the some of the novelty from Wren and Izzy’s romance in Love Practice. However, Wren’s zany behavior and untempered attitude contrasted with Izzy’s demure, French, swoony speech and actions creates a dynamic that is altogether different and fun to watch. These two are equal parts sexy and sweet and when they do admit their feelings, you feel that deep, abiding connection between them. You know that this is an unshakeable relationship. The best of HEAs.
While I adore this warm, happy, bubbly Good Bad Idea series of adorable couples deeply in love, Ms. Zoelle’s choice to wrap it up and move on at this point is the right one in my opinion. Since Book 4, Love Fool, the series has been coasting, with the storyline for each subsequent book generally running the same course. For example, looking across the last four books, it’s all no angst, cotton candy sweetness. Yes, the couples are lovely and you’ll root for every single one of them. But it’s very one note.
Love Practice is an easy-going story without a whole lot of momentum to it. Further, what little it does have stalls out in the middle. Honestly, I think the book, from a purely romance development perspective, could have been much shorter without any harm to Wren and Izzy’s HEA. However, in the latter portions of the book, Ms. Zoelle does provide appearances from all of the previous couples. Even better, we get to see them all together, interacting with each other. It’s sweet, funny and overwhelmingly heartwarming. This is a found family on proud display.
Overall, Love Practice, like its predecessors, is a short, warm and fuzzy read that’s perfect when you want something simple, happy and unburdened. I recommend the whole Good Bad Idea series as no angst, feel good romances full of witty banter, sexy fun, and lovable smart-asses. They will definitely leave you smiling. The dynamics are better in the early books, with the high point coming in Fancy Love, Book 3. But the rest of the books are fun too and worth reading, especially to see the whole gang happy and together at the end.
RATING: 
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