{A Love, New York Review} The Final Move by Lauren Penny

The Final Move by Lauren Penny
Series: Love, New York #2
on April 13th, 2027
Genres: Fiction, Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Buy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo
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After becoming accidental roommates, a flailing lawyer and a betrayed billionaire must navigate lies, loyalty, and their long-denied attraction when an old rival complicates their chance at love.

She’s out of options. He’s out of excuses.

When Celine Beaty quits her corporate law job in a quarterish-life-crisis, she finds herself living with her brother’s best friend, tech billionaire Carter Wolf, in his penthouse apartment—who just so happens to also be her lifelong nemesis. Little does she know that Carter Wolf has harbored a crush on her since childhood, and his cold shoulder is just a cover for his broken heart.

While Celine lies to her family about her life and career, Carter is blindsided by a corporate coup that could end with him losing his company. As their professional lives grow more complicated, their personal lives follow suit.

Because the longer the two live together, the more Celine realizes she may have misread Carter . . . and that living in the wolf's den might not be so bad after all. But as their carefully laid plans begin to crash down around them, they’ll have to lean on each other to have a shot at saving their careers—and their budding romance.

I received The Final Move for free. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This read put me into a position I’ve never been in before. I requested the second book in a series without reading the first, but I missed out on an ARC of the first. Strange, I know! I got enough of a glimpse of Bree and Jake’s story not to be lost. The second book in the Love, New York series focuses on Celine, a lost lawyer, and Carter, a man fighting a corporate coup.

Celine’s brother, James, has been Carter’s best friend since childhood. While Celine thought Carter always hated her, she slowly found that opinion was very far from the truth. Celine quits her lucrative job at a top New York law firm when she realizes her ethics don’t align with the firm. She ends up moving into the apartment her brother lived in, but it is owned by Carter. It’s only until she can regroup. Celine and her cat, Cleocatra, spend their days in the cavernous penthouse perfecting resumes, performing self-care, and mixing odd ingredients into delicacies. When Carter comes home in the middle of the night, he is frightened to see a woman wearing a green face mask, her hair balled up in a bun.

From there, it is on! Celine wants to find a job as soon as possible, and Carter wants to do everything in his power to calm his libido anytime she is in his presence. Their banter is legendary. Slowly, Penny paints a picture of over a decade of longing on Carter’s side while Celine believed he detested her for just as long. While their professional lives are messy, they begin to develop somewhat of a friendship as they live as roommates.

My heart hurt for Carter when his relationship with his father was revealed. Celine’s relationship with her mother was another knife to the chest. These two were both dealing with difficult situations with a parent while their professional lives imploded. They slowly began to trust each other, and that trust finally let them cross the line.

I absolutely adored the Mob C, aka Movie of the Book Club. Celine, Bree, Alana, and Rory decided that talking about a book after they all read it wasn’t what they wanted out of a book club. Instead, they would get together and watch the movie version of the book. Sounds like a wonderful club to be in. Friends, popcorn, wine, and a good book boyfriend on screen is what I consider a good time. Plus, these four have such beautiful friendships; it makes me long for my old friends and some of the girls’ nights we “lit the world on fire”.

The Last Move was a magnificent combination of romance, comedy, friendship, and family drama. The chance to read as Carter and Celine’s walls came down made the journey worth every page. I may have started with book two, but The Last Move definitely left me wanting to go back and experience where this series began.