Just in time for wedding season comes a new book about a bridesmaid who has to walk down the aisle with the man she’d most like to hit like a football.
Laura Hankin’s One-Star Romance, out this June from Berkley, is a wedding story for the digital age. When the chaotic and artistic Natalie meets the grumpy, rigid academic Rob, they initially have nothing in common except their love for their best friends. And when the best friends announce they’re getting married, Rob and Nat realize they might not be getting married worst time as best man and bridesmaid thanks to the little sparks that fly between them at first.
But that’s before Nat learns that Rob posted a one-star review for her new novel. And before Rob can tell Nat the honest reason why he did it. Over the years that follow, Rob and Natalie find themselves together through all of life’s milestones, triumphs, failures, and everything between their friends. As time passes, do their feelings for each other soften?
We’ve got an exclusive excerpt below to help pique your interest.
‘One-Star Romance’ by Laura Hankin.
Berkeley
At the store, Nat and Rob quietly and efficiently loaded pallets of bottled water onto carts. “I’ll look for umbrellas,” Nat said shortly.
“I’ll find fans,” Rob said with a grunt.
On her way to meet Rob again, after cleaning out the umbrella section, Natalie passed the book aisle. She couldn’t stop herself. A siren’s song beckoned her to check hers. It wouldn’t be here – this was a small selection, made up mostly of bestsellers and mass-market paperbacks – but still, there was a chance, and how nice and justified it would be.
Holding the strap of her umbrella, she searched the shelves, looking over what seemed like a million copies The girl on the train, All the light we can’t see and Refractions, that sophomore Young Male Intellectual who got breathless reviews in every respectable newspaper, who nobody but Nat and freaking Addison K thought was overrated. But not a single copy of Apartment 2F. Of course not. Because it was a one-star book. She felt her chest deflate. She would bring her whole self into this novel, all the most interesting thoughts she ever had, and if that wasn’t enough…
Cut it out! she said to herself. Don’t let this random stranger destroy your sense of self. Then, But maybe strangers are the only ones whose opinion you should trust—
Rob pulled the cart over to it, now crammed with boxes of battery powered fans. “We should get going,” he said.
“Law.” She shook in terror. His eyes briefly rested on Refractions presented, and he uttered that sound of sneer which seemed to him more natural than laughter.
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“What?”
“Nothing,” he said. Then, after a short pause, “That’s one of the most pretentious books I’ve ever read.”
“Yes thank you! I barely made it through. And whenever I hear someone else talk about it, I feel like I’m living in an alternate reality!”
He shrugged, his face flushed, then turned the cart toward the cash register.
As Rob began bagging his things and the cashier told them the total, Natalie pulled out her wallet. “Okay, can we put $80 here on the debit card and then put the rest on this credit card? Oh, but if the remainder is more than a hundred, I should put the last bit on the other card.” She rummaged through the pile of cards and receipts. “Wait, I’ve got it here somewhere.
“Stop,” said Rob. “Just put it on mine.” He took his wallet out of his back pocket, pulled out a card and handed it to her as he continued to pack their umbrellas.
She looked down at the card as she handed it to the cashier. Plain, black, printed with his name: Robert Addison Kapinsky.
ROBERT. ADDISON. KAPINSKI. She froze with the card in her hand, and the cashier reached out to take it away. She was barely aware that she had let go; her mind began to spin.
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Addison was not the most common name in the world. That opinion about Refractions was not the most common opinion. And not many foreigners have heard of her book. It made sense that Rob would use his middle name and no profile picture for something like a Goodreads account—he was a private person who didn’t even have social media. It was him. It had to be.
She thought about the timing. He submitted the grade not long after their strange encounter at the rehearsal dinner.
She looked at him as he continued to stuff, and great anger rose in her.
What is the real hell? This was a mistake. It had to be. Law? Because people were allowed to rate books however they wanted. Of course they are! But polite society dictated that you don’t destroy the book of someone you know. Unless you knew them because they were your enemy or your high school bully or stole your dog.
But when were you best man at a wedding together? When you literally had to walk down the aisle hand in hand while people watched and took pictures? It was the height of rudeness! (“The pinnacle of rudeness”? Who did she think she was, a Jane Austen heroine?) Okay then, rude. Not just rude but idiotic, showing a staggering ignorance of how people should treat each other.
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But then again, this man hasn’t shown himself to be a paragon of social grace up to this point.
She followed him back to the car in stunned silence.
Maybe that was why he was so harsh with her at dinner. Her work was so bad, it offended his taste so much that he wouldn’t even look her in the eye.
Not. She refused to let this man steal her pride for all she had done. What has he ever done? (Most Ph.D.s, obviously. But that was different!) Cold, pretentious Robert Kapinsky failed to make up her mind as a person.
Fiona Apple’s album automatically started playing again when he started the car. So Rob thought some women were allowed to express their feelings in art. How would he rate this album? He left it on this time, apparently thinking they wouldn’t have much to say to each other, but she pressed pause. Being extremely pleasant was no longer enough. She would kill him with kindness. Yes, she would absolutely kill him.
She smiled so much and so enthusiastically that she could feel crow’s feet forming.
“Robert,” she said, “you haven’t asked me what I’ve been doing for the last two years.”
A moment of silence, then he forced the words out. “What were you up to?”
“Oh.” She casually waved her hand through the air in a light tone. “I published a novel.”
“Then your DIY grad school worked for you.”
“Thank you, yes. I am proud of the book.” She beamed at him, although the beam did not reach her eyes. “And it’s going well. For the most part, people seem to really like it. Especially people whose opinions I respect, so that’s nice, you know?”
The more she talked about it, the tighter his hands gripped the steering wheel. If she kept talking, he might leave indentations in the skin. That or his knuckles would explode. The look had a certain appeal.
It was almost amusing, almost delicious, to see the discomfort she caused him. Almost.
He hit the gas, finally going 10 miles an hour over the speed limit she wanted. “Well, congratulations,” he said, then turned up the music as they made their way back to the wedding.
Natalie leaned back, staring straight ahead.
Give her life’s work one star. She didn’t care. He could have whatever opinion he wanted about her book and share that opinion with whoever he wanted. For example, he could tell his mother. He knew how to tell strangers on the street. He could even tell Satan, because Robert Kapinsky could go to hell.
Excerpted from ROMANCE WITH ONE STAR by Laura Hankin, published by Berkley, Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright © 2024
A romance with a star Laure Hankin is out on June 18 and is available for pre-order now, wherever books are sold.
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Source: HIS Education