Take a Hint, Dani Brown Review

By Nic Daniels

Hello, audacious readers!

Hope you had a lovely and love-filled February, whether it was butterflies for yourself or someone else. Last month, we began the year with the chaotic adventures of witch twins, Dani and Dorian in Hooky by Miriam Bonastre Tur. This month, we followed a completely different Dani and chaos in the rom-com novel, Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert.

Danika Brown, a career-driven Ph.D. student, is sure of a lot of things but what she is most sure about is herself. She understands that she is not only smart but beautiful, desirable, powerful, and not afraid to go after what she wants—in other words, she knows she’s that girl. However, her headstrong attitude hardly makes her the best romantic partner and at this point, she’s tired of trying to be. So, instead of asking the universe for love, she asks it for the perfect friends-with-benefits instead. Someone easy, good-looking, and no strings attached.

Instead, the universe sends Zafir, but Zafir is no stranger to Dani.

Working as a security guard at the university, the two cross paths often. Despite his tough—and handsome—exterior, Zafir had been her friend for years. He’s constantly nagging her about eating a proper mean, accepts her sexuality, runs a charity that balances sports and mental health awareness, and only ever pushed her to take care of herself. He’s a perfect match…except that he’s a hopeless romantic, ready to be open about his feelings while Dani is not. She has a thesis, a future panel with her academic idol, and a career to focus on, not a tiresome relationship.

Still, she can’t help but want her cake and to eat it too. So, when Zafir convinces her to go along with a fake dating scheme to bring attention to his charity, she has her own plan: help him during the day while seducing him at night. However, as they start to get more and more entangled, Zafir’s romantic ideas and Dani’s realism seem to clash against their own feelings—or perhaps get them to get out of their own way.

What makes Take A Hint, Dani Brown so enjoyable is that there’s a level to audacity to all of it. Zafir and Dani know where each other stands from the pretty much the beginning of the book. They were both on completely different pages when it came to relationship expectation and yet they still said, “Hmm…” The level of certainty that they both had that they wouldn’t get emotionally attached to each other is honestly kind of funny because, in a lot of ways, it would be an easy transition. They already had a friendship, they were sexually compatible (honestly, it helps a lot), and it was already easy for them to communicate as well as support one another. But, of course, what got in the way was their own idea of what they were supposed to have.

After being cheated on in a previous relationship, Dani understandably has a hard time opening up to people while Zafir wants to draw the lines between his private and public life due to the press labeling him as “tragic” after the loss of his brother and father. While both events are very much so in the past, they leave scars that are hard to heal even for people who are smart and in touch with their feelings.

I like that this book shows it’s not easy, even in “obvious” situations. That even confident people still can have insecurities to work through, that' life is always a little messy. I like the realistic aspect of how, no matter how good something is, it doesn’t mean you can let go of things that hurt you. Sometimes, the biggest thing holding you back is how you let your past perceive your future. In fact, it could make you miss out on the best things. Plus, while a lot of the work does come from within, it doesn’t hurt to lean on someone too.

I hope you enjoyed Take a Hint, Dani Brown. There’s a lot more I want to discuss about this sweet and spicy read but I’ll save that for the IG live, coming soon. Feel free to share your thoughts and, until next, don’t forget to read audaciously!