Really enjoyed - this was perfect for a relaxation read. After a day of real life this is the ideal cocktail for relaxation and escape. Party girl and driven lawyer battle their wits and opposite lives into a perfect relationship. I'm in.

Favorite Quotes:

The man’s a lesson in sameness, like some sort of anal-retentive version of Groundhog Day.

If you’re wondering what Andrew Mulroney looks like while he’s in workout mode, picture this: Thor and Captain America somehow defeat biology and have a love child together. And call him Andrew. You’re welcome for the visual.

Seriously? Okay, I’m done. I’m out. I hope the Wicked Witch’s flying monkeys carry you away and I never have to see you again.

“Please don’t put some sort of esquire spin on this,” I whisper against his mouth. He lets out a quiet laugh, pulling back just slightly. “Esquire’s not an adjective.” “Sure it is,” I say, trailing my lips over his jawline, since it’s all I can reach. “Synonym: stodgy. Definition: prone to over thinking.”

I was named after both grandmothers, and I have to assume everyone thought I’d be very tidy and studious.

My Review:

I gleefully smirked my way through this delightfully amusing story packed with clever humor, witty banter, quick quips, and scorching hawt chemistry. I adored this smartly written and engaging storyline and treasured the charming and appealing characters who timed their morning routines to sync up precisely at five a.m. every weekday to verbally spar and trade barbs in the lobby of their building. I savored this sparkling tale from beginning to end and find it must be among the best of Ms. Layne’s considerable library of work. The writing was crisp and lively and the sizzling sensual scenes had me mopping my brow and gasping for air. It was crazy good and ridiculously perfect.

Walk of Shame by Lauren Layne......10 PERFECTLY RIDICULOUS STARS!!! This book had me laughing/smiling with all the bantering and craving doughnuts through this story. I absolutely loved Georgie and Andrew they are so different, but perfect together, opposites do attract. The story is so go you will be turning pages until the last word. Lauren Layne is becoming one of my top authors with her amazing storytelling. I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book from publisher via NetGalley.

***ARC received in exchange of an honest opinion***

Walk of Shame is the first book by Lauren Layne I've read so far and I really really enjoyed it!

The banter between Andrew and Geogie is PERFECT from the first scene to the last. We can feel their chemistry through the pages of the book and we don't want their story to end!

This was a great find and a book I DEVOURED! I definitely relate to Georgie and I could put myself in her place easily. I love this kind of "light" reads. It's not overly complicated or overly dramatic and it was written perfectly.

It shows a book doesn't need a huge ammount of drama at every nee page to be good!

Walk of Shame is the perfect romantic comedy to read in any time!

Sexy, witty and adorably romantic!

This story is set in the prestigious streets of New York City and gives a glimpse into the lives of the rich and famous, complete with elegant events, extravagant parties and swanky couture. It is told from two different perspectives; Georgie, a warm, optimistic glitterati who believes in fairy tales; and Andrew, an intelligent, serious, skeptical divorce lawyer who would rather play it safe than follow his heart.

The writing is effortless. The characters are clever, alluring and lovable. And the plot is enchanting, exceptionally funny and filled with spirited hijinks, delicious tension, caustic banter, steamy attraction and true love.

I have always been a fan of Lauren Layne and I think this might have just become one of my favourites. I loved the characters; I loved the chemistry; I loved the story. It was ridiculously perfect! If you like light-hearted rom coms you can't do much better than this.

Thank you to NetGalley, especially Random House - Loveswept, for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love Lauren Layne's books. LOVE them. Her heroines are always women I think I could be friends with, and her Hot Heroes are always HOT.

This book, though. I wasn't quite sure that Georgia and I could be friends. She's a wealthy socialite whose only job is staying out late with her friends. Yeah, she volunteers for various charities - which, in her defense, requires as much work as any paying gig - but she's directionless. As she hits her mid-twenties, it's time, don't you think, for her to find a direction? So I struggled a bit with relating to her.

