REVIEW: Boycotts & Barflies by Victoria Michaels

Title: Boycotts & Barflies
Author: Victoria Michaels
Format: eBook
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Source: review copy from publisher
Published: February 2010 by Omnific Publishing

After an endless string of bad dates and a generally pathetic love life, Grace Park and her friends decide to boycott men for six weeks. With a fantastic pair of shoes on the line for the woman who makes it to the end without breaking any rules, the competition gets fierce. Sparks fly a few days into the bet when Grace and her friends cross paths with a sexy bartender named Michael Andris who happens to have a little bet of his own going with his friends....

In this hilarious debut novel, Victoria Michaels brings us a colorful and relatable cast of characters. She sends them on a sweet and sexy escapade as they sidestep one booby trap after another, manage the best of misguided intentions, and exert a whole lot of willpower and self control as they race down the path to true love.

Winning isn't everything...or is it?

Why I Read this Book: Boycotts & Barflies was recommended to me after I had finished reading The Redhead series by Alice Clayton. I was told that this book would be just as funny and it most certainly was! I love reading romance and when there’s humor added to the mix, well that’s just icing on the cake.

What I Liked: The relationships were well established, both between the friends and between the couples, with the limelight shining Grace and Michael. Grace, Bianca and Meg are best friends from college and are close like sisters. They are always there for each other in a time of need, like when Grace needs an “emergency phone call” as an escape route during a bad date. The girls are tired of dating losers. They find themselves in a dating slump so they decide a boycott from dating would be best. And to make things a little more interesting, each puts $200 in the pot; Last woman standing gets the money to buy a hot pair of shoes and eternal bragging rights.

Michael, Jack and Ryan have been friends since college and all tend bar at a local nightclub. They meet and date lots of beautiful, but boring, women at work but none of them ever turn into relationships. They’re tired of the escapades going nowhere, they want something more, thus a bet ensues. No more barflies; if they meet the girls at the bar, they’re off limits. Last guy to have sex wins the money in the pot.

Then the girls meet the guys and things get interesting from there.

I wanted to know who was going to lose the bet and how. The outcome was not what I expected in that there was more to the story than the reader is originally thought to believe. And boy, was there temptation! The girls weren’t allowed to even kiss a guy (except once or twice) per the boycott rules so the foundation for  Grace and Michael’s relationship clearly wasn’t sex.

Boycotts & Barflies definitely had its funny moments. This book was laugh out loud hilarious.

Not missing a beat, Bianca continued with her story. “I turned around and said ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ and he gave some lame excuse about not trying to grab my ass, he was trying to grab his wiener. Can you believe it?”

I love the analogy Meg uses when she tries to justify ordering a certain bartender from the waitress while on their “boycott”:

“There’s no harm in just window shopping. It’s like visiting the puppies at the pet store. You go and look at them, and they’re so cute, they make you smile. They get all excited to see you and they lick your hands and face, then you go home without one. I just wanted to look at the puppy. Is that so wrong?” she asked with her best pouty face.

What I Didn’t Like: I found it a little too convenient that the 3 girls hooked up with the 3 guy friends. It was too perfect and too matchy-matchy. There were also too many chance meetings between the guys and the girls,  it sort of felt forced. The part with the stalker guy at the hotel felt out of place. It didn’t add anything to the overall story for me so I could have done without it.

Overall Impression: Boycotts & Barflies will have you laughing your socks off. The writing style caught my attention right from the start. It was a fast, fun read and I definitely want to read more by this author. The book’s hilarious moments and romantic chemistry will definitely appeal to fans of The Redhead series, though it’s less on steamy love scenes and more focused on the actual relationship itself. This book was a tease most of the way but in the end, I got my sweet reward.

The Book Vixen’s Rating: