I Think I Love You: An Oxford Novel

3.75 stars-- I THINK I LOVE YOU is the fifth (and final?) instalment in Lauren Layne’s contemporary, adult OXFORD romance series- a spin off from the author’s Stiletto series- focusing on the men and women who work for the country’s most popular men’s magazine Oxford. This is advertising executive Hunter Cross, and senior product manager Brit Robbins’ story line. I THINK I LOVE YOU can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary. Told from dual third person perspectives (Brit and Hunter) I THINK I LOVE YOU follows the best friends to lovers / boss and employee romance between OXFORD magazine’s advertising executive Hunter Cross, and senior product manager Brit Robbins. Brit is struggling in the romance and dating department believing she is doomed to be single the rest of her life. Hoping to release her inner seductress Brit asks her best friend, immediate boss, and the man with whom she has lusted after for most of her adult life, Hunter Cross, to teach her the art of seduction. What ensues is the friends to lovers romance, friends with benefits relationship between Brit and Hunter, and the fall-out as Hunter is unprepared for the emotional entanglements growing between himself and the woman he has placed in the friends category for far too long. Brit Robbins is everybody’s friend; one of the guys but a woman who wants desperately to find love and romance. All of her friends and co-workers at Oxford are falling in love, getting married and starting their families but Brit thinks she is missing that someone in her life, and perhaps it is her fault; something personal and not within her means to reach. Her best friend Hunter Cross is dating his way through most of New York while our heroine struggles to make a connection, one way or another. In a desperate attempt to ‘fix what’s wrong’ Brit asks Hunter to help her in the art of seduction. The relationship between Brit and Hunter is a friends to lovers/ boss and employee romance that struggles in the face of potential jealousy, and falling in love but Hunter has no permanent plans to remain in New York, especially with most of his family back home in Kansas City. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate but limited, without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text. There is a large ensemble cast of colorful, familiar and charismatic secondary and supporting characters including most of the previous OXFORD story line couples, as well as a few from the author’s STILETTO series. I THINK I LOVE YOU is a fun, sassy, sexy and predictable story line but entertaining and enjoyable. The premise is engaging; the characters are sweet, flirty and dynamic; the romance is heart warming and intimate. I THINK I LOVE YOU is a light hearted and wondrous romance for you to enjoy

I Think I Love You was a sweet story that highlighted the importance of friendship and how it can transition into family and love, the former among those who were part of Stiletto and Oxford and the latter between Hunter and Brit. There was no denying the closeness between the two main characters, nor the comfort level that these two had already reached in their friendship. While a lot of the friends-to-lovers books I've read tend to have at least one or both in the couple have had more than platonic feelings for sometime, I liked that Hunter and Brit were seriously just friends before the whole seduction coaching thing started. The chemistry between them was more sedate compared to the other couples in the series, but once these two became more aware of each other in a more lustful manner, well, all bets were off. I appreciated their romance, and I loved seeing the previous main characters all get together here, giving this series that I've gushed and squeeed over the send-off it deserves. I'm giving I Think I Love You five out of five stars, and will be making time to FINALLY read the Stiletto series very soon. ♥

3.5 stars I Think I Love You is an entertaining friends to lovers romance. It is part of a series, but works perfectly as a standalone. Hunter and Brit are good together - not great, but good enough that I could buy in to the romance. The story does have plenty of fun banter, which I always appreciate and I liked the approach to the romance with Brit asking Hunter for help in her dating life. The story is predictable, progressively moving from friends to physical attraction and then something more, with the bit of drama thrown in to keep things moving, but it is still entertaining and lighthearted, making it great for a low angst weekend read. The biggest drawback for me lay in the best friends aspect of the plot. Casual friends, I could see, but these two knew surprisingly little about each other to be best friends. The fact that Hunter has always seen his New York life as temporary and plans to move back to his home town seems like something a best friend would know, yet Brit is completely blindsided. It just didn't ring true for me. That aside, the story is a fun read and even though I haven't read the other books in the series, I didn't have any problem following the story, including the appearances of what I assume are past couples in the series.