In any other hands, Georgia would have remained shallow and meaningless, but Lauren Layne renders her a character with substance. Georgia wants to find meaning in her life. She wants to set goals for herself and reach those goals. She realizes that there has to be more to the life she is living, privileged as it is.

It doesn't help her that her parents are both driven, successful people. Her father is a real estate developer, and her mother has started a fashion line. Georgia sees, however, that while those two are good at what they do professionally, they are not good at marriage.

It also does not help that Andrew Mulroney finds her frivolous at best. They live in the same apartment building and butt heads every time they see each other, which turns out to be somewhat frequently: they meet in passing most mornings at 5 AM as Andrew is begins his day as one of the city's most successful divorce attorneys and she ends hers with a "walk of shame."

These two cannot have a conversation with arguing with and insulting each other, and it is hilarious to read. All along, Lauren Layne builds tension between them - tension and passion. It's clear they are attracted to each other, but so what? To have a true relationship, substance must exist. Whereas Georgia lacks that professionally, Andrew lacks it emotionally. Georgia's heart is wide open; Andrew's is on lockdown.

The thing about the title is that Georgia isn't the only one who must endure walks of shame. So does Andrew, and his cause far more emotional angst. On the surface, this seems like a fun, frothy romance, but Layne gives it substance and emotional depth. She also delivers the quiver with some hot headboard rocking. Like, super hot.

You'll like this book.

I liked this well-written formulaic piece of romantic fluff. Witty dialogue and smart, capable characters expressing real life insecurities without the overdone angst so common in romance novels made this fun escape reading. Walk of Shame did not waste page real estate belaboring I'm-not-worthy/he-could-never-be-happy-with-me. The not very deep plot gives us the romance, sexual tension and laughs without undue airy silliness. Thank you Lauren Layne!

This book is ridiculously adorable. I actually hesitated about reading this one because I thought I wouldn't like the socialite heroine. I figured she'd be a snotty princess that the hero had to work hard to loosen up. Holy crap was I wrong! The description doesn't even begin to do this rom-com justice. Georgie is one of the most delightful heroines I've come across. She's witty, fun, and so full of life that I seriously wanted to be her (or at least be her friend). Andrew was the pretentious one, and it was a blast watching her get under his skin and knock down those stodgy walls. I think I smiled the entire time I read this (even when I was simultaneously wincing), and I haven't stopped since. I swear that every book I read by Ms. Layne is better than the last. She does something a little different this time with the dual POV, and although it struck me as odd at first, it actually works. And the logic behind it, when you consider Andrew's character, makes total sense. This gal has ridiculous talent.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group- Loveswept and Lauren Layne for the ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) of "Walk of Shame" by Lauren Layne for my honest review. The genre of this novel is Romance.
The author describes her characters as complex, complicated, insecure and emotional.
The two main characters, Georgie, and Andrew meet while moving into an exclusive upper class apartment complex, at the same time. Both are fighting for the elevator. Georgie is a party going socialite, who usually comes home about 5:00 AM. Andrew is a Divorce Attorney and workaholic who is first leaving for the day at 5:00AM. Georgie comes in with donuts for the doorman, and takes one as she heads upstairs. Andrew is drinking his protein drink and goes to the gym before he leaves for work. Georgie is a romantic and believes in fairytale endings. Andrew deals with realism all day long, and thinks that Georgie is ridiculous. Both spar with other at 5:00AM in the morning when they see each other. As a matter of fact, outgoing and friendly Georgie seems totally ridiculous to Andrew. Is it true that opposites can be attracted to one another or kill each other?
I thought that this was a charming, delightful, sexy read and would recommend it.

I always enjoy Lauren Layne’s book and this is no exception. She writes witty, stylish contemporary romances with just the right mix of sophistication and hotness.

In this romance of opposites, socialite Georgie finds that the best part of her day are the moments at 5 am when she’s arriving home from a night on the town and hunky, uptight divorce lawyer Andrew is heading out of the Manhattan apartment skyscraper they both live in. They clash, exchange sarcastic acknowledgements of each other’s existence and then spend the rest of the day unable to forget the other. Those brief exchanges of insults serve as a kind of foreplay. They have nothing in common and shouldn’t be attracted to each other, but sometimes opposites do attract.

