The Off-Limits Rule

Her finances have bottomed out, and the narrator has had to move in with her older brother because she cannot afford a place of her own. She expects it to be fun, since the two have always been close.

Then she meets Cooper James, her brother's best friend. Her brother is firmly against the idea of her dating him. By his account, Cooper is flirtatious, adventurous and unwilling to commit, and he is also very good-looking. The narrator admits that last point herself.

She agrees her brother may be right. Cooper, with his blue eyes, is the opposite of what she needs at this point in her life. She decides to pursue him anyway.

The book is a contemporary romance told in the first person, in a chatty, joking voice. The story sets a best-friend's-sister dynamic against a brother's rule. The romance is closed door: plenty of tension and flirtation, with no explicit scenes. The question is whether she can keep a relationship with Cooper going without losing the closeness she has with her brother.