Piece of Work, an all-new sexy and hilarious romance from Staci Hart, is available NOW!
Marble isn’t the only thing that’s hard at this museum.
His body is as chiseled as Adonis. His lips are as sculpted as David. And his ego is the size of the Guggenheim.
You know the type—wolfish smile and the gravity of a black hole. The kind of man who sucks all the air from the room the second he enters it. My cocky boss thinks this internship was wasted on me, and he doesn’t hesitate to let me know.
But he’s wrong, and I’m going to prove it to him. If I can stay away from his devil lips, that is. Lips that cut me down and kiss me in the same breath, leaving me certain he’s on a mission to ruin my life.
And maybe my heart.
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*ARC received as a part of a blog tour. The thoughts are entirely my own and in no way biased.*
Piece of Work follows the love story between Rin, a student on an internship at the Met before she starts working on her PhD dissertation and her boss, Court. They’re both passionate about art and bond over their mutual appreciation of it. They start seeing each other soon after Rin starts working at the Met, but Court is unable to lay his demons to rest and move forward with her in a way they both want to, which obviously, is the cause of a lot of misunderstandings between them. Will Court ever be able to look past his fears and be with her is the question.
What I love most about this book is the presence of art. And musuems. I love them both and the backdrop for this story was absolutely perfect. It’s so amazing, I couldn’t help love it immediately.
I really like Rin. She’s an awkward, tall, Korean – American girl who’s learnt to blend into the shadows so that people don’t see her. But, since she’s started working at the musuem, the reactions of Bianca, her direct supervisor, and their boss, Court, make her rethink her stance on the whole ‘I’m better of unseen’ thing she’s got going on. So, with the help of her friends and a personal shopper, she gives herself a makeover. It’s so nice to see how she comes into her own, how she gains poise and confidence as the story unfolds and all of it started with her putting on red lipstick to go to work. The story doesn’t say how it’s nevesaary to wear make-up to be confident or good at your job, but it shows how that little change sparks a difference in Rin’s life. The concept of feminism. Is explained so amazingly in this, especially with regards to Rin’s choice to put on makeup and I love it! Rin is smart and stubborn and headstrong and she doesn’t give up easily. I really like her and how she stands up for herself, especially in front of her bosses.
Then, there’s Court. I really sympathized with him because what happened in his previous relationship was not something you can get over easily, but I didn’t like how he became so jaded and started accusing Rin of doing the same to him and how she was only interested in his affluent and impressive and wealthy family name and not him. Granted, he soon learnt his mistake and apologized to her, but it still struck me the wrong way that he just assumed she didn’t have good intentions to begin with, without any fault of her own. Every time their relationship moved forward, Court would get scared and take two steps back and frankly, after sometime, it got annoying. I know he was scared and he didn’t want to hurt Rin, but he was doing it anyway by being so indecisive what he actually wanted. His heart was in the right place all the time and he really cared about Rin, even fell in love with her, but he didn’t do anything about it till the very end, when he had plenty opportunities before. He just kept clinging on to what had happened in his past and though he acknowledged that Rin was nothing like his previous girlfriend, he still didn’t try to take a step forward, too hell bent on protecting his heart. That’s what made the maddest. Like, he was just running around in circles and I really wanted him to come to grips with the situation a lot sooner than he did.
I really enjoyed the portrayal of lasting friendships in this one. I mean, all of Rin’s friends are absolutely awesome and I really love how they had her back throughout everything that happened and how they encouraged her and supported her in everything she did.
All in all, a really fun read with a few swoony and heart-warming moments sprinkled along the way.
He smirked and flipped up his sunglasses.
Bastard.
“You’re early,” I clipped.
“I would have had my assistant text you, but she’s currently bedridden.”
“You could have texted me.”
“I didn’t have your number,” he said simply.
“Oh.”
His eyes shifted to look behind me, and I turned to find my friends standing me in a row with my suitcase in front of them, my messenger bag on top, and fake smiles on all their faces, lips together, their judgment about as quiet as a foghorn.
“These your roommates?”
“Yup,” was all I said as I turned and took my suitcase, hugging each of them down the line with promises to text when we landed. And then I turned to Court, rolling my suitcase in front of me like like a riot shield.
I tried to pick it up to carry it over the threshold, but it was heavy, and before I could get far, he’d swept it out of my hands like it was a loaf of bread and not fifty pounds of mascara and shoes.
I waved at my friends, who offered encouraging smiles and hand gestures, and I closed that door, immediately regretting every decision I’d made to bring me to the moment I turned around.
He stood at the door to the backseat, holding it open for me like a gentleman, which I knew he was not. But the look on his face of regret and deference, under the hard shell of his brooding, was almost too much to bear.
So I did the only thing I could.
I ignored him.
I ignored his gorgeous lips as they tilted and the sleek cut of his jaw as I walked past him. I ignored the sight of his long legs as he climbed in next to me and the smell of him that made me want to grab him by the lapels of his jacket and bury my nose in his chest.
The driver took off, and I busied myself in my bag, looking for my headphones and book.
His eyes were on me. I pretended like I didn’t notice.
“You’re not wearing lipstick,” he stated.
Headphones, headphones, headphones. “It’s an international flight, Court. Of course I’m not wearing red lipstick for a ten hour flight.”
A pause. “Rin, I—”
Aha! I popped in my earbuds the second they were in hand.
His lips flattened, his face unamused. Rin, his lips said, but I smiled and shrugged, pointing to my ears.
“Noise canceling,” I said way too loud.
His chest rose and fell with a sigh I couldn’t hear—I’d already turned on music, a playlist we’d built the night before geared toward resisting douchery and unwanted-slash-totally-wanted advances—and he reached into his own bag, a leather affair at his feet, his hand disappearing into the bag and reappearing with a book, which he handed to me.
He watched me with his expression shrouded as I paused, my eyes on the offered book. An image of Penitent Magdalene by Tintoretto filled the cover, and I met his eyes, pulling my earbuds out by the cord.
“I thought you could use this. For your proposal,” he said, giving nothing away. “I…A colleague of mine wrote it, so if you have any questions, I can connect you. If you want.”
I took it from his hand, surprised and disarmed. “Thank you,” was all I said. He opened his mouth as if to speak again, but closed it, and with a nod, he reached back into his bag for his own book. Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake.
I put my earbuds back in place, trying not to bite my lip, but it found its way between my teeth despite the effort at the sight of him sitting there, dressed like that, reading Margaret Atwood. After giving me a thoughtful gift, a book he knew I would want, one I would need for my dissertation.
Court Lyons made about as much sense to me as a scrambled up Rubik’s Cube.
I leaned against the door as I flipped through his gift, doing my best to sort through the rush of questions and confusion as Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s sang about being cheated by the opposite of love. And I found I knew exactly the feeling.
Staci has been a lot of things up to this point in her life — a graphic designer, an entrepreneur, a seamstress, a clothing and handbag designer, a waitress. Can’t forget that. She’s also been a mom, with three little girls who are sure to grow up to break a number of hearts. She’s been a wife, though she’s certainly not the cleanest, or the best cook. She’s also super, duper fun at a party, especially if she’s been drinking whiskey.
From roots in Houston to a seven year stint in Southern California, Staci and her family ended up settling somewhere in between and equally north, in Denver. They are new enough that snow is still magical. When she’s not writing, she’s reading, sleeping, gaming, or designing graphics.
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