I loved how Layne was able to make Georgie, a character who should be quite unrelatable to most readers so very lovable. Like Andrew, I found myself silently marveling at this effervescent, perfectly ridiculous woman who is living off inherited money and spends her time hanging out with her other rich friends in nightclubs until 5 am. Her only occupation seems to be shopping, clubbing, and running the occasional fundraiser. But she’s also extremely sweet, the type of woman who brings her doorman a box of donuts every morning and makes friends with everyone she encounters from a taxi driver to a waiter. She’s just a nice person. And Andrew marvels at her even as he can’t quite understand her.

If you enjoy smart contemporary romances, do yourself a favor and get yourself some Lauren Layne books. You’ll smile all the way through.

.I was given a free ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Classic Lauren Layne and I LOVED it!! Full of snark, humor, and sexy times, this opposites attract story had me laughing out loud and kept me completely entertained. Georgie and Andrew were great characters and I enjoyed the slow build of their relationship. She's a party girl and loved by everyone. He's serious, stoic and doesn't let too many people get close. Teasing Andrew and trying to get him to smile is the highlight of Georgie's day. Andrew won't deny he's attracted to Georgianna but she's everything he hates about the pampered wealthy. Then one surprise kiss changes everything!!

This is a must read. I highly recommend it.

Layne is back with a sassy, sizzling novel that I couldn't put down (no, really, I got this eARC, stopped what I was doing, and read it from start to finish without breaking).

Georgie should be an annoying heroine. She's got all the boxes ticked for it (rich, party girl, famous for being famous, designer label everything, etc. etc.), but somehow, she's so very likable. She's sweet, with a kind streak a mile wide, and she's just so much more than what I expected. She's glitter and sparkles and happiness personified.

Andrew was the perfect contrast. He is all about schedules, work, and the gym. He thinks Georgie is vapid, and I loved watching him discover that there was more to her than what she showed to the world. He's a bit jaded, as he's a high-powered divorce attorney, and doesn't really believe in that happily-ever-after stuff that Georgie's built her dreams on.

The two of them heat up the pages from the first time we see them together. From Andrew's accidentally cutting remarks, to Georgie's grace under pressure, it was a book that had my heart hurting in the best way, my laughter going strong, and my soul wishing that their pages could go on forever. Two words, my friends: Book. Hangover.

Five stars.

reviewed by Nancy

This. Book. Is. Everything!!!!

Oh my God, if a story was ever about loving love, this is the one. We all long for the kind of love that smacks us in the face with a brick as it walks by, and this story is all about that. There is love (obviously) but more importantly, there is hope. Hope that we could live long enough to experience what Andrew and Georgie learn. Add in the absolutely incredible humor of the author, and this is a 10 star read.

I enjoy Lauren Layne's romances when there is plenty of humor to balance the angst, and the angst is earned (which is so much more effective) than imposed by a heavy authorial thumb.

Georgie is a rich New York society girl, who usually arrives home to her swanky apartment just before five a.m., carrying fresh-baked donuts for the doorman and staff. She invariably meets Andrew, high-powered, totally driven, utterly humorless divorce lawyer on his way to the gym before work. He apparently despises everything about her, and she can't help teasing him . . . while showing up every single day in order to meet him. And he likewise.

I enjoyed them both. At first I got a bit tired of all Georgie's swanky product name dropping but I expect that that is a necessity in "rich people protagonist" romances these day. And who doesn't want to pretend to be rich along with the heroine, as long as the book lasts?

What I really liked was Georgie's good heart. I also liked Andrew's intensity, and the reasons for it. And the thread about Georgie's parents worked really well, though (view spoiler).

Layne does a terrific job of building the sexual tension between Georgie and Andrew while they are still bickering, emphasizing their differences by Georgiana's POV being first person present tense, and Andrew's (rare) POVs third past.

Some of the plot points are standard, but they work very well. The story is breezy and vivid and of course there is a sparkly happy ending.

