What Is Love? by Jen ComfortStar Rating:
Spice Level:
Published by Montlake on 04/01/2024
Genres: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary Romance, Romantic Comedy
Format: Kindle (345 pages)
Source: Purchased
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Answer: From the Latin word for crossroads, this is knowledge so common as to be obscure, the pursuit of which engages millions daily. Question: What is trivia?
Trivia is the magic in the mundane, the connection in the commonplace, and Maxine Hart’s second-favorite pastime. A self-proclaimed Brooklyn street rat and a high school dropout, Maxine has never been a fan of formal education, but thanks to her ADHD “superpowers,” she’s a glutton for knowledge—and a good fight. And when Maxine enters the trivia game show Answers!, her brilliance, coupled with her penchant for big bets, devastates her competition. Even record-holding, 76-time-winner Teddy Ferguson.
Or was it their kiss the night before they faced off that threw the buttoned-up professor off his game?
Now, Maxine and Teddy cross paths again in a high-stakes tournament against all-time Answers! winners, including undefeated champion Hercules McKnight. With nothing in common but an insatiable appetite for knowledge and a desire to win, Maxine offers Teddy a deal: combine their strengths to shore up their weaknesses. She’ll push his tolerance for risk and improve his buzzer speed, if he’ll find creative ways to fill in the gaps in her education.
Except neither one of them foresaw just how scintillating learning could be…
I have always loved all things trivia — my husband and I fell in love going to “nerd” trivia at our favorite bar — and let me tell you, What is Love? by Jen Comfort just took trivia to a whole other level.
Theodore “Teddy” Ferguson III is an Oxford-educated professor of geography and geoscience at Princeton University. He likes to play it safe and loves a good schedule; consistency is his middle name.
Maxine Hart is a skydiving, video game loving, public school dropout. She has horrible ADHD and lives by the seat of her pants; chaos is her ever-present companion.
Maxine and Teddy could not be more different.
Teddy and Maxine meet in the Answers! gameshow greenroom, reaching for a powdered chocolate doughnut. Teddy’s luckypowdered chocolate doughnut. While explaining to Maxine that he is the second-best player in Answers! history, he notices that Maxine has a nametag on her lapel. Maxine is an Answers! contestant too, and she’s not impressed by Teddy’s Answers! stats. She does think he’s strangely attractive though — for a thoroughly stuck-up, British, professor type. Later that night at the hotel bar and even later at the pool, Maxine uses her guile to thoroughly get under Teddy’s skin and rattle him to his core.
The next day, Maxine ends Teddy’s seventy-six-game winning streak and goes on to win thirty-eight straight games in a row. This puts her in third place, right behind Teddy, for most games won (she’s in second place for total prize winnings, though). Teddy goes home, humiliated, and tries to forget Maxine and the life-changing evening they spent together.
When Answers! decides to film The Ultimate Answers! Tournament — where the top ten players of all time will compete against each other — Teddy and Maxine finally have the chance to end their rivalry. This time for the ultimate prize: $2 million.
After a shocking turn of events while filming promo material for the new show, and some serious introspection, Maxine shows up at Teddy’s front door one rainy night and asks him to train her. He will teach her geography (memorizing boring lists is impossible for Maxine), and she will teach him how to bet/play like a champion (Teddy plays like the predictable, analytical scholar he is). Reluctantly Teddy agrees, and the two form a close friendship — and so much more.
What is Love? made me laugh out loud, kick my feet squealing, and shed a tear here and there. But most of all, it made me wish I had a tutor like Teddy to teach my ADHD brain to learn boring facts. 😮💨🔥
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