Small Town ✅
Brothers Best Friend ✅
Forced Proximity ✅

This was a super cute and such a fast read. I love the 'Brothers Best Friend' trope so much. Lorelai has been in love with her brother's best friend since she was a young child. She is at a point in her life where she feels stuck just unmotivated to change it. Luke heads back to his small hometown to help his father out after an accident. Needing to repair that relationship, he stays with Lorelei at her parent's home. I really love that it wasn't one of those stories that they meet again after so many years and fall in love without getting to know each other. My favorite part was his surprise at the end. A man that can cook, loves his family, and cares enough to do something like that. I would of loved to see more relationship building. But other than that, no complaints.

Pity Play is the sixth book in the Pity series. I've only read one of the previous books and found I could still enjoy this one just fine as a standalone.

This was a cute read... and one that fans of Gilmore Girls are certainly going to appreciate--- I mean the main characters names ARE Luke and Lorelai after all... and yes, he does feed her throughout the story too! Lorelei is Luke's best friend's little sister (a favorite trope of mine) and he has never seen her as anything but... even when he finds himself staying with her after years apart, he still very much sees her as that annoying little sister figure... but the more time they spend together, the more he starts to see her in a very different light. These two had a really fun and unique dynamic, definitely a bit of a slower burn. These two both had some family and personal issues that they had to overcome throughout the story as well, and I enjoyed seeing their growth throughout. While I did enjoy this story and thought it was cute, I would definitely say that there are other books by this author that I preferred. I'm not sure why, but I did find I didn't quite connect with it as much as I'd hoped.

Pity Play is a closed-door romance with kisses only.


*ARC received via Netgalley for consideration.

Thank you to Netgalley and Xpresso Book Tours for the ARC!

I've read other Whitney Dineen books and this was not my favorite. It was basically Luke and Lorelei from Gilmore Girls fanfiction- it's actually referenced in the book and they even have the same names. Luke is a chef who works in the kitchen in his dad's diner, a popular small town hang out spot, and Lorelei dreams of owning a B&B. Sound familiar?

Luke looks at Lorelei as his friend's annoying little sister who had a crush on him for the entire first half of the book. He even says she's not super attractive the first time he sees her as an adult. He knows the crush never went away (she makes it very obvious) and then halfway through something switches and he all of a sudden can see her as a romantic partner.

That being said, I did like a lot of the supporting characters (many have made appearances in prior books in the series), I liked that the book had a dual POV, and it was a very quick and easy read. But this isn't one I'll be revisiting.