But after I was done I wondered how happy they would stay. No spoiler to say that in the sack their compatibility rating is boom chikka chikka pow! But (view spoiler). The climax was cinematic instead of convincing (view spoiler). But the emotions carried it.

Despite these small bumps, overall it was a fast, fun read, and leaves me looking forward to Layne's next.

2.5 "...it’s all just feeling a little bit blah." Stars

Seems that I'm in the minority here, but my first experience with Lauren Lane sadly wasn't what I'd term a huge success.

"Sometimes I annoy even myself."

I struggled with this pretty much from the start, particularly when it came to Georgie who, whilst kindhearted and at times sweet, generally came across as privileged and shallow making her difficult to relate to. And, whilst Andrew was better, he was a bit of an uninspiring hero for much of the book despite the fact his banter with Georgie was at time quite amusing. Admittedly I warmed to them at around the 65% mark and the ending and epilogue upped my rating, but I needed more much sooner.

"You’re probably rolling your eyes right now."

Overall I found the story predictable and bland, which was a real shame as I do love an enemy-to-lovers romance. Plus the switch between first person for Georgie's POV and third person for Andrew's wasn't a style that worked for me. It's highly likely that this is a case of it's not you, it's me and I'm certainly going to check out a couple of Lauren's earlier books which I have on good authority should work for me, so this is one I'd say to judge for yourself.

**4.5 Stars**

Lauren Layne has the genius of a Rom-Com down pat. Walk of Shame was so, so fun and enjoyable that I couldn’t put it down. The lightness of its airiness mixed with building sexual tension between Andrew and Georgianna made this an unputdownable novel. It’s a novel with the perfect amount of animosity and romanticism between its main characters that it crackled with awareness.

There was such a great juxtaposition with Georgie. She’s a New York socialite, an unemployed but a self-proclaimed party girl, and yet, underneath all of that, she’s holding onto the brightest, biggest heart and personality around. You wanted to dislike her for her easy life, but you just couldn’t help falling under her charm. I loved her. The hopeless romantic with so much love to give. Add in Andrew, the stodgy, icy lawyer, and one couldn’t help but think they complemented each other so well. The two of them had amazing chemistry, both in hate and lust (and even beyond), that it carried the story forward with such ease.

LL is a favorite author for a reason: she mixes wit and charm so beautifully in her love stories. The characters were so concrete and vibrant, the pull between them built in the perfect way, and it was hot to boot. Honestly, it’s the perfect light read that has every wonderful element you want in a book. Walk of Shame is a must-read romance from an author whose writing is so effortlessly easy to fall into.

Georgiana is a rich young woman with a sweet heart. Andrew is a cynical divorce lawyer. They live the same apartment building. Georgie just loves arriving home at 5 am as Andrew is leaving for work, just to tease him. He finds her "perfectly ridiculous ".

This story is perfectly wonderful. The teasing gives way to deeper feelings, written by Lauren Layne. In her closing remarks, she writes of the difficulty she experienced in getting the story just the way she wanted it. I don't know how much time and effort she expended, but the story is worth whatever she invested. I loved it.

I loved this book so much that I immediately read it a second time through. Lauren Layne has an uncanny knack for writing unique characters who lead complex lives- It's almost impossible to not get sucked in! In Walk of Shame, Layne blends the perfect amount of backstory, humor, romance, and of course- steamy sex. I imagine that most readers will come for the sexy bits but stay for the endearing humor. Never before have I smiled so much while reading a romance novel- another homerun for Lauren Layne.

This books was great! I stayed up all night reading it and I don't regret it one bit... Okay maybe a lititle because I only got like 3 hours of sleep, but it was worth it! Loved the banter and chemistry. I just wish it was a little longer and we got to see more of them together.

"<i>You know what I think?</i>"
"<b>Breathless with wondering.</b>"
"<i>I think you've had too much peaceful in your life. I think peaceful has become synonymous with boring.</i>"
"<b>Are you sure we're talking about my life, Georgiana?</b>"

Guuuuuys WALK OF SHAME was so so good. And yes, I'm totally surprised by this. I mean, the synopsis sounds adorable but not particularly groundbreaking and the cover is cute but nothing special or eyecatching and yet this book. <b>This book</b>! I don't want to throw around comparisons to THE HATING GAME because the situation isn't similar but if you loved, or even liked, that book you'll like, or maybe love, this one, too.

<i>I feel a tiny stab of relief that he's as aware of me as I am of him, even if neither of us is happy with the situation.</i>

Georgiana Watkins is a socialite who is feeling a little.. lackluster about her comfortable life, her fancy apartment, her days of fundraisers and her nights of partying. Like maybe she wants something else, something more, something she's missing. But it isn't until a not-so-cute-meet with Andrew Mulroney, Esquire, that she starts to feel this sense of uncertainty about her very fortunate circumstances.

"<i>Oh Andrew and I are aligned, all right. Him at one end of the battlefield, me at the other.</i>"

Every day at five AM she finds herself coming home when Andrew is going to work and every day they square off, trading barbs, honing their wit. Each of them look forward to the brief exchange, neither willing to admit why, unable to refrain from entering each other's orbit. But it isn't until they meet outside the contained bubble of their five AM encounters and see each other in the real world that things start to change. That Georgie, especially, starts to wonder if he could fit into her much different lifestyle.. or she into his.

<i>The socialite was everything that he abhorred. Self-indulged, flighty, useless.. ridiculous. And yet..</i>

Andrew is smart. Genius level smart, fast tracked through school, and naturally awkward because of all of those factors. He doesn't know how to handle himself around Georgie -- who is fun, vibrant, bubbly, the opposite of everything he is -- and he definitely doesn't know how to handle the affect she had on him, and watching him fumble, watching him stumble, and watching George always bring out the worst in him, when it's the last thing he wants, is amazing because it's the best kind of frustrating. Not only for the reader but for the characters.

"<i>So the attraction was instant.</i>"
"<b>What part of what I just said translated to attraction?</b>"
"<i>None of it. But I saw you guys talking when he first came in. It was a toss-up whether you were going to arm-wrestle or just start making out.</i>"

I loved how Layne made these two go through all the typical motions, all the standard romance tropes, and yet.. make them so self-aware while still managing to change up the game. I love love loved it. The bonus to watching WALK OF SHAME play out, too, is that Georgie is telling you everything from her perspective, cheeky-like and with commentary, and yet we still get to see glimpses of Andrew's side (a mix of first and third person narrative that worked so well) and that added a level of dimension to this that definitely branches away from any further HATING GAME comparisons.

"<i>Oh no. You're not that guy. The one that thinks he's never going to get married because his career only shows him the bad side of marriage.</i>"
"<b>I am definitely that guy.</b>"

Reading this book was so so fun. I enjoyed the shit out of the whole experience because it has all of my favourite things and reminded me of why I love them. There's relentless snark, delicious chemistry, so many two steps forward and three steps back agonies, adorable moments, heartbreaking moments, a little bit of drama, aaaand swoons. I highlighted so much of this story that filtering through them for this review is basically like reading the whole thing all over again and I have no regrets. It's that good.

"<i>Do you ever let loose? Order french fries? Unbutton a button? Have a one-night stand?</i>"
"<b>That an invitation?</b>"
"<i>Of <b>course</b> I'll share my fries.</i>"

Unbeknownst to me at the time of request, this is book four in the <i>Love Unexpectedly</i> series, which I assume are standalones but have no idea the extent of the crossover as this is the only book I've read (so far), and this is also my first time reading Layne. And it may be premature to throw this out into the universe buuuut I'm an insta-fangirl. I definitely intend to go back and read through the first three books and definitely intend to pick up the next in the series.

"<i>So what's it going to be? The deli and I call you Andy forever, or..</i>"
"<b>I don't suppose I could exchange a steak lunch for you calling me Mr. Mulroney?</b>"
"<i>I'd rather die.</i>"

Read this book. You'll love it. Highly recommend.

5 "I like that you've seen all my bits, and you're still crusty" stars