REVIEW: Unlikely Match by Laura Bradbury

Unlikely Match by Laura Bradbury: Jules Kelly is the CEO of a startup company, but she also hides a secret. She is suffering from PSC and needs a liver transplant ASAP. None of her employees know about her condition with the exception of the COO who is also her best friend. When her workspace is shared by another startup, she has to try to play nice, even though the CEO of the other company doesn’t view his position the same way as her. As she gets sicker, she tries her hardest to work through it, but she knows that her time is limited.

Tom Davenport doesn’t know what to think of the CEO from across the floor. He assumes that she is more relaxed about the position than he is since she isn’t there frequently and gives her employees champagne every Friday. When the company who’s space they are using wants them to collaborate more, he has to figure out how to get along with her.

As Tom and Jules start to spend more time together, they learn more about each other’s pasts and what made them the people that they are today. Jules still avoids telling Tom about her diagnosis not wanting him to treat her differently, but she questions if that is the right decision. When Jules’s health takes a turn for the worst, she has to make choices on what to do.

Jules is a very strong character (emphasis on the very). I could not imagine going through what she does. Her family members are pieces of work and I can see why she is closed off about her illness. When people react the way they normally do, it can be hard to feel like it’s going to be any different. At the beginning of the book, she really only has her friend to confide and spend time with. As she grows in her relationship with Tom, she learns more about how to trust others around her.

I honestly can’t talk too much about the characters without giving more away than I want to. Overall though, I thought it was such a different romance but in a good way! It wasn’t trying to make everything perfect (since extended stays in the hospital definitely aren’t), and because of that, I can’t wait to see what else we can learn about these kinds of relationships if other books are similar.

Book Info:

Publication: May 26, 2022 | Grape Books |

Could the man I hate be the perfect match I need?

I’m Jules Kelly, a certified bohemian boss babe, whose hip tech company just won subsidized office space in the coolest co-working space in town. From a distance I seem poised to take over the world (or at least the travel industry), and I would be if it weren’t for two big complications:

1. A rare and seriously inconvenient disease is tanking my health by the day, and my only hope for a cure—a transplant—is moving further from my grasp.

2. A soulless database company is sharing my new office space, and its coldly gorgeous, judgmental, CEO is on a path to world dominance (at least in his mind).

Tom Davenport represents the very worst of bro culture in the start-up world. Naturally, we despise each other.

The thing is, as much as Tom’s antagonism annoys me, he has an uncanny ability to conjure up my fighting spirit and vitality at a time when my illness is robbing me of both. I’m drawn to him in ways I can’t (or would really rather not) understand.

A mysterious angel investor forces our companies to compete for a life-changing amount of money just when my relationship with Tom becomes infinitely more complicated. To make matters worse, things get cutthroat just as my time starts to run out.

In order to survive, I must decide if I can truly trust my most unlikely ally of all.

Unlikely Match is a high-stakes and steamy workplace romance that will leave you feverishly turning pages.

For those of you who love wry (and sometimes a wee bit dark) humor, emotional intensity, loyal friendships, insane chemistry, and forced proximity in the context of high medical stakes, Unlikely Match is for you.