Whole Latte Love by Rachelle Ayala

Investment banking intern Carina Chen doesn’t need any distractions—especially the sexy, guitar-playing barista she rooms with for the summer.

Free spirit Dylan Jewell appreciates the delightful universe of women who vie for his attention. His goal in life is to do good, make happy coffee, and help the homeless.

When Carina moves in, she insists on rules of conduct to quell her instant attraction to Dylan. But when her boss asks her to turn Dylan into a businessman, she can’t think of a reason not to take advantage of his hospitality.

Their chemistry is white hot, but Dylan refuses to play Carina’s game, unable to understand how he can fall in love with a woman who puts profits in front of people. When Carina realizes Dylan isn’t budging, she risks all to gain a single night with him. Will her gambit backfire or will Dylan discover Carina’s true heart before she runs away with his?

Whole Latte Love is an opposites-attract romance mixing bluesy rock music, hot, steamy love scenes, and financial shenanigans.

I decided to look past the unfortunate title of this book as I began reading it. I’m glad I did because it ended up to be the perfect kind of summer read.

Carina has landed a dream internship at Mogul Bank.  She’s had it drilled into her head that she needs to be successful and drive herself hard in order to do that.  She doesn’t have time for distractions like Dylan the drop dead barista and musician who has a room to rent. A room that Carina, against some of her judgment, takes.  What ensues is a bit of a convoluted story about 3 people who are connected, but only one with nefarious plans knows of the connection.  Carina works for Rebecca.  Rebecca is Dylan’s old flame who is now engaged to his father, and Dylan doesn’t know about Carina and Rebecca while Carina doesn’t know about Dylan and Rebecca’s past.  As their attraction grows, will Carina and Dylan’s budding relationship resist Rebecca’s sabotage? 

I think my favorite thing about this book was the buildup between Dylan and Carina.  Dylan is adorable and an interesting character.  He chooses to be authentic to himself, and not fall into the traps he easily could of with wealth.  I loved that even though Carina was wildly attracted to him, that he didn’t know it and wondered what the heck was wrong with her!  It was a surprisingly engrossing yet light story for me, and I found myself enjoying most aspects of it. The plot was fairly original and there were some twists that I have to admit I was surprised by, and that’s difficult to do!

I think my one issue with the story is the ages of the main characters.  I mean, we’re talking about a very cutthroat world here, and it seems to me that Carina only being 19 was a bit far-fetched and out of place.  I would have liked for her to be more mature and able to handle Rebecca a bit better.

Overall, I did enjoy this book even with some of my criticisms.  3.5 stars.

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