Business or Pleasure is a sex-positive, low-conflict celebrity rom com that worked out great for me. I think a lot of readers will enjoy this book (especially the sex positivity!), but it won’t work for anyone looking for angst.

Chandler Cohen wanted to be a writer since she was child, but she chose to focus on journalism rather than creative writing in college because it seemed like a safer bet. Now that there are fewer journalism jobs available, she’s turned to ghost writing celebrity memoirs. It’s not that Chandler doesn’t like her job–it’s still writing–it’s just that it’s not very fulfilling getting zero credit for her hard work. When the book opens she’s at the book signing (of her book) “written” by an Instagram influencer who doesn’t even recognize Chandler. Ouch.

Reeling from that interaction, and rejection from her longtime crush, Wyatt, she meets a hot guy at a bar and does something she’s never done before–has a one night stand. The guy is great and they have a lot of chemistry…but the sex is less than stellar and Chandler sneaks away before he wakes up.

The next day she’s meeting with her next potential project, the memoir of an ensemble cast member of a popular late aughts show called The Nocturnals, and you guessed it, it’s Mr. One Night Stand.

Finn Walsh played the loveable nerd on a show about college-age werewolves (think Buffy meets Vampire Diaries) and has since been basically living off the money he makes on the convention circuit, plus a couple of Hallmark-esque Christmas movies. Finn’s character is popular because he was part of a popular ‘ship, and while he might not be easily recognized in public, he’s got a lot of fans in his niche. He wants to expand out from just that niche though, and he’s hoping that his memoir, documenting his struggles with OCD, will help him break into something new.

In order to write the book Chandler has to travel with Finn around the con circuit to get to know him. At first they agree not to discuss their one-night stand and leave it in the past, but when Chandler accidentally lets slip that it wasn’t that great for her, Finn hits up his ex girlfriends and realizes that he’s not the superstar in bed he thought he was. He asks Chandler for help in a scene that’s really sweet and self aware.

Chandler says:

“I guess–I guess I could give you a few pointers,” I say. Maybe this will be the stupidest thing I’ve ever done, but at least I’ll have done something. If it helps me forget about Wyatt, that’ll just be an added benefit.

Plus, I’ll be doing a mitzvah for the next woman he has in his bed. A double mitzvah if it’s on Shabbat.

So Chandler gives Finn sex lessons in between her time working on his book. They both agree that feelings are not part of this arrangement, but we all know how that goes…

I really, really liked the sex positivity in this book. In a lot of romance novels the hero can somehow predict exactly what the heroine wants in bed and so there’s no real communication between them in terms of what the other needs to feel good, and in reality communication during sex is a good and normal thing.

I mean, when I first started reading romances (early 90’s) the hero and heroine always had a simultaneous orgasm and it was always described as flashing lights and bright colors in a way that now makes me worry that the heroine may actually have been having some kind of neurological crisis.

Chandler studied human sexuality as her minor in college and she’s very comfortable discussing sex in an open way. Finn is more reserved, but he opens up with Chandler leading him through things in a way that doesn’t involve shame. There’s a cute scene where they go to a sex toy shop and the owner fangirls over Finn.

Initially I wasn’t sure if reading about a hero who wasn’t great in bed would be sexy, but it is. It’s not that Finn doesn’t care about his partner (which would be deeply unsexy), it’s just that he assumes he knows what he’s doing. When he learns to communicate and listen, with Chandler’s help, he’s able to please his partner the way he wanted to in the first place. And the “lesson” scenes are very sexy and fun.

Finn isn’t the only one lost, though. There’s a big element to this book about Chandler finding her way through a sort-of quarter life crisis. Her career is not what she expected it to be, and she set aside creative writing as being impractical. Her parents are older and she’s stayed in her hometown in order to care for them. Traveling the con circuit with Finn is the first time she’s really been away from home at all, and she finds she loves it.

Chandler is starting to realize she’s unsatisfied with her life in general, and she’s questioning all the “safe” choices she’s made personally and professionally. When she starts to fall in love with Finn it’s a lot to handle all at once. The conflict in this book is mostly about figuring out what’s safe and familiar versus what you really want. There’s not much angst, as I said, so if you need a big conflict, this isn’t the book for you.

I appreciated a realistic conflict that wasn’t super dark, just like I appreciated the sex positivity and Chandler’s struggle with playing it safe versus being fulfilled. For me, Business or Pleasure was